Re: Having to please everybody

Posted by Harry Andrews on December 01, 1999

In Reply to: Having to please everybody posted by Jerry Vaughn on November 20, 1999

: Does anyone know of an expression that would go something like this: "pleasing Greeks and Trojans" to mean that one has to please everybody. The idea behind this concept is that sometimes, in order to be politically correct, "one would have to please everybody and his cousin." Since my wife and I are bilingual and speak two languages daily, good old expressions, modisms, slangs, regionalism, etc., are soon forgotten or never learned. Thanks for any feedback.

I'm also bilingual, maybe even octaglingual, and just like you I can't get my mind around any of these useful sayings anymore. I sometimes think it's such a burden, but it has some blessings, having to keep up with all these other languages, particularly since they're becoming more and more redundant as the world moves toward English as the main working language for business, the Internet and the sciences. I despair at times.