I just realized, that I toss that phrase around a lot. I always chuckle, and no one else does.
So I am inspired to write some back story.
On one of our trips to visit my family, we were going out to eat, and I chose this family style restaurant, that has many fond memories for me. It is a Greek-American place, and one of my favorite treats is saganaki, or flaming cheese. It is nice and dramatic, for when they bring it to your table, the server pours some sort of alcohol over it, shouts, “Opa!” and with a big woosh, sets it afire. Of course, we had to get the flaming cheese. The waitress sets the pitas on the table, along with the cup of alcohol. I tell my sister that I will give her a dollar if she slams the cup of alcohol. I do this, assuming that it is some sort of cheap liquor, and while it probably tastes like shit, will be totally harmless. The waitress comes back and does her cheese thing, and when she leaves, the cup is on the table, with just a little of the alcohol in the cup. I tell Alliecat that the offer is still on the table (har, har) and pull out a dollar. She slams the rest of the innocuous-looking liquid. Her eyes water. She coughs. She says that her throat is burning. She drinks some water. The throat is still burny. We are thinking, man, that must be some shitty alcohol. She gets her dollar, curses me, and we eat our meal.
The next day at work, she is talking to a coworker, who happens to be Greek, and tells her the story. Her friend looks at her, and says, “you aren’t supposed to drink that stuff. It’s basically lighter fluid.” Hmmm. That would explain the burning. I felt a little bad, as I seriously thought it was like some shitty vodka or something. Like Papov, with grain floating in it. But, no. So, we throw that little phrase out all the time now. However, we are a little ore careful with the ingestion of hazardous substances.
Since my sister is roughly the size of a hobbit, I guess we are lucky it didn’t do any permanent damage. At least we think it didn’t. Hmmm. Maybe shouldn’t think about that one too much.