- Posted by Ad astra on June 11, 2009
Can you believe it? Here we are having public discourse about Kevin Rudd’s use of the phrase ‘fair shake of the sauce bottle’ – used three times in the one interview!!!!
First there is an academic argument about what the phrase really is. Is it ‘fair shake of the sauce bottle’ or ‘fair suck of the sauce bottle’? As an ex-Queenslander, I’ve heard both, but an academic, Sue Butler, whom I understand has something to do with the Macquarie Dictionary of Slang, insists the latter is correct, and patronisingly explains that Rudd has mixed two expressions ‘fair suck of the sauce bottle’ and one of the following: ‘fair shake of the dice’ or ‘more than one can shake a stick at’. Her subtheme was that poor Kevin has got so much going on in his head running the country, he got his expressions mixed up. More...