Bugger

(Tara Kostezky)


Subject:    Bugger
Date:       Mon, 31 Jan 2000 20:37:45 +0800
From:       "Tara Kostezky" <tarak@foxgold.net.au>
Message-ID: <38958224.0@news.per.paradox.net.au>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-servo

I am becoming increasingly aware, thanks to that miracle of modern science
known as "The Internet", and the amount of time I have therefore been
spending with Those Of Foreign Extraction (hereafter known as "Americans")
that the colourful language used in Oz-land is not well known outside of our
shores.

Therefore, I shall be bringing you from time to time short definitions of
words common to the Oz-land lexicon, but unknown to others, to dispel some
of the mysticism at what I am actually trying to say in my funny accent.

It occurred to me, as I was laying in a drunken stupor yesterday afternoon
post afts chat that we have an awful lot of words for being in a state of
intoxication, for actions related to being in a state of intoxication, or
for implements used in bringing oneself into a state of intoxication
(usually advanced: after all, what's the point of a good piss-up if you
can't get trolley-less?). Some of these may be common in the US. But without
further ado . . . .

First of all, "pissed". As in:

To drink piss (read "Fosters"), or
To "sink" piss, more properly.
To be pissed.
To attend the office end-of-year piss-up

A short digression here. There is another meaning of the word "bugger" used
in Australia besides as an expletive of dismay. And that is the sense of "to
go to". As in "let's all bugger off down the pub [to the public bar] while
the boss is in that meeting, she'll never notice".

Next are the words and phrases that deal with the state of having "sunk too
much piss":

To be off one's trolley (and ergo, "trolley-less")
To be out of one's tree/branch
To be legless
To give oneself "Liver Damage"
Or simply, "TAXI!!!!!!"

And here are the words referring to the implements of getting legless:

A small bottle of beer is not a "bottle" of beer, it is a "stubby"
Beer does not come in cans, it comes in "tinnies"
A carton of 24 or 32 tinnies or stubbies is known as a "slab". For a male
(Bloke) to sink less than a slab and a half during a serious piss-up is to
open himself up to allegations of being "some sort of Poofter" (and I
*don't* mean that in a Viking way). A female (Sheila) can get away with
sinking a slab, less than this and she'll be some sort of bible-bashing
wowser who doesn't know how to sink her piss (note, not "hold" her piss,
no-one cares about whether you can "hold" it or not, simply whether you can
drink it in large quantities in the first place).

At the end of a good piss-up, one's Sheila is required to clean up the
"empties."

Now that you are au fait with Australian drinking speech, you should be able
to decipher this statement easily:

"Yeah, went to a good piss-up at Bazza's [Barry's] house last weeg'end, for
the Foot-ee. Musta sunk 7 slabs between the four of us. I was completely off
my trolley. Liver damage, mate! Gazza [Gary] was like, "TAXI!!!!!". Fuckin'
ace! His Sheila is cool, musta sunk a whole slab all on her own. Top Sheila.
Didn't even complain about cleaning up the empties."

I'm not going to comment on the reason why there should be so many words
associated with alcohol consumption, except that I have observed that most
Australians like to sink an awful lot of piss whenever the opportunity
arises.

We are indeed a nation descended from convicts.

T "likes a good piss-up as much as the next Shiela" K

--
They don't have cops in Australia;
it's a continent peopled entirely by
criminals - Captain Infinity
--

PS Except that I get hungover these days on one stubby of Fosters . . . .

PPS I am not used to coping with this heat, and so will catch up with the
rest of your commentary at some time in the near future, all of which made
me laugh uncontrollably (especially your drinking game commentary,
Antifrance and others :) fall out of my chair, and rupture my spleen. The
doctors have told be, "no more aft-s! It is not good for your body, not to
mention your mind!" Hah! Of course I told them to bugger off.

PPPS Can somebody kill J for me, whilst I am getting around to answering his
posts 1. on the heat and 2. on the snow (which I'm sure he wrote just to rub
it in, the BASTARD!)


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