French Class

To keep up on my language skills, I read the news in French every so often. And every so often I come across idioms I've never heard before. Take this one, for example:

Pourquoi Hillary Clinton refuse-t-elle de jeter l'éponge ?
Literally translated: Why does Hillary Clinton refuse to throw away the sponge? (or, "Why doesn't she just give up?")

Other classic French idioms:

• Dans la semaine des quatre jeudis et des trois dimanches (In a week of four Thursdays and three Sundays... or, you could just say "never" and be done with it)
• Les doigts dans le nez (Fingers in the nose... or, "Piece of cake")
• Tout droit (All the way right... or, "Straight ahead," which got me lost plenty of times in Europe until I actually realized what "tout droit" meant)
• Mettre la beurre aux épinards (Put butter on spinach... or "To get lucky")
• Il y a du monde au balcon (There are lots of people on the balcony... or "Nice rack!")
• Casse-toi, pauvre con (Get lost, poor ____... I still don't know the actual literal translation for the word "con." If anyone knows for sure, please post under comments.)

Not like the English language is any less idiomatic, but hey, it's fun to learn new phrases. Especially those insinuating that Hillary is a bad housekeeper. And yes, *why, oh why* does she refuse to throw away the sponge? It's over.

-10-key princess