28 May 2007

That's All She Sewed

My Lord Wells of Mumbai quoth

"The Busker writes from an undisclosed location: “"Na sa zeessee" (like greasy) meaning 'May he/she live for you".

Well, *all* my Greek pal readers of rwells' fine blog have mailed or mauled me with the correction that it is correctly writ, "Na sas zisei", and pronounced Nah sass zeesee.

Speaking of writ, they also remind me that I expertly use "Afta einai ta koumbia tis alexainas" which, literally, is "These are Mrs Alexander's buttons", or "That's the essence of it" or, as I think of it, "That's all she wrote".

Desperate to impress non-Greek speaking companions with my fluency and general coolness, but keen NOT to be questioned further, I draw a line under every second sentence with the Mrs A quote.

Who was La Alexander? They say it originated in the dressmaking trade with Kyria A arguing over some buttons she'd ordered but which she accused of being replaced with cheapo subs.

Dressmakers being famous for pilfering and replacing with cheapos, Mrs A's victory in recovering her real McCoy came to stand for revealing the facts of the case.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Wells Sahib not mis-spelling, Wells Sahib cutting-pasting; however Wells Sahib appreciating fancy flights of story telling and web site linking.

Anonymous said...

Nice! Solidarity, indeed.

Corfucius said...

LOL. that's my boys.