I wonder about phrases people write sometimes.
One of those is; Her legs went all the way up.
Is there an alternative? Legs not going all the way down I can understand and sympathize with. But, up?
Her legs went all the way to about 6 inches above her knees. From there there was nothing but air until you got to her nice, firm ass. Sorta freaky, actually, but I liked it.
Her legs went all the way to about 6 inches above her knees. From there there was nothing but air until you got to her nice, firm ass.
I don't understand that. What happened to the rest of her legs that were now air?
I don't understand that. What happened to the rest of her legs that were now air?
I don't understand either. Hence my OP regarding the phrase. I mean, what other options are there?
I believe that structure was used, mostly by joke tellers, way back near the dawn of time. There were the traditional stories in which legs were described as very long and how you could imagine how she would wrap them around a guy's body. Then came the ones that were not serious. The first one I recall hearing, about the time of Pharoah, was "her legs reached all the way from the sidewalk to her ass." It did have the effect of making the one hearing the joke at least think about long legs.
My guess is the phrase refers to viewing a woman's legs from the ankle up. Even then it has never made much sense to me. Especially since the upper portion of her legs are usually covered by clothing and the viewer can't see where the legs stop. :)
Perhaps it's akin to the glass half full/empty. If her legs go down, it's a bad thing. If the legs go up, it's a good thing (from a male POV).
AJ
Her legs went all the way to about 6 inches above her knees. From there there was nothing but air until you got to her nice, firm ass.
Okay, I get the "legs went all the way up" to mean long legs. But it was the 2nd part that I didn't understand: "to about 6 inches above her knees. From there there was nothing but air until you got to her nice, firm ass."
What I envision is a murder mystery story where they found a body that had been hacked up. They laid the pieces on a table. The legs were cut off 6 inches above the knees and they never found the rest of her legs so there was a gap (air) between what was left of her legs and her torso (ass).
Okay, I get the "legs went all the way up" to mean long legs. But it was the 2nd part that I didn't understand: "to about 6 inches above her knees. From there there was nothing but air until you got to her nice, firm ass."
Let me try to explain:
karactr asked if there is really an alternative to "her legs went all the way up" and provided an absurd alternative with empty space starting 6 inches above her knees, thus emphasizing there is no need to state her legs go all the way up.
HM.
As, the title states, I am being silly. As Dom said, there is no accounting for idiom. I was hoping to cause a very light banter thread and have apparently failed.
Though, I really did not anticipate such a macabre response, Switch.
I was hoping to cause a very light banter thread and have apparently failed.
That's because I take things literally. I missed the joke. I thought you quoted a story.
I thought you quoted a story.
Nope, just a fragment out of my odd mind. Though, I guess I could have written it better.
I really did not anticipate such a macabre response
Non-sequitor: Didn't someone make a film about a guy who cut his partner's arms and legs off and kept her in a box?
AJ
Didn't someone make a film about a guy who cut his partner's arms and legs off and kept her in a box?
It's been years since I read it, but in the anti-war book "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo, didn't the protagonist wake up with no arms or legs? And a hole where his face had been.
And then there's the Johnny joke. A boy knocks on his neighbor's door. The mother answers.
"Can Johnny come out and play baseball?" the boy asks.
"You know Johnny doesn't have arms and legs."
"I know. We use him as first base."
Non-sequitor: Didn't someone make a film about a guy who cut his partner's arms and legs off and kept her in a box?
"Boxing Helena." Julian Sands & Sherilyn Fenn.
"Boxing Helena." Julian Sands & Sherilyn Fenn.
Thank you. I have no interest in watching it, it was just something weird that popped into my half-braincell when thinking about legs not going all the way up (or down).
AJ
I've always understood the term to refer to a very fit woman with shapely longer than average legs while wearing a very revealing garments that reveal the full length of her legs like a mini-skirt, cut-off shorts, or bikini pants. I can see it also being used to refer to a woman's legs in a situation where the skirt is blown up by the wind to display the full length of her legs.
One of those is; Her legs went all the way up.
It's an idiom. You can't make sense of an idiom from the actual words used.
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/idiom.html
Idioms exist in every language. They are words or phrases that aren't meant to be taken literally. For example, if you say someone has "cold feet," it doesn't mean their toes are actually cold. Rather, it means they're nervous about something.
Idioms can't be deduced merely by studying the words in the phrase. If taken literally, you would think that someone with cold feet hasโฆ cold feet. But, after living with a certain group of people for a period of time, you'll start to pick up their expressions. Let's explore some idiom examples in American everyday language, international language, and the language of the arts.
In this particular case (Her legs went all the way up), it's a reference to a woman having relatively long legs in proportion to her torso.
I can understand this sort of thing, I have disproportionately short legs. Standing next to my brother he's a couple of inches taller than I am. But if we sit next to each other on identical chairs, I'm taller than he is.
P.S. Lincoln is reputed to have said in response to a question about how long a man's legs should be: Long enough to reach the ground.
One of those is; Her legs went all the way up.
The intent, as I understand it is to invoke the image of a girl/woman with longer than average legs (for her height) that are also perfectly formed. The 'up' is partly because up is generally good whilst down generally bad and of course those perfect legs go all the way up to the 'promised land'... Which is what the guys generally want to see.
Much like 'the eyes being the gateway trio the soul', the legs are the highway to heaven... (Where often the pearly gates are shaven)
Probably not as descriptive as calling a girl 'spanner eyes', because one look from her and the guy's nuts tighten...
whilst down generally bad
I'm not sure about you, but I have never found going down to be inherently bad.
I'm not sure about you, but I have never found going down to be inherently bad.
It depends on the object in question. Tights are good because they go down whereas stalagmites are bad ;)
AJ
I'm not sure about you, but I have never found going down to be inherently bad.
I eagerly await proof... *grin*
I'm not sure about you, but I have never found going down to be inherently bad.
That's because you're a vampire - you love sun down but hate sun up ;)
AJ
That's because you're a vampire - you love sun down but hate sun up ;)
I am not a vampire. Personally, i find sun rises more satisfying than sun settings. Settings seem so...final.
Waking to a new dawn offers so many possiblilities.
Waking to a new dawn offers so many possiblilities.
I tried to find a nude dawn I'd like to wake up to, but there aren't any famous ones who float my boat :(
AJ
I tried to find a nude dawn I'd like to wake up to, but there aren't any famous ones who float my boat
If you had found her and she was a virgin, would you be up at the crack of dawn? Would you enjoy the dawn chorus? And as you can't find her, wouldn't you enjoy any girl going dawn on you?
Oh, and how buoyant a personality does a girl have to have in order to float your boat? What displacement is it?
Oh, and how buoyant a personality does a girl have to have in order to float your boat?
1 milliHelen.
And as you can't find her
Nine SOL authors have 'Dawn' in their nyms. No disrespect intended to any of them.
Oh, and how buoyant a personality does a girl have to have in order to float your boat?
As long as I can see she's got a nice plimsoll line ;)
AJ
Nine SOL authors have 'Dawn' in their nyms. No disrespect intended to any of them.
Busy girl is Dawn. She obviously enjoys a good nym...
Though I doubt the actual total is nine, after all, a busy girl has an appetite.. :)
As long as I can see she's got a nice plimsoll line ;)
That old foot fetish gaining ground again huh? Tough to find plimsols with heels these days... But just for you.
My mother used to say about tall women with long legs, "If her limbs were any longer, she'd fork again!"
Not likely.
stalaGmites = on the Ground
stalaCtites = on the Ceiling
Cheers
RS
Out of curiosity; is there a consensus or definition regarding what constitutes "long-legged" in a person? Or is it purely subjective?
what constitutes "long-legged"
Well, some people have unusually long legs, like many basketball players have unusually long arms.
But it's more than that. Someone with thin legs could look long-legged or "all legs." Or it may be the outfit they're wearing that emphasizes their legs.
Yeah, it's subjective.
Out of curiosity; is there a consensus or definition regarding what constitutes "long-legged" in a person? Or is it purely subjective?
Yes, sort of. It's based off of body proportions starting from the length of the torso (say bottom of the pelvis to the top of the clavicles you get ratios of the lengths of the limbs and size of the head vs the torso. There is very likely to be medical data out there for the range that would be considered normal, but I don't know where to find it.
In addition to the situation I describe above with my brother being taller when standing and me being taller when we are sitting. I had to be fitted with an immobilizer for my right leg in my late 30s early 40s due to a soft tissue knee injury. The nurse who fitted me with the immobilizer had to go down to a size meant for teens, and the knee of the immobilizer still ended up an inch to an inch and a half below my knee.
Hadn't considered the possibility of a medical study on it. They study everything else. It is, as you say, reasonable to assume there is something out there on it.
Hadn't considered the possibility of a medical study on it.
If you want something quick for male proportions, you could start with da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872302/
https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/bodyproportions.shtml
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-body-ratios/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man
https://www.livescience.com/37704-phi-golden-ratio.html
It would appear that ฯ or the golden ratio would apply. Any leg length over that ratio could be considered long-legged.
In addition to the situation I describe above with my brother being taller when standing and me being taller when we are sitting. I had to be fitted with an immobilizer for my right leg in my late 30s early 40s due to a soft tissue knee injury. The nurse who fitted me with the immobilizer had to go down to a size meant for teens, and the knee of the immobilizer still ended up an inch to an inch and a half below my knee.
My brother is 6'6" and I'm 6'4", yet at the dinner table seated, we are eye to eye.
When I was 14, I had an incident where I found myself taking the fast route to the base of a ~30 foot cliff. The end result of which was multiple breaks in both legs, the worst being my left. The orthopedic surgeons had to work on both left and right leg epiphyseal (growth) plates which by the time I was 18, left one leg a 1/4" shorter than the other and both shorter than genetic predisposition would have had them be. That btw, was a guaranteed kill shot when trying to get past MEPS for the armed services as I later found out.
All that said, curiosity is getting the better of me. Your description of the leg immobilizer issue sounds like you may have had issues in your youth or simply a genetic predisposition. Was the latter your case, or something else?
Your description of the leg immobilizer issue sounds like you may have had issues in your youth or simply a genetic predisposition. Was the latter your case, or something else?
Yes, I had issues in my youth, but none that would have resulted in my legs being shorter than they would have otherwise been.
I am/was hyperactive, overweight, and uncoordinated.
Of course both my arms* and my legs being disproportionately short likely had much to do with my lack of coordination and inability at any sort of sport.
The immobilizer was a temporary (short term) need due to a soft tissue injury resulting in swelling of my right knee.
*I am the only male I know who has to lean over sideways to reach the bottom of his pants pockets.
Both the arms and the legs have epiphyseal plates up until late adolescence. What you describe sounds like a medical problem with them while growing up, as those plates are primarily responsible for the length of the bones in question.
I'm only familiar with issues from breaking those plates. But I would suggest bringing it up with your doctor next time you see them. There may be nothing to it, but in my case, it's causing arthritis issues.
Anyway, thanks for answering my questions.
Both the arms and the legs have epiphyseal plates up until late adolescence. What you describe sounds like a medical problem with them while growing up, as those plates are primarily responsible for the length of the bones in question.
Could simply be genetic.
I'm only familiar with issues from breaking those plates.
I was 40 before I had my first broken bone.
But I would suggest bringing it up with your doctor next time you see them. There may be nothing to it, but in my case, it's causing arthritis issues.
I'm 50 I would be shocked if there was anything that could be done about it, even if it is causing me problems.
When I read it, I thought of the swing DEATH made for Susan.
Not sure who's got the oddest mind...
Just to beat Richard in being flippant about the thread question.
The process to flip an ant is to place something thin and slippery on the ground, wait until the ant walks onto it, then flip it over so the ant lands on its back. Thus you just did a flip ant action.
typo edit.
to beat Richard
Ignore ants and Ape pathy. I don't know and I don't care.
It was Tanksgiving November 28th. Did anyone give or receive Tanks?
I know more about Happy Nes since I realized he is happy because he gets married every seven days, on Wed Nes
day.
Don't go to a physiotherapist named Physio because he is Physio the rapist.
The process to flip and ant is to place something thin and slippery on the ground, wait until the ant walks onto it, then flip it over so the ant lands on its back. Thus you just did a flip ant action.
Tried it on an Eleph Ant then a Rumin Ant. Doesn't work.
AJ
This has gotten weirder than I expected.
Her legs went ALL the way up, to her ankles, where they became cream cheese. They stayed that way to her knees where they became cilantro and chives. With butter.
It was an interesting mix. Until I got to her middle, which was pineapple. Very disconcerting.
This has gotten weirder than I expected.
Her legs went ALL the way up, to her ankles, where they became cream cheese. They stayed that way to her knees where they became cilantro and chives. With butter.
It was an interesting mix. Until I got to her middle, which was pineapple. Very disconcerting.
Not if the author was describing a woman as a platter of finger food :D
When she floats your boat watch out for the poop deck. Also be certain your main mast is up. If you end up on the poop deck be sure to stay windward.
My father used to say "her legs went up one side and down the other" it is a man to man sexist remark that I think, but seldom voice. It ranks up there with "she couldn't hold a pencil with those puppies."
Unfortunately, PC has destroyed many good phrases along with one like those. It is chairman, not chairperson, and human not some other stupid correct phrase. Now I've had my rant.