Cookie, I may be out on your end of the continent at the end of February!
Woohoo!
I feel no need to take the kink test after meara's mention of gay sex on there. Just know that I'd kick its kinky ass down kink street wearing my "I know from kink" ringer T.
"I know from kink"
I don't understand this construction. I see it everywhere, but I don't get it. Where did it come from? It doesn't make any sense. It feels like there are words missing. Like, "I know potatoes from kink." Or "I know an elephant from kink." But if "I don't know from kink," I would not be able to tell the difference between an elephant and kink. Is there an understood elephant in this phrase? I'm so confused.
It's a Yiddish construction, P-C.
I suspect it comes from sayings like, "I know shit from Shinola."
A number of Yiddish idiomatic constructions have also entered colloquial English, such as the pattern I don't know from ___ (ikh veys nit fun __)
Jewish Language Research Website
(ikh veys nit fun __)
Very similar to the German--ich weiss nicht von__. Only 'von' can be used to mean from or of. So, you'd be saying "I don't know of___" as much as "I don't know from___."
I suspect it comes from sayings like, "I know shit from Shinola."
I thought this was a southern expression, based on the shoe polish brand.
That's interesting. I wonder if the Yiddish construction evolved from the idea of knowing something from something (shit from Shinola, hawk from a handsaw).
eta: No, Sail's explanation makes more sense.
Am I to understand that a certain Erin person has shown up and copped an attitude re: our relative porntasticness?
Dude, I SO brought it...
Growing up, I heard "shit from Shinola" in Connecticut all the time.