Let’s play a game

Let’s play guess the phrase shall we?

These are all things that Abby has said in the past 6 months or so. We are lucky to have kept up with them a little bit.

Some of them have been put in a context that makes them relevant to the game we are playing, but by and large this is how we discovered the meaning of these words and phrases.

Let me first take a small diversion with ‘by and large’. This one, if you think about it is much stranger than much of the following. It turns out, as I found on this site, that ‘by and large’ is originally a nautical term meaning to sail “to the wind and off it”, which meant that if you were sailing ‘by and large’ you were able to sail just as well either way, and so is very non-specific. We have scalawags to thank for many of the most confusing expressions in the English language, I think.

BUT I digress.

So Abby, what is…

…the instrument?
Can you use it in a sentence?
I want to decorate the Christmas tree with ALL the instruments.

…chest?
The game!
How do you play chest?
You move the horseys and the ponds and the towers on the chest board.

…that you are smelling?
The pages.
The pages of the book?
Yeah, I like the smell of books.
So you are just sticking your nose in the book and smelling it huh?
Yeah, like Trusty from Lady and the Tramp.
(And that is no kidding. She looked like a cold, overnight, street bum waking up beneath the warm breeze of a bakery window.)

…a munce ago?
How long ago is ‘a munce ago’?
I don’t know…a munce ago!
(Turns out, it is ‘a [few] minutes ago’)

…the hound?
What do you mean ‘at the hound’?
[holding her puppy up to see] You know, we bought the cute puppy at the hound!

…bornd?
And she’s bornd?
No! [with much diction now] WHEN EMMA WAS FIRST BORNED!

…this finger?
This is the pinky, this is the ring finger, this is the middle finger, this is the…Momma!
Yes?
What do you call this finger?
[looking over] Which one honey?
[Showing Momma by pointing and then quickly] The earwax finger!?

Hey it all works, and in many cases more sensible than a scalawag.