What means the phrase...
SLHinton17
TOMAS PLADEVALL (Barcelona), <tplad...@bcn.servicom.es> ASKS:
>Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>We make a better door than a window.
>Thanks for your help.
************************
This is usually "YOU make a better door than a window," and is addressed
to a person who is standing between the speaker and whatever the speaker
wants to see. A more liklely cry would be "Down in front!" A good-natured
insulting comment in Mexico is "La carne del burro no es transparente!"
Subject: What means the phrase...
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From: "TOMAS PLADEVALL" <tplad...@bcn.servicom.es>
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Date: 29 Sep 1997 22:02:54 GMT
Organization: SERVICOM
Lines: 7
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
TOMAS PLADEVALL
Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
We make a better door than a window.
Thanks for your help.
Tomàs Pladevall (Barcelona)
Wendy Conboy
TOMAS PLADEVALL wrote:
>
> Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>
> We make a better door than a window.
This phrase is usually used to infer that we are blocking the view
because we are not transparent (you can't see through us) like a window.
In my family, it is usually used as "You make a better door than window"
when one of us is blocking what the other person is trying to see -
usually the TV. Hope this helps.
Engkent
In article <343045de...@nntp.ix.netcom.com> s.m...@ix.netcom.com (Polar) writes:
>On 29 Sep 1997 22:02:54 GMT, "TOMAS PLADEVALL"
><tplad...@bcn.servicom.es> wrote:
>>Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>>
>>We make a better door than a window.
>>
>>Thanks for your help.
>>
>>Tomas Pladevall (Barcelona)
>It would help if you gave the context of the phrase. In isolation,
>one has little idea what it might mean.
Unless he means "you make a better door than a window" which is something you
would say to someone blocking your view.
Lucia
Greer/Taylor
On Tue, 30 Sep 1997 00:21:17 GMT, s.m...@ix.netcom.com (Polar) wrote:
>On 29 Sep 1997 22:02:54 GMT, "TOMAS PLADEVALL"
><tplad...@bcn.servicom.es> wrote:
>
>>Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>>
>>We make a better door than a window.
>>
>>Thanks for your help.
>>
>>Tomas Pladevall (Barcelona)
>
>It would help if you gave the context of the phrase. In isolation,
>one has little idea what it might mean.
>
>Polar
>
>
They are asking you to move so that they can see whatever it is that
you are blocking with your body. . A door is something you can't see
through. You can, however, see through a window. If you made a
better window than a door they could see through you.
Fernando Melendez
>TOMAS PLADEVALL wrote:
>>
>> Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>>
>> We make a better door than a window.
______________________________________________________________
I stand corrected and will quietly eat my crow pie in a corner. Sam
and Lucia and Greer-Taylor and Geoff and Wendy were all correct in
pointing out that the phrase "You make a better door than a window"
is a saying aimed at removing a human obstacle from one's line of
vision. I had never heard it, thus my fanciful explanation.
Having mentioned this at a party tonight, I was told that another
phrase that conveys the same meaning is: "Was your father a glazier?"
Both sayings are probably used in circles much higher than those in
which I travel, where the expression requesting people to not
obstruct the view of the TV screen is simply: "Move your ass."
Fernando
Fernando Melendez
On 29 Sep 1997 22:02:54 GMT, "TOMAS PLADEVALL"
>Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>
>We make a better door than a window.
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>Tomàs Pladevall (Barcelona)
"Fabricamos mejores puertas que ventanas." Lo cual no tiene sentido
ni en castellano ni en inglés.
Please do not take offense, but you should ask the question thus:
Can anyone tell me what this sentence means?
"We make a better door than a window."
Which, as I stated above, makes as little sense in English as it does
in Spanish. It means that someone (presumably a manufacturer or an
artisan) believes that they are more successful in the building of
doors than they are in the building of windows. While it is possible
that in a moment of deep insight and soul searching, a maker of doors
and of windows might arrive at such a conclusion, he (or she) is
unlikely to issue such a statement, but rather live with it and either
let it gnaw at their artistic soul, or (preferably) improve the
quality of those damned windows, so that some day he (or she) might
say:
We make doors and windows of equally high quality.
Perhaps an architect or a contractor in viewing the current work of
the artisan, may say:
"Your doors are far nicer than your windows...You definitely make a
better door than a window"
In any event, the best way to reach a clarification of the sentence
you are asking about would be to place it in some sort of context.
Where did it come from? Who said it? and Why?
Fernando
Shed
Fernando Melendez wrote:
>
> >TOMAS PLADEVALL wrote:
> >>
> >> Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
> >>
> >> We make a better door than a window.
>
> I stand corrected and will quietly eat my crow pie in a corner. Sam
> and Lucia and Greer-Taylor and Geoff and Wendy were all correct in
> pointing out that the phrase "You make a better door than a window"
> is a saying aimed at removing a human obstacle from one's line of
> vision. I had never heard it, thus my fanciful explanation.
>
> Having mentioned this at a party tonight, I was told that another
> phrase that conveys the same meaning is: "Was your father a glazier?"
> Both sayings are probably used in circles much higher than those in
> which I travel, where the expression requesting people to not
> obstruct the view of the TV screen is simply: "Move your ass."
>
> Fernando
A common expression that is used in the UK is: "You don't make a very
good window". It's expressions like this that I think are aimed to make
the recipient 'fall for the joke' without chance of escape as they have
already gone halfway with, "What?", or, "What do you mean?".
Another example might be, if someone's yawning, "Watch out, there's a
train coming". The recipient answers, "What?", to which the reply is,
"If there were a train coming, it would think your mouth were a
tunnel!".
A further example can involve hand gestures. When someone's not
looking, you say to them, "Are these yours?". Obviously, due to
people's obsession with possession, the immediate response is to quickly
look around. The vendor of the joke would then present the recipient
with stuck up fingers or other appropriate (or inappropriate) hand
gestures.
Is there a name for this type of harmless fooling around?
Steve.
--
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Truly Donovan
TOMAS PLADEVALL wrote:
> Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>
> We make a better door than a window.
*That* phrase doesn't mean anything. The common phrase, "*You* make a
better door than a window," is used when someone is blocking your view
of something, usually a television screen. It refers to the fact that
usually windows can be seen through, whereas doors (and people) cannot.
--
Truly Donovan
reply to truly at lunemere dot com
Geoff Butler
TOMAS PLADEVALL <tplad...@bcn.servicom.es> wrote:
>Can anybody tell me what means the phrase:
>
>We make a better door than a window.
Not quite. If I say to you that "You make a better door than window",
it's because you're in the way of something that I want to see.
It's "make" in the same sense as "He makes a good footballer", not
something to do with construction. In other words, "You are better at
being a door than a window" because I can't see through you.
-ler
Greer/Taylor
On Tue, 30 Sep 1997 15:06:54 GMT, inksl...@FOGsunshine.net (Maureen
Goldman) wrote:
>fer...@worldnet.att.net (Fernando Melendez) wrote:
>
>> Having mentioned this at a party tonight, I was told that another
>> phrase that conveys the same meaning is: "Was your father a glazier?"
>> Both sayings are probably used in circles much higher than those in
>> which I travel, where the expression requesting people to not
>> obstruct the view of the TV screen is simply: "Move your ass."
>
>Around here, we use a plaintive wail of "I can't SEE!!!" followed by
>"Really? Perhaps you should get your eyes checked."
>
Or another from a parent, "Have you been drinking muddy water today?"
Mike Barnes
In alt.usage.english, SLHinton17 <slhin...@aol.com> spake thuswise:
>
>>We make a better door than a window.
>
>
>************************
I've heard only "You'd make a better door than a window", which makes
rather more sense to me.
--
-- Mike Barnes, Stockport, England.
-- If you post a response to Usenet, please *don't* send me a copy by e-mail.