Carlos in Augusta, Kentucky, says that in Cuba, when it was raining while the sun was still shining, he used to hear people say la hija del diablo se está casando, or literally, “the devil’s daughter is getting married.” A friend from Alabama told him that the expression she always heard was The devil’s daughter is getting beaten. These and many other sayings around the world denoting sunshowers all refer to some kind of supernatural activity, whether it’s The devil is beating his wife, heard primarily in the Southern United States, or in parts of Mexico, Las conejas están pariendo or “The rabbits are giving birth.” In Puerto Rico, it’s Están casando una bruja, literally “They are marrying a witch.” In Korea, it’s tigers getting married; in Bulgaria, it’s the nuptials of bears; and in some Arabic-speaking countries, the animals getting hitched are rats. In South Africa, a sunshower is referred to as a monkey’s wedding. This is part of a complete episode.
If you start the phrase when in Rome… but don’t finish the sentence with do as the Romans do, or say birds of a feather… without adding flock together, you’re engaging in anapodoton, a term of rhetoric that refers to the...
There are many proposed origins for the exclamation of surprise, holy Toledo! But the most likely one involves not the city in Ohio, but instead Toledo, Spain, which has been a major religious center for centuries in the traditions of both Islam and...
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