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enough to make a sailor a pair of pants

Posted by James Briggs on December 30, 2006

In Reply to: Enough to make a sailor a pair of pants posted by jimmer on December 29, 2006

: on seeing a patch of blue sky on a cloudy day my mother-in-law would say "is it enough to make a sailor a pair of pants?" anyone ever hear of that?

Quite common in the East End of London when I was a boy, except it was 'trousers' and not 'pants'.
I still hear it from time to time and it doesn't seem to be a dead saying. I guess 'sailors' because they have always had a traditionally blue uniform and the service is much older than air forces, which, in any case, often started off wearing khaki, eg USAAF before it became USAF.

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