You're humming along to the corporate anthem, clickety-clacking at your desk in contentment, or at least resignation, triple-checking the sales figures from the third quarter of 2004 when your boss wheels over to your cubicle, leans in, brushes away a sandwich crumb from her upper lip and says, "Carson, I've been meaning to put a bug in your ear about the upcoming picnic, but haven't had the time, blah blah bliggety blah blah blah...." and your three thoughts are that was either rye or wheat bread and it would be nice if cubicles had doors and what the heck is she talking about?
When your boss leaves, you Google the phrase, arrive here, and learn every reasonable permutation, both literal and metaphorical.
"Put a bug in your ear."
literal meanings
Place an... ...in your...
insect or similar organism... ...organ of hearing
disease-causing microorganism... ...something resembling this organ
infectious disease... ...seed-bearing spike of a cereal plant
defect in a system or design... ...small box in the upper corner of a newspaper
defect in a computer program... ...obsession
enthusiast... ...electronic surveillance device
metaphorical meanings
get your attention
make you afraid of children
subliminally get you to think
have a bottle of Chardonnay
cause your crops to wither
curse your descendants
cause your brain to malfunction
diversify your investment portfolio
Do you love to learn English? I love to learn English. I love you, too.
[ninety-seventh in a series]
2 comments:
thanks, man.
Funny post. It seems to mean to leave someone with something to think about later, or to get a thought to stick in their head until they do something about it.
I guess if I had a bug in my ear, I would find it hard to think about other things until I had addressed that situation. I imagine it would be making noise or moving around and thereby bringing itself to my attention quite often where I couldn't forget it.
In comparison, a phrase like "put it on the back burner" seems to referring to something you don't have to give as much thought and priority right then. IMHO.
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