Kicking the Bucket in French

Know how in English we use the phrase "to kick the bucket" to refer in a fairly indecent manner to the fact that somebody died? We also have "he's six feet under" and "croaked" as other colorful phrases.

The French versions are, in my opinion, much better. First, we have "il mange des pissenlits par la racine," which literally means, "He's eating the dandelions from their roots", a particularly gruesome image which I really like. In addition, there's "il a passe l'arme a gauche", which means literally "he passed his weapon to the left". According to my wife, this expression dates back to the medieval custom of sleeping with your sword at your right hand, I guess so that if you were to wake up in the middle of a combat situation, at least you would have your weapon nearby. When you died, your sword was placed on your left side, to indicate your final peace.

In other news, I saw the movie, "Les Infiltres" (the French version of Martin Scorcese's "The Departed") yesterday. Great flick!

See you around campus...