"Nice and" one more time.

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" <sistermagpie at ...> wrote:
>
> Zanooda:
> > One last question about "nice and": we can use it to characterize
> > *only* inanimate objects/nouns, right? It wouldn't work to describe
> > people, would it? If a girl is "nice and pretty", it means that she is
> > pretty and she is *also* nice, not that she is
> > pleasantly/agreeably/perfectly (and whatever else it was :-)) pretty,
> > right :-)?
> 
> Magpie:
> Nope, you can also use the expression to refer to humans. You probably 
> wouldn't say "nice and pretty" about a girl, but you might use it with 
> a more specific adjective. For instance, somebody could say about a 
> girl: "Just the way I like them--nice and curvy" or "nice and rich." 
> But "nice and [whatever]" would have the same meaning when applied to a 
> person. (It sounds a bit sleazy in those cases, though!)
> 
> Although, just to make things confusing, you absolutely could say the 
> exact same terms without meaning the expression. You could say "She is 
> nice and pretty" meaning that she is both pretty and a pleasant/nice 
> person." But if you were saying that you would probably instinctively 
> say "pretty and nice" instead of "nice and pretty" so it wouldn't sound 
> like the expression.

Geoff:
Which pretty well sums it up.
:-)

Turning for a moment to teabags, we use Tetley or Typhoo usually. 
Interesting that some names seem to have come up on both sides of 
the Atlantic.