traversefamilypicnic:

rincewitch:

sidereanuncia:

Circumstance found me on the wikipedia page for ‘Unparliamentary Language’ today and boy howdy is it an interesting demographical survey on what words exactly can get you kicked out of a room full of important people. It starts slower than you might expect:

Australia:

• liar
• dumbo

Then picks up to a nice clip

Ireland:

• brat
• buffoon
• chancer
• communist
• corner boy
• coward
• fascist
• gurrier
• guttersnipe
• hypocrite
• rat
• scumbag
• scurrilous speaker
• yahoo

United Kingdom:

• blackguard
• coward
• dodgy
• git
• guttersnipe
• hooligan
• hypocrite
• idiot
• ignoramus
• liar
• pipsqueak^[16]
• rat
• swine
• stoolpigeon
• tart
• traitor^[17]
• sod
• slimy
• wart

And then things start to get a little weird, from New Zealand’s strange analogies

• idle vapourings of a mind diseased (1946)
• his brains could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides (1949)
• energy of a tired snail returning home from a funeral (1963)

To Canada’s absurd mix of profanity and the polite but absurd, half of which are about or uttered by Pierre Trudeau (including, of course, the legendary ‘fuddle duddle’).

• parliamentary pugilist (1875)
• a bag of wind (1878)
• inspired by forty-rod whiskey (1881)^[3]
• coming into the world by accident (1886)
• blatherskite (1890)
• the political sewer pipe from Carleton County (1917)
• lacking in intelligence (1934)
• a dim-witted saboteur (1956)
• liar (consistently from 1959 to the present)
• a trained seal (1961)
• evil genius (1962)
• Canadian Mussolini (1964)
• pompous ass (1967)
• fuddle duddle (1971)
• pig (1977)
• jerk (1980)
• sleaze bag (1984)
• racist (1986)
• scuzzball (1988)
• girouette (French for “weathervane”, Québec 2007)
• bully (2011)
• a piece of shit

“his brains could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides” is fucking incredible

some exceptional owns

• parliamentary pugilist (1875)
• a bag of wind (1878)
• inspired by forty-rod whiskey (1881)

 I wonder how many of these were by or about Sir John A. MacDonald?