My nana always used to say "Love you more than Tunkintell," to us when we were kids. For years I thought Tunkintell (like Timbuctoo, Tipperary, and all those other fanciful places I sang songs about!) was a miraculous place like Oz, a South Sea island perhaps. Then one day when I was about 25 one character in a book I was reading said to another, "I love you more than tongue can tell," and the light dawned...

Also, my dad, a mountain-climber in his spare time, used to say, "Holy O Baldy," when surprised or upset. I always thought it referred to a mountain of some kind (after all, so many mountains we climbed were called Bald one-thing-or-another). I think I was in my thirties before I heard him say once, slowly, in utter astonishment, "Holy old bald-headed Jesus!"

Thanks to whoever refreshed this thread for us--it's given me the first giggles I've had in the past ten days.

Turtle