LL-L "Idiomatica" 2006.02.14 (01) [E]

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14 February 2006 * Volume 01
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From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2006.02.13 (06) [E]

Andrys and Ron both said: "stir the possum"

I must confess that I've never heard that one, and I would have expected to
too!  It sounds Southern (as in Southern USA), but ah cain't says ah ever
heared it before.

Mark Brooks

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Idiomatica

Hi, Mark [hQI ma:k]!

It's Southern all right, buddy, but real, real Southern, as in Australian = 
Southern.

See, despite their decidedly Low-Lowlandic names, m' mates Andrys Onsman and 
Peter Snepvangers are Ossies and know a thing or two about Ocker talk.  (I 
know a fair bit about it but am by no means fluent.  I bet there are others 
on the List, theu, the "Ocker lurkers" or "Oz sleeper cell" -- at least two 
of them in Perth, my old stomping ground.  And then there's our favorite 
Scottoz Tom Mac Rae in "Brizzy" = Brisbane.)

The way I understand the expression "to stir the possum" is about the 
equivalent of "to shake things up a bit."  See, possums are nocturnal, which 
means they sleep in the daytime, and it takes quite some doing to wake them 
up and move then.

Of course we're talking about Australian possums, not those nasty-looking, 
beady-eyed but really pretty cute American types.  (The first time I saw one 
of them I thought it was an extraterrestial or, since it was crawling around 
in the groundcover just outside a lab at UC Santa Barbara, that it was a 
science experiment gone wrong ...)

So long!
Reinhard/Ron 

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