Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

As in "Back in the day, I actually had teeth to set on edge."

[jean]

But what day?

The lack of a specific referent for that definite article has always troubled me.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But what day?

The lack of a specific referent for that definite article has always troubled me.

"The day that saw me at my physical, intellectual and emotional peak" - it's important that it isn't a fixed moment, but a moveable feast of yesteryear. Not unlike "Once upon a time", it's missing the point to ask "which time?"

[jean]

But in that case it would be perverse to ask 'which time', because the indefinite article is deliberately non-specific.

If we made use of the phrase 'Once upon the time', on the other hand, it would be a very different matter.

[Serial_Apologist]

"The day that saw me at my physical, intellectual and emotional peak" - it's important that it isn't a fixed moment, but a moveable feast of yesteryear. Not unlike "Once upon a time", it's missing the point to ask "which time?"

Whkich brings back a vivid memory.

When I was a small child, my dad would introduce my bedtime stories by announcing, "Twice upon a time".
"No", i said, "It starts 'once upon a time'!"
"Oh all right then. Twice upon a time..."
"No!! ONCE upon a time!!!"
Etc.

He was also in the habit of telling me to apologise to the pavement whenever I fell down. "Say sorry to the poor pavement".

It helps explain my surreal sense of humour.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But it would be perverse to ask 'which time', because the indefinite article is deliberately non-specific.

Not necessarily; I have encountered many children who have asked just such a question (!) - and, if somebody asked you if you would like to hear a piece of Music, does the deliberately non-specific question not urge you to require more specifics?

[jean]

Of course we narrow down from the non-specific to the specific - that's the natural progression.

What we have here, though, is something that starts by presenting itself as specific when it isn't.

To pursue your analogy, it's like starting the conversation by saying Would you like to hear the piece of music?

[ahinton]

When I was a small child, my dad would introduce my bedtime stories by announcing, "Twice upon a time".
"No", i said, "It starts 'once upon a time'!"
"Oh all right then. Twice upon a time..."
"No!! ONCE upon a time!!!"
Etc.

He was also in the habit of telling me to apologise to the pavement whenever I fell down. "Say sorry to the poor pavement".

Nowadays (in contrast to "back in the whichever day it might have been"), most parents in such circumstances would look out for flaws in the paving, take photographs of the area concerned with their phones and use them as evidence in suing the local authority for compensation; fings evidently ain't wot they used ter be...

It helps explain my surreal sense of humour.

But it doesn't help to explain why your form ID here isn't Surreal_Apologist, if I may say so...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What we have here, though, is something that starts by presenting itself as specific when it isn't.

Exactly - that's the point; everybody knows this. Nobody uses "back in the day" seriously to refer to any specific "day" - it's always used ironically, because the user knows that they are referring to an idealized time which exists more in his/her rose-tinted memory than in reality. It's metaphorical (like "today's the day") but in a gently self-mocking way - which is why it's caught on: the shared idea that people like to believe that there might have been such a time (and nobody imagines that the phrase is actually considering a specific 24 hour period) but that nobody would be able to agree when this might have been. A sharing of foibles from the land of make-believe. (Or should that be "a land of make-believe"?)

[Beef Oven!]

You obviously never went to eat here

I used to live in there!!! And I've got some of the most outrageous stories of the rudest treatment ever!!!!!

How do you know about this place?

[MrGongGong]

I used to live in there!!! And I've got some of the most outrageous stories of the rudest treatment ever!!!!!

How do you know about this place?

We used to go there after gigs

The head waiter went on to coach your mate Nigel in interpersonal skills

[Beef Oven!]

We used to go there after gigs

The head waiter went on to coach your mate Nigel in interpersonal skills

I'm impressed that a northern redneck like you knows some of civilisation's better eateries

[vinteuil]

... happy memories - I was a regular in the late 1970s, on the way home from Persian evening classes in Red Lion Square.

Main stand-bys were char siu, siu yook 叉燒 燒肉 with rice; or beef black bean flat noodle.

Probably got change out of £3...



.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Main stand-bys were char siu, siu yook 叉燒 燒肉 with rice; or beef black bean flat noodle.

Reminds me of an occasion in a Chinese restaurant when, being given the Menu, one of the group said "I do like choosing," whereupon another replied (in slightly deaf innocence) "Oh! I've never had that."

[vinteuil]

Reminds me of an occasion in a Chinese restaurant when, being given the Menu, one of the group said "I do like choosing," whereupon another replied (in slightly deaf innocence) "Oh! I've never had that."

... and which of them was you?