18 Jun 2010

Hoisted on My Own Petard

All Posts 4 Comments

Or is it by my own petard? I was so busy being hoisted, I forgot to check…

My blogging is still going to be sparse for at least a few more days, because I’ve got a bunch of deadlines and miles to go before I sleep. But I had to document a conversation with my 5-year-old I had earlier this evening:

Clark: Hey, hey, what does dammit start with?

RPM: Oh, buddy, let’s not say that word.

Clark: But what does dammit start with?

RPM: It starts with “d” but we’re not going to say that word anymore, OK?

Clark: But you said “dammit” a long time ago, remember?

RPM: Yeah I know buddy, I shouldn’t have said it. OK we’re not going to say that word anymore, because it’s a bad word.

Clark: I wasn’t trying to be bad, I was just asking you what dammit started with–

RPM: Hey! Stop saying it, OK?!

4 Responses to “Hoisted on My Own Petard”

  1. English Bob says:
    at

    Definitely by your own petard. A petard was a little bomb used for breaking through enemy gates. Being “hoisted by your own petard” means you have been blown off your feet by your own bomb.

    I looked this up a few months ago because 41 years of not knowing what it meant finally got to me!

    • bobmurphy says:
      at

      Hmmm… So has English Bob foolishly revealed his age, or is he a 56-year-old whose memory of “petard” was wiped away in a farming accident as a teenager?

  2. English Bob says:
    at

    Whoops! I guess now it’s only a matter of days before I hear the knock on the door.

  3. Minority Report says:
    at

    Hoist with his own petard

    from shakespeare–

    Hamlet:

    For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
    Hoist with his own petard, an’t shall go hard
    But I will delve one yard below their mines
    And blow them at the moon.