skid down the street
Correction (June/23/2010) : The expression is “Skipping down the street.”
Who taught: Pat and Stan
Lightning bugs
One of the things I find very pleasing in the U.S. is lightning bugs. I remember I saw many of them in Korea when I was young. But, as most of the cities become very industrialized, the number of lightning bugs decreased and eventually they are all gone, I think. But, in Pittsburgh, there are so many of them you can see this time of the year, which makes me want to take a walk at night. When I say so many, I really mean it. As you walk, you can easily catch them and they are not afraid of people at all. Considering the fact that Pittsburgh is the 22nd biggest metropolitan area, it is really amazing to see that many of lightning bugs. I feel like I am looking at fireworks every night. Speaking of lightning bugs, there is a story related with them in Korea. In the old days, people catch and put them into some sort of jar to use as a light to save the cost of buying oils. I am not sure how far back it goes, though. Does anybody know, if you happen to be a Korean reader of this blog?
This morning, I met Pat and Stan on my way to the office. As always, I said to them, “How are you?” with my happy face. (I mean I am really happy all the time. There are so many things I am grateful for.) Then, Pat told me, “T-Bone, You look so happy.” “Yeah, It is Tuesday, not Monday. Isn’t it so good?” I said. Then, Pat said, ” Man, you are skidding down the streets.”
Well, I did not quite get it. I had to ask, “Skidding down the streets? What does it mean?” Pat said, “Well, you know, people are skidding or sliding down the streets when they are happy. Think about the way of sliding the streets!”
Well, that is right! It is another way of describing that you are quite happy or excited. So, are you going to skid down the streets to work tomorrow? You should because you have got something to work on today!
A firefly reminds me of idiom originated in an ancient event of China, “螢雪之功”.
I’m not sure you guys can get a chinese charactor.
It means The fruit of study with a firefly and reflected moonlight on snow.
The story that you, terry, tried to mention above is the one originated in an ancient event of china and is traced back to more than 2,500 years ago.
So, we can estimate that times of using firefly would be 2,500 years ago at least.
FYI,
Each firefly can emit light of 3 Lux, and Brightness of our office is about 500 Lux. So we need 200 lightning bugs to read the news paper at least.
From EBS Documentary Program
Wow! 2500 years ago? Thanks! Jason, great information! Do we have them in Korea now? I think we do not, right?
Yes, almost gone. I have not seen them for recent 10 years.
If we get lucky, we might see them in the countryside. 🙂
That is what I noticed too. I wish we could take them back to Korea in the near future.
Little more information on that proverb that Jason referred is originated in Jin (晉: one of the ancient empires in China), there was a guy whose name was Cha-yun(車胤), and he was too poor to buy a oil for studying at night. So he caught lots of fireflies and kept to studying all day long, finally became a successful politician.
It’s trying to say for the people not to give up their dreams just because of their circumstances.
Did you hear this wrong? Sure he didn’t say skipping down the street? Patrick is making stuff up now.
Yup! I totally hear it wrong. I added a correction. I feel like I am adding some sort of correction note in my newspaper.
Yeah, I agree with Phil. I think Patrick is either pulling your leg or you heard it wrong. I think the closest common expression to what he meant was “walking on air”.
Also, not really a saying, but a great song and video from the 80’s – walking on sunshine.
I like “walking on air” one.
I find that skipping tends to make me happy, whether I was before or not.
Earlier this year I was walking with some friends down the street, and John linked one arm with me, and Mick linked the other, and we started skipping all together down the street. I had to take bigger jumps to keep up with them, since they’re so tall, and it made me start laughing until I almost couldn’t breathe because it was fun and ridiculous 🙂
Do you know how to skip? I don’t know if it’s something that people in other countries do or not, although I assume so…
I assume the way I skip pretty similar yours. Let’s try to skip together soon!