Gordon Barlow

Never heard of him! I found him on Google, and he does seem to be a bit of a Nellie Melba regarding retirement. Has his name really beaten out the others?

BritInParis

Blackadder Goes Forth surely?

Gordon Barlow

Yes, indeed: vintage 1989! That gem is one of our family favourites. And my son and I can't refer to anyone as "Bob" without smiling; I forget which episode that was from. Anybody?

Gordon Barlow

When I was young in Oz (and before it was called "Oz", by the way), a common expression was "Strike me lucky!" - and, alternatively, "Strike me pink!" Meaning, "I'll be damned!" or "Bugger me!" Is either of the first two still in use?

They were actually from my father's generation, when "Strike me lucky!" was a catch-phrase from a radio character called Mo McCackie. Another of his catch-phrases was - accompanied by the sound of a slap - "Cop that, young Harry!" That, too, was very popular among us teenagers in the '50s. I wonder if it's still going.

ozzieeagle

It certainly has, although he says it himself as well, so it's a good natured kind of thing. You sure you haven't heard of him ?



Those "Strike me" terms aren't used anymore. AFAIK

Kim67

Only by Alf on Home and Away.

Gordon Barlow

"Fair suck of the sav!" (saveloy = American "frankfurter"). And if that sounded a bit rude, we used to say "Fair crack of the whip!" Both meant, "That's enough!"

Gordon Barlow

Back in the 1950s we used the terms "bodgies" and "widgies" for what in England were called (I think) "teddy" boys and girls. Bodgy was also used as an adjective, to mean the same as shonky - not quite workable, or of poor quality. I wonder if those terms have survived until today.

Gordon Barlow

I've just been watching the NRL Grand Final game again (I watched it last week, but wanted to see if Cronulla could do the same thing again in the replay), and was amused by a couple of the expressions used by the commentators. Remember that I left Oz in 1963, and haven't been back for a visit since 1995... Do people still say "Gee, whizz!", besides Rugby League commentators? I haven't heard that since I left the country, for goodness sake! Melbourne's defence was superb until right towards the end. Time and again Cronulla was turned back mere feet from the try-line, and the chaps in the booth were greatly impressed. "They [the Melbourne team] have hearts as big as Phar Lap!" one of them said, which is an expression from the 1930s. Those of you who have never heard of Phar Lap can look him up in Wikipedia. A friend of my Dad's took me aside when I told him I intended to come back from England via the US, and warned me earnestly, "You can't trust the bloody Yanks, Gordon; the bastards killed Phar Lap, remember!"

One other odd comment from the rugby game, which I think I heard properly... In the context of waiting for Melbourne to mount a decent attacking move, "We might as well leave the porch light on for Harold Holt!". That would date from 1967, if it was indeed what it sounded like. I'd never heard it before. Has anybody here ever heard it spoken?

ozzieeagle

Harold Holt comes up a lot in Melbourne.

I reckon only Australia could manage something like this as well..... For those that don't know the story Harold Holt was an Australian prime minister that went missing off a beach presumed drowned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Holt

Gordon Barlow

What a classic that photo is! I'm a bit surprised the place does any business, though.

commonwealth

Sheila?

SoCalDon

Still in common use amongst older Australian men. One I really love from the film 'The Castle' is "Take your hand off it, Darryl"

Gordon Barlow

From my recollection - always dodgy, mind you - "sheila" was mainly used as an "ocker" sort of word, by people classified as "too-rights". Used by the middle-classes as a semi-joke word. Incidentally, the greeting "g'day" was used in the same way. Now of course it's everywhere - made more popular by the famous Monty Python sketch (see below). One of my brothers writes to me with that greeting, and I was once greeted by a fellow-Oz at a party with "G'day Bruce!" - to which I responded "G'day Bruce", to the puzzlement of the non-English who heard us.

Gordon Barlow

"As silly as a two-bob watch". Is that still in use?*** Or has it been superseded by "... a ten dollar cell phone"?

*** I mean, I myself still use it, but I'm way out of the loop nowadays.