Verbal Expressions That You Don't Get

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Picking up on the "Rolling Stones gather no moss" thread. I want to know which expressions you have problems with.

I think I have problems with most of them:

"We need to touch base" - I hate it. I always imagine a baseball game. I think I even know the score too.

"Singing from the same hymn sheet" - I imagine a choir singing Hallelujah

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" - Haven't got a clue what this means at all and don't think anyone does

"Other people are going through that, too." And how would I know that unless they told me?
"You're not alone." Really?
"I've been thinking about you." What were you thinking, exactly?
"We all have problems." No s**t! And how is that of any use to me right now?

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/i ... +bush.html

"You can't have your cake and eat it too"

Okay, this doesn't make sense to me because in my mind the verb "have" used in conjunction with something to be consumed implies consumption. I.e. if I ask some one "want to have a beer?" I'm not asking them if they want to stand around with a beer in thier hand. It's assumed that the beer will be consumed.

Therefore the first thing that pops into my mind when I hear this phrase is "Doesn't to have cake and to eat cake mean the exact same thing? This phrase makes no sense".

Even if I interpret "to have" as "to possess", it doesn't follow that consumption relinquishes possession. If I eat the cake I still possess it, it's just in my stomach rather than on my plate. Thus the phrase still doesn't make sense to me.

"You can't sell your cake and eat it too"

Now that would make more sense to me.

Never liked or understood the rampant use of "What's up?"

I do not understand the phrase, "walking tall" ?

Me, too! Also, people who greet you with "How's it going?" How is WHAT going?

I hate being greeted with those greetings.

Off topic : ( and sorry)
I have come to realize that life is a celebration for most folks; with the moment to moment drama, as they are charged up from mutual contact. One example is dancing: I was around forty when I finally understood what dancing was all about , and this was by watching the movie "Foot Loose" when Kevin Bacon exclaimed, "life is a celebration" (in reference to dancing).

"Growing up, where you seen or heard?"

I totally didn't understand this, and I didn't understand it when someone explained it to me.

I know most of them however.

I don't understand the expression "being stood up". I eventually learned the meaning by rote, but it took a while for it to sink into my brain.
If someone could explain it to me, that would be great, because I'm really curious about its origins.

i don't like that one either, but it's because i can't figure out how it's intended.

i get a picture in my head of a little girl in a party dress, maybe Alice in Wonderland, holding a piece of cake close to her, like someone might be about to snatch it away, but then i just get stuck. why can't the little girl eat her cake? i don't know. i think she probably deserves it, especially if she's already met the queen of hearts. maybe she's afraid of how it will distort her.




i can't take that one apart but i know how it's meant, having been stood up a number of times myself.

"pay it forward" - ?? have they left out a letter in this one? i can't make sense of it at all

the ones that trouble me are the ones that make no literal sense nor any metaphorical sense.

"straw that broke the camel's back" .. ok. drinking straw or a piece of grain? either way i can picture the poor camel collapsing like a bad move in jenga

"needle in a haystack" .. someone had to explain that one to me when i was young, but then i thought if you throw yourself into the hay you're sure to find it pretty quickly.

Or worse yet, "How's it hangin?".

Maybe I should reply with "Like a horse".

Learn the language here
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt135648.html

"Comparing apples to oranges"

In my mind, they are both fruits. So I could compare them. And I could compare them because they are both fruits.

Maybe it would make more sense if it was like "Comparing a book to an orange" which would make more sense because they aren't the same thing.

Things are not going well. i think its time to "circle the wagons."
"get off your high horse and come back to reality"
I am quite rational, for a guy who is not currently sitting on top of a damn horse.