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Originally Posted by mandiejo Quote: |
Originally Posted by Dylan Quote: |
Originally Posted by mandiejo Quote: |
Originally Posted by Dylan What the deuce does that mean?
I think it's just your weird uncle. I've never heard that one before. | what the deuce, that's great. sam says that all the time. but seriously, he does that whenever i make a point in an argument because either a) he's tired of me arguing or b) wants to change the subject. i'm not entirely sure what it means though . . . and to think he works for a research company. huh. | Hey, if you're tired of arguing or want to change the subject, go to a different thread. This one's about crime and abortion.
My zayde (That's Yiddish for grandpa) used to say "What the deuce." | that's just how he uses it, i kind of just wanted to say it. reactions are always interesting on here. | price of tea in China
"The price of tea in China" is an expression which is used to denote something which is unrelated to the current topic of discussion.
This expression has stemmed from economists, who describe everything economic as affecting everything else, trying to find an expression which denotes the furthest logical connection from their current economic focus. In this way, the price of tea in China was used to denote the furthest possibility. It can also be used to denote an irrelevant topic.
It has the most common form "what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"
There may be a second explanation.
In the 19th century the price for tea in England was the highest when the first ship with the newly harvested tea came in. So for the ship owners it was important to be as fast as possible back to England with the load, otherwise the cost of the passage was not to be recovered from the sale of the tea. Thus there were real races (the tea clipper races) where the sail ships managed to travel the whole distance from China to England in about 80 to 90 days.
The difference in prices from the first load to the later ones was so high that it was quite unimportant which price for the tea was originally paid in China. So the "price of tea in China" was something that really didn't matter for the ship owners. They had to have the tea in England as fast as possible.
Alternative sayings for democracy lovers in modern times include "the price of tea in Taiwan" and "the price of tea in the PRC". http://www.answers.com/topic/price-of-tea-in-china
On another note, if you google "China price tea", shouldn't one of the links actually give you how much tea costs in China?
P.S. Bah. Found it... http://kmdali.en.alibaba.com/offerde.../Sell_Tea.html
Next time, just tell him "It's about 8-13 yuan RMB. Now answer my point!" |