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08/04/2008: Holy Crap, I Got it Wrong


Okay, so my new pattern for the blog is to disappear for a long time and then come back with a post that gets something wrong while being critically snooty about people getting things wrong. And I accomplished it on my very first try!

Friend-of-the-Blog Craig Miller has directed my attention to the actual standard use of the phrase "butter wouldn't melt in his/her mouth." And I was totally wrong about it, although I've certainly heard other people be wrong as well, in different and contrasting ways. The actual use is to refer "dismissively to somebody who appears gentle or innocent while typically being the opposite." Erm. Okay, yeah, that actually seems right, although the connection to the relative behavior of mouths and butter is obscure.

I will point out that this totally proves my point. Sometimes we're so sure we know how language works (what with being writers and all), that we don't double-check this stuff and then we get in trouble when our scripts meet a reader who does know what they're doing. In fact, this makes my point so perfectly, that I suspect maybe I played it exactly this way on purpose.

So check those idioms!

Lunch: Korean bbq chicken, brown rice, kim chee and pickled radish from the food court at the Century City Mall.