Saying?

[tarotgal]

I studied French for 8 years so I know its literal translation (Is not why) but my boss seems to think that "N'est pas pourquoi" is a common saying (says he says it all the time) and doesn't know what it means. He just likes the sound of it. I've never heard it as a common saying but my boss thinks it is. (I've heard people in the US use n'est pas all the time, but not that whole phrase) Has anyone heard this and does anyone know its meaning and hwo it's supposed to be used? I'm stumped.

Have I ever mentioned how strange a job I have? LOL

Comments

[shadowscast.livejournal.com]

I've never heard that used in English.

In French it strikes me as incomplete, a sentence fragment—but admittedly I'm not down with French slang, so who knows.

[tarotgal]

I definitely agree- it is incomplete and makes no sense to me at all. His whole family was like "Yeah, that's how you say it" so I thought I must have been missing something. Glad to know I'm not insane.

PS- I'm reserving the whole weekend to finishing up the next section of the fic. Work and little sleep have kicked my butt this week. I'm SO sorry.

[shadowscast.livejournal.com]

He's probably convinced his whole family it makes sense. *g*

Don't you dare feel guilty over something we're doing for fun! Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to seeing the next bit, whenever it's done.

[a4o.livejournal.com]

LOL ! French is my first language and I've never heard anyone use that sentence in my whole life ! "N'est-ce pas ?" means "Isn't it ?", but "n'est pas pourquoi" ? That's just strange !

That reminds me of a friend who welcomed Spanish speaking people who came to his store with "De nada" !

[tarotgal]

Then I'm positive he's just saying it wrong. He doesn't speak a word of French, just likes the way it sounds, I think. It's a great comfort to hear that I wasn't the only one confused and feeling like I was missing something. I suppose it could have been "n'est pas pour quoi" but that still doesn't make sense. *shrug*

That reminds me of a friend who welcomed Spanish speaking people who came to his store with "De nada" !
LOL! That's hilarious. And, yet, more accurate than whatever my boss was trying to say. Literally it can mean "you're welcome" but not in a "you are welcome in my store" sort of way. Wow. That's sad and funny all at once.

[(Anonymous)]

TOTALLY off topic (I don't speak a word of French, so I really have nothing worthwhile to contribute), but you're one of the few people I know that would actually appreciate this, so I HAD to share my excitement with you.

I'm going to see Hal Sparks in, er, concert in like 5 minutes and am SOOO excited. SO excited!!! GAH!! YAY!

Sorry to put this completely OT post in on your LJ, but I thought that you would appreciate my SQUEEing far more than the people that I'm going with. :-)

Hal Sparks. GAH!

-c

[tarotgal]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
I so want to marry that man. OMG I'm so envious! Yay for you!!!!! I want to hear all about it! *dies* So awesome! SQUEE!

[(Anonymous)]

Okay - VERY long rambling bits, but there was just so much GOOD that I couldn't leave any of it out! :-)

OMG, he was FANTASTIC. Even better than I thought he’d be, and I had rather high expectations. He had on this charcoal grey tee-shirt with some square, colorful box in the middle of his chest, dark washed jeans, and a thick, chocolate leather belt with large silver buckled (that he had pulled the hem of the shirt up and sort of hooked it on it, so that you could see all of the buckled and a bit of the band, but most of the band was hidden by the shirt which went down to just a little past the top of thigh.) and a silver chain which was attached to the belt loops on the front and back of the right side of his waist. He had long-ish sideburns and his hair was all mussed and spikey. Just to give you a picture of the cute/hot-ness I was squealing at.

He was ridiculously funny. He had this running bit throughout the routine that he led into by expressing his regret for what happened in New Orleans, and how he could understand that everyone there was so caught off-guard because the city had been around for 300 years and it was still standing, etc. but then went on to say how he had no sympathy for the people that lived in the tornado-ridden areas of the US. Like it was ‘god saying ‘You can live here, and here, and here, and there and north and to the south, but not here’” (and then he made noises and waved his hands as the floor, like he was god sending tornados) “’or here, or here. That’s mine.’” And then, in a horrible southern accent, he imitated one of the people “‘We will rebuild!’ Don’t you mean ‘re-park’?” Went into a thing about people in Kentucky with trailers and how he could say that because he was from Kentucky. Then did a bit about small towns and they always say how nice it is and how everyone knows everyone else, says hi at the corner store and goes to church together. Until they find a murderer in the town, then everyone’s like ‘No, he was a quiet guy. Never talked to him. Didn’t know him.’

He talked about how he likes Britany Spears. Or, rather, how his penis likes Britany Spears and how he (the penis) bought them two tickets to her show (and how he speaks with Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage’s voice). He went off on how all girl pop singers are went Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney SLUT!! with no in-between time. How he was impressed by/felt bad for Ashley Simpson and how he could only dream of being booed by 30,000 people. And wondered how a person could forget the words to a song that had no words (La La), and then blame it on acid reflux continuing that with how they could have picked a disease that affects people under 80 and who fed her the chili before she went on stage.

He talked about reality tv and how if you name a show Survivor, someone really should have to die, and that they should add a sniper in. The one contestant would, at the tribal meetings, have the red sniper dot on his forehead and everyone else should have like 15 seconds to tell him, and if not…yeah. He also said that his favorite reality show was Cold Case, but he knew that there were would-be serial killers out there, watching it for tips and writing them down on their legal pads. “’No one would have found the body if he had just buried it five miles further away.’ Five…Miles…Further…”

[(Anonymous)]

There were a few political jokes, but he didn’t make many because he said that thinking about what was going on made him angry and he didn’t know how to say the jokes before his head exploded. “The only way gay marriage will affect hetero marriage is if you’re gay. ‘John, do you take Mary to be your wedded wife?’ ‘(Is Steve available? What? He’s not? Oh. Okay.) I do.’” And how the scary religious groups all wear the same color shirt when they protest. He asked how many thought Bush would be impeached, but then pointed out that it would probably happen like 2 days before the end of his term. Cheney would be like ‘I’m President!! I’m PRESIDENT!!!” Then drop down dead.

There was something in there about how the T-Rex was the angriest dinosaur because his arms were so short that he couldn’t reach down to masturbate, and you’d be mean too if you were as sexually frustrated as he had to be. He ran around like a T-Rex then too, doing the screech and everything. Very funny.

He also randomly stopped, looked around the auditorium, and was like, “You ever notice how these places always look like the inside of a wedding cake. Like someone’s going to slice into it with a knife and then we’re all going to be like ‘Be cake!!’” Random, but funny.

He said a few things about how his friends were irritating. One responds to everything with annoying phrases like ‘never say never’ to which Hal responds, “I’m never going to fuck your mom.” “Never say…er…hey…” And another of his friends takes in stray dogs who have fleas, and his house was infested with bugs because he watched a few of them once (never again). He said how you’d feel it bite, grab it and try to slice it with the your fingernails (the flea guillotine that god gave you), but it would take you forever to kill it because it does its flea dance and squirms around (he did his own rendition of the flea dance here, which was fun.) but then you finally get it “And you see that drop of blood that comes out of it and you’re like ‘Hey! That’s mine!’” And then he stuck his finger in his mouth, like he was taking back what was his, looked around and said, “Well, maybe that’s only me.” HYSTERICAL.

He talked about how he had just bought a new house and then about how he’s just waiting for an old man to show up on his property, just stand there while Hal tries to make conversation, ask if he’s lost, etc., but then the moment Hal turns to leave, say ‘So, you bought the old McKinley place.” and then have scariness ensue. His new house also, apparently, has ants in it and he feels like god looking down on us when he watches them work. And how he likes them and wants them to live…anywhere but there. He repeated his god and tornados bit, but after the ‘We will rebuild!’ part, he said ‘No you won’t’ and sprayed an imaginary can of Raid.

Then, for his final thing, he said how he went paintballing with his friends and how there was a guy with his own paintball gun that did rapid fire and how they played on teams and, in the final game, Hal went in to capture the other team’s flag with like 5 minutes left, stealthily got it (there was rolling involved), then ran back to his base, shooting over his shoulder, yelling ‘Cover me!’ only to realize, once he got there, that all of the other team had been dead for 20 minutes and were currently sitting on the top of a hill watching Hal’s team play with themselves.

LOL. Two posts because it wouldn't fit in one! :-) It was a VERY good time. My stomach hurt for hours after from laughing so hard. And I had fantastic seats: fourth row, in the right section, but on the isle, so there was NO ONE blocking my view, whatsoever. It was fantastic. GAH.