Brit Speak: "Top Yourself"

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "olly" <spambox at o...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:
> > "...he had proved too bashful to do so, his French teacher 
> > ridiculed him. "She told him, 'I don't like nobodies. Go and top 
> > yourself',..."
> > 
> > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> > 
> > Could someone explain to me "Go and top yourself"?
> > 
> > Personally, I would be more concerned by the teacher saying 'I
> > don't like nobodies'.
> > 
> > Steve/bboyminn

 
> Basically it means to go and kill yourself.  So you can probably see 
> why offence was taken.
> 
> Olly

bboyminn:

GOOD LORD! I certainly can see why 'offense was taken'. What could
this teacher have been thinking? Was she in her own way sucking up to
the 'popular' kids? Was she so frustrated with her job that she had no
choice but to vent some hostility? 

More importantly what would she have done if this painfully shy kid
had DONE IT? 

Of course, we will never know for sure. I can't imagine a teacher
actually saying that. I'm stunned.

One of the sad things about school, and to some extent real life, is
that the kids who don't really need the attention and support are the
very kids who get it, while the ones who desperately need a kind word
are thrown on the ash heap of society. 

Thanks for the 'Brit Speak' help. Always greatly appreciated.

Steve/bboyminn