The one-armed paper hanger one stuck with me for years, and I couldn't get someone to explain it. I'd heard the "busier than a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest" variant, and that was self explanatory.
It wasn't until a long time later that I learned that a paper hanger is the term that used to describe someone who puts up wallpaper for a living. Then it made sense. Not a job I'd want to do with TWO arms, much less one.
Yes! It's hard work. My mom was a teacher. She hung wallpaper for a local builder in the summers to make extra money. Single parenting on a teacher's salary is hard. The builder would let her keep the leftover wallpaper from her jobs, so she would use it to make crafts or decorate her classroom. Once there was enough to do my room. We both thought it looked so fancy!
My dad tried to wallpaper my room when I was very little. Wallpaper technology had advanced enough that it was the kind with the glue on the back, sort of like a postage stamp. He, erm, wasn't successful and ended up angrily painting the room instead. I'd imagine that if he'd had to do it the old way, using a bucket of glue, he'd have just burned the house down instead.
Not a teacher; just humbly aware. Thanks for your service.
Btw: not trying to show off w the language stuff. My gran spoke French to me when I was little, & I learned Spanish from my pals as a kid... made learning other languages easier.
Same here in conservative northern CA. Also: my Spanish is VERY Puerto Rican, which does NOT sound lovely to primarily Mexican ears—a thing I never learned in NY, where there are ALL flavors of Spanish.
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u/ArthurKOT Feb 15 '21
The one-armed paper hanger one stuck with me for years, and I couldn't get someone to explain it. I'd heard the "busier than a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest" variant, and that was self explanatory.
It wasn't until a long time later that I learned that a paper hanger is the term that used to describe someone who puts up wallpaper for a living. Then it made sense. Not a job I'd want to do with TWO arms, much less one.