AtDtDA(34): Balkan Dog's Dinner

[János Székely]

I don't know much about the Southern Slavic linguistic context but in
Hungarian, which has been influenced by Balkanic folk culture, the idiom
"dog's dinner" means something that is due to you (in the legal sense),
while you can't really rely on it. ("Uncertain like a dog's dinner.")

János


2008/6/21 Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>:

>   "'They're the guardians of the thing now.  Of this whole sad,
> unreadable Balkan dog's dinner, come to that.  They don't want the
> job, but they've got it.  I don't want to believe them, but I do.'"
> (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 954)
>
>
> "this whole sad, unreadable Balkan dog's dinner"
>
> dog's breakfast  Noun. A mess. E.g."I've made a bit of a dog's
> breakfast of that essay, and will probably have to rewrite it." Cf.
> 'dog's dinner'
>
> [...]
>
> dog's dinner  Noun. 1. A mess. Cf. 'dog's breakfast'.
> 2. See 'done up like a dog's dinner'.
>
> [...]
>
> done up like a dog's dinner Phrs. Smartly or extravagantly dressed.
> Usually disparaging use. {Informal}
>
> http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/d.htm
>
> Cf. ...
>
> Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop
> what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs.
> Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not
> always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is
> not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment
> or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of
> fiction.
>
> Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.
>
> http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Against_the_Day
> http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594201202,00.html#
> http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/thomaspynchon/
>
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