Listen, there's no soap eating out your heart

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 03, 2006

In Reply to: Listen, there's no soap eating out your heart posted by Bob on April 03, 2006

: : There is a phrase in the play "The Women" by Clare Boothe Luce where a character says "I get it. Listen, there's no soap eating out your heart, sister!" What does that phrase mean? What is it's origin?

: I can't explain it - or even understand it- but I went looking for quotes from "The Women" to track it down. Great fun, bitchy quotes, at www.imdb.com

You're right, great fun. How does that tie in with her being named Ambassador to Italy? In Luce's day, "no soap" was a fairly common expression, meaning something like, "I got nowhere," or "It didn't work," or "I'm not interested." Can this mean something like, "eating out your heart is not going to work"? SS

• Listen, there's no soap eating out your heart Bob 03/April/06