I picked up a new idiom this morning – well, new to me, but described in one online source as 'not quite obsolete', which is fine by me. Watching an episode of Frasier – still one of the smartest, funniest sitcoms ever made – in a hotel room in Chichester (don't ask), I caught Daphne, in the course of describing an over-ardent suitor, saying that he had 'a boardinghouse reach – and he wasn't reaching for the Colman's mustard'. The meaning of the phrase is instantly clear, as is the image it conjures up, of boardinghouse inmates seated at the communal table, each eager to get their hands on the condiments, and one of them lunging across everyone else's space with his 'boardinghouse reach' to grab them first. The phrase has particular resonance on this side of the pond, where boardinghouse landladies were notoriously stingy and inhospitable, and no doubt those condiments were in short supply. Though boardinghouses are now a thing of the past, the phrase deserves to live on. Nice work, Daphne (or rather those brilliant scriptwriters who made Frasier a classic).
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I like it. Will my use of it -- surely sometime within the next few days -- be its debut in North Dakota?
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Hope it goes down well, debut or not. Stares of incomprehension are always a possibility...
DeleteWhen Frasier was first being broadcast, its excellence was obvious, but now it seems like one of the towering achievements of 20th century, a weekly 22 minute Restoration comedy. And then there were scenes like this. Imagine the confidence you must have in your actors to write that!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely – and what an amazing scene that was! The genius casting even extended to the dog.
DeleteAnd what about a short few words about the marvellous Jane Leeves playing the nutty, outspoken Daphne to perfection.
ReplyDeleteShe certainly did – and what an extraordinary creation Daphne was. In Jane Leeves' hands the character grew so assuredly from nothing very much to a key component of the comedy. A shame her English family struck such a false note, but by then Frasier had surely gone on that bit too long, like so many high-rating shows.
DeleteI heard the expression growing up in the Midwest sixty years ago. My father had lived in a boardinghouse before marrying, but I have the notion that he didn't have to go there to learn the expression.
ReplyDeleteI should add that it was not usually condiments we were reaching for, but something more substantial, for example the potatoes.
ReplyDeleteWell, this is more comments than I've had on a post in a long time. Excellent.
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