Hi guys. I don't know whether this is the right place where to ask for information about this, but... what does it mean to say "So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left-". What's "left" in this case? And how's the whole expression to be interpreted?
Thank you so much!
Byes!

Balls...

Lol, this is pretty funny actually!

Sorry, didn't get it. You mean "left" and "ball" left out, or does "left" mean "balls" in spoken English? I'm not Anglophone and I'm wondering about that only, little, saggy, bit.

Editing to add: Is "exhaust gaskin" anything real? Or is it arthur-weasleish lexicon?

I think what he was trying to say of "Merlin's left saggy testicle..."
Hehe.

As for the second part, never heard of exhaust gaskin... Or if I have, it's really really really burried at the back of my mind..

I take it to refer to Merlin's saggy left buttock.

You're cleaner than I. Good to know!

You're cleaner than I. Good to know!

Let me rephrase that:

You think cleaner than I do. ;)

Oh, wow! That made me laugh out loud!!

Thats what I thought it was (cleaner minds!) Because there have been buttock jokes before in the books!

im sure the missing words here are 'hacky sack'.
merlin had two, one on his left, one on his right. the left one was quite old, and quite well warn, so it was getting 'saggy'.
hence 'So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left hacky sack'

yup, this is it.

I love hacky sacks...they are so fun!

merlin liked them too.

Everytime I read that part the word "breast" always comes to mind.
I'm positive thats what it is...perhaps merlin was overweight?

Like man boobs?

Melin's saggy left man boob.

Haha thats exactly it!

i believe the term is 'moob'

Well Merlin reputedly lived to a ripe old age, so I guess there were plenty of suspect saggy body parts. and an exhaust gasket is a real thing. Ugghhh!!! Asymetrically drooping body parts.... leaking exhaust gaskets...
http://www.carcare.org/Exhaust/exhaust_gaskets.shtml

It's not about having a dirty mind, sometimes you just have to think like a typical teenage boy.

No offense to any teenage boys.

Yeah, that's what I thought it meant, Merlin's saggy left t*t (gets blocked by the filter, but you know what I mean!)
I saw it as a variation of "As flat as a witch's t*t"

Either way, it was something not situable for younger minds!

eh, if it were a girl I'd say t*t.
I suppose it's possible he was referring to man-boobs, seeing as Merlin was pretty ancient, but my first impression was "Merlin's saggy left nut." Balls, whatever. Ball doesn't sound right. You can only say "balls" when talking about a pair, and it doesn't work in the singular, when only referring to one testicle. *cough*

But yeah, typical teenage guy. And there are numerous references to "Harry swore" aren't? I mean, I can look them up, but I know they're there. So she never writes, "Harry yelled, 'SH**!' at the top of his lungs," but there are some "Harry swore"s there. Another typical teenage guy thing. I actually find it a bit comforting... I don't think she needed to put it explicity in the book by any means, but the idea of teenage guys (nonreligious, at least) who just... never... swore... struck me as incredibly unnatural, until I noticed that they do in fact swear.

but i need to know the specific words..like how does ron and harry swore different? i mean they're from different world..so ron might not swear like harry does..all that merlin's body parts i can get..but do wizards use other swear words like muggles or muggleborn do..?? i'd like to know what Jo meant by Ron told Malfoy to do something that Harry knew he would never have dared say in front of Mrs. Weasley. What's that supposed to be? i'm curious...

LOL, me too, me too, but since it's not exactly appropriate for the entire HP audience, I'm afraid that's something left up to the fanfiction. And some particularly skilled fic author, man have they really gone to town with clever wizarding swearing. Heheh.

it would be great if they have the R-rated version of the books..lol..who am i kidding??

It is my selfish wish for the final film. Because it's one thing to dance around it in the books, but in the movies... you can't just have the narrator say, "Harry swore." He's got to actually swear.
They won't though, I'm sure. For very good reasons.

But if they change Molly Weasley's "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU B****!" I'll be really, really sad.

I would think if Rowling has to write "Ron swore" or "Harry swore" then those are bad words in our world, in the English language, I'm sure you know what those words are. That's why Ron can say "Merlin's" whatever is OK, but to print one of our curse words is not and has to be turned into a Ron or Harry swore.

As for the movies, yes, I get what you mean. We aren't going to see Ron give his brother a rude hand gesture for not letting him get a free something at the joke shop.

I think Harry, Ron and other wizards swore very much in the same way as Muggle Brits. We see words like "bloody", "berk", "prat" and the like, wherein bloody is a mild swear word and to call someone a berk of a prat is clearly an insult used by Muggles in the UK.

We've seen "Merlin's beard" used as an exclamation, which might be a stand-in for Merlin's other body parts, when used in polite company.

I've seen the word "shite" used, thinking it was the same word as we Americans use without the "e", but have learned on a web site dedicated to the translation of British English idioms and slang into American English that Brits add the "e" in an attempt to soften the swear word when in polite company, but use the same word as Americans do when they are in less polite company.

So, my guess is that in Deathly Hallows Jo let all the characters, including Molly, use more adult language. Therefore, the swear words were a bit more colorful. So, instead of "Merlin's beard" we get "Merlin's saggy left ..." She didn't go all the way, but was racier than "Merlin's beard" we got most of "Merlin's saggy left testicle."

As for those discussing "pairs", anyone who is male, or lives with a male, should realize that certain things that come in pairs can sag differently, but I'm not sure that applies to man boobs. Your mileage may vary.

maybe its just me..but i dont find it funny when Ron made some referrence to Merlin's body parts..maybe i just dont get the jokes..or perhaps i need to hear them being said out loud..its the way they say it thats supposed to be funny..

english jokes are harder to comprehend i think..but like i said..maybe its just me..

the word testical was the word that came to mind when i read it...

Yup,

Merlin's saggy left testicle.
And there's a logical reason for this too, one side always hangs lower than the other, it's the norm!

it is??