I can’t tell if the three apple trees that I planted at the end of last month are dead or just not responding to spring’s gentle call yet. I’ve been tempted to cut into one of the branches to see if its still alive but have so far resisted. This is more than can be said of my urge to lift up one of the paving slabs on the steps to see if the concrete had dried. It nearly had, but now it’s not actually sticking the slab down anymore. Bugger.
I am, however, happy to report that the sunflower seeds that Amy and I planted in the front garden at around the same time are now going like the clappers and will need to be transferred to bigger pots soon.
I am puzzled by the “going like the clappers” idiom. What clappers? Like the clappers in bells?
In the U.S., we’d probably say, “Going like gangbusters.” And what the hell does that mean, I wonder. Gangbusters? Like G-men?
Who popularizes this stuff anyway?
I’m guessing going like the clappers does mean “going like the dangly bits in bells when you ring them really fast”.
Aren’t gangbusters people who drive slaves or poorly paid labourers? Or is that gangmasters?
There is a very good radio show over here called “Word of mouth” that deals with questions about language like this. It’s running at the moment actually, you can nlisten to it on line as well, each episode is available for a week after transmission (you just have to love BBC radio).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/wordofmouth.shtml
the listen again link is in the column on the right hand side.