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From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Sayings
Message-ID: <2271@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 12:00:21 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2271
Posted: Fri Jan  4 12:00:21 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 04:41:20 EST
References: <1879@burdvax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
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>   I few years ago I had a girl friend who learned Cantonese and
> English as she was growing up; neither language was her first language.
> She had two sayings that I never heard before:
> 
>  1) That's the thing.
>  2) Close the lights (meaning -- turn off the lights).

Was your girlfriend from Hong Kong? Because "That's the thing" is a British
expression meaning "That's the right thing (to do, or to have)", though
more commonly one might say "The thing is, to maintain our standards" or
whatever. The comma represents a slight pause--"The thing is" is a partly
freestanding expression.

"Close the lights" is a direct translation from French (and other languages?)
"Fermez la lampe" means "Turn off the lamp".