My son often remembers that there is an idiomatic phrase for an idea, but not the exact words. That doesn’t slow him down; he just makes something up on the fly. He also generally chooses to have serious conversations while we’re in the car going someplace. This morning he wanted to know how old he would have to be before I’d trust him to drive out of town by himself.
“I don’t know” I told him. “We’ll….” and he finished for me “walk that plank when we come to it.”
And then he asked why I was laughing so hard. Arrrh, matey’s I can’t imagine. Couldn’t be that he’s funny, could it?
You know, Bear and I often go driving around “just getting out of the house” and talking about serious stuff. Who knows, maybe THAT’s genetic too….(laugh)
Well the concept of Ray driving makes walking the plank seem like a reasonable alternative. It’s coming up all too soon for our sons. *shudders*
I like the alternate version, actually, particularly because in some cases it’s been more accurate. My personal favorite, though, came from an earnest non-native English speaker who told me that a particular piece of information was “right from the horse’s south.”
Which I also liked much better for sake of accuracy…