Play ta-ta to your whimsy

Posted by RRC on May 05, 2009 at 18:58

In Reply to: Play ta-ta to your whimsy posted by Mary Jane on April 18, 2009 at 08:03:

: My grandmother used to say variations of "play ta-ta to his whimsy," as in "He wants me to go along with his crazy idea, but I won't play ta-ta to his whimsy." If I was doing some sort of pretending or make-believe game, she might say, "All right, I'll play ta-ta to your whimsy." I happened to use the phrase today and my coworkers all thought I was babbling in a foreign language. Is this a phrase anyone's heard? Where's it from? (Gram was of English/Irish descent, but was born and raised in the States.)

I don't suppose Gram was a fan of Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey books? But... Wimsey's faithful valet was called Bunter not Tata so I suppose it doesn't matter.