@woodlandsmom, that’s my understand of the phrase as well. (#237) It was something not generally said in “polite company”, too. (In the old days, that meant when ladies were present.)
Apologies if this has been mentioned, but there’s a series of videos called “S— Southern Women Say” that y’all might enjoy. I think there are seven now, and a few offshoots, too.
My D says “all the feels” meaning something, usually a book or a movie, is emotional or brings up a lot of feelings.
One of my southern friend uses the phrases do me or did me in reference to someone treating her poorly or insulting her as in “why would she do me like that”? That one always grates on me, sounds very uneducated though she is a very educated individual.
Actually I believe the German translation would be “Es muss repariert werden” - “werden” is a verb which can either mean “to become” or can indicate future or passive (“to be”) tense. (It’s at the end of the sentence because of German rules for modal verbs.)
The direct translation, then, is “it needs fixed to be,” or plain old “it needs to be fixed” after appropriate rearranging.
@rhododendron - People around here, when they want to borrow something, ask to “see” it, as in “Let me see your phone.” I just hold up the item and say “Here. See it?”
Near NYC, we say “that and a token will get you uptown,” although tokens haven’t been used for years.
Re missing “to be,” I’ve lately heard “that cat wants pet.” It makes me crazy.
Another phrase (I hope I recall this correctly): “it’s so expensive any more” or “summers are so hot any more.”
Not a colloquialism, but just as I was no longer throwing up a little in my mouth at seeing “loose” as in “I hate it when I loose my keys,” I recently have seen it with “choose” as in “at dinner, last night, I choose the filet.”
I get a chuckle when people shorten “six of one, half a dozen of the other” to “six the one.”
Exactly.
There are any number of perfectly good phrases that are ambivalent, in and amongst themselves, but can be appended to and shaded into insults. Simple fact is… pay attention and consider your shared history with the person uttering them.
If you’re in the South and the one doing the describing isn’t a long-distance economic emigre, it was likely the compliment you took it for.
Interesting; around here it seems like “good ol boy” is always sarcastic and negative.
Example: “The banking industry is full of ‘good ol boys’ like Tim who make it a very unfriendly environment for female employees.”
I’ve heard “that ship has sailed” before, but last night heard a new one: “that pie is baked”.,
“The lights are on but no one’s home.”
(Now I will be hearing Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love, which has a similar line …)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE
A car dealer taking to his manager discussing our lowball (in their opinion) on a new Nissan, “With such wings, the ship is not going to fly.” Nice try, buddies. The meanig was transparent. 
That phrasing sounds like something from a newspaper article. And pejorative, I agree.
Hope alh’s husband is hanging with a kinder, less bigoted crowd.
The first time one of our neighbors invited us to a big barbecue, she started listing all the folks who would be there. Some I had met and some I hadn’t. I hadn’t met John Smith. She told me, “He’s a surgeon over at Big Name Hospital. His wife has her nose so far up in the air, it’s a wonder she doesn’t drown when it rains, But John"s just a good ol’ boy.”
When I lived in the NE, I heard a lot about the “old boys” and their club. That is different, I believe, than “good ol’ boys” at least in our neck of the woods.
I guess it really depends who is doing the describing and who is the audience.
eta: John Smith’s wife doesn’t go to the barbecues.
and I am doing my very best not to ever turn up my nose around here.
Ooh, good point - maybe I am thinking “old boys’ club” or “old boys’ network” rather than “good ol’ boys” in the context of “exclusionary towards women.” Great catch!
IME, though, “good ol’ boy” would still have a negative connotation. Usually well-meaning, but not very educated or bright. Concerned with having a good time and maybe “sticking it to the man.” Might make fun of the gay guy in town because his buddies would get a kick out of it, but would draw the line at physical violence. Good ol’ boys don’t listen to NPR or read the New York Times 
That’s the impression the phrase makes to me, but it’s my understanding it also has positive, well-bred, southern preppy connotations in other circumstances.
How…amusing. Not.
Malarkey is spelled with a K, in my experience.
Re usualhopeful #242: There is an interesting informal linguistic study of “needs washed” at http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3422
with a link to a Yale site that has a scholarly linguistic study of “needs washed” and other regionalisms. (I haven’t checked that out yet.) The use of “needs washed” has its “epicenter” around Pittsburgh, as the Language Log puts it. I still suspect that it comes from the German.
I tried Google translate on the sentence “Das Hemd braucht gewaschen” and it came up “The shirt needs washed.” This could be crummy German, of course. Your form is the more educated version. 
Were the “good ol’ boys” fighting to admit women to law firm partnerships? To end discrimination at the all-male clubs? To allow women to have equal opportunity in the military? I don’t think so. “Good ol’ boys” to me very definitely connotes men who are not interested in opening up spheres of power to women. That’s the definite connotation of that term where I’m from and where I’ve worked (LA, NYC and SF).
Agree - I’m just not sure if it was referred to as “good ol’ boys” or “old boys’ club.” Maybe they are interchangeable in this context?
I know lots of men who would be described as “good ol’ boys” in my world who are very highly educated, very influential and very well-read and well-spoken. I agree that there’s a slight difference in connotation between “old boy’s club” and “good ol’ boys,” but to me the difference has to do how tight the network is. The “good ol’ boys” will funnel work to their buddies even if they know there is someone better out there; that’s not necessarily true for all members of the “old boy’s club” (particularly those who believe that the other old boy’s club members really are the most able people on earth). As I interpret the word, the “good ol’ boys” will circle the wagon around their compatriots even when they know their buddies are in the wrong. Loyalty is a key virtue to “good ol’ boys.” There’s a connotation of misplaced loyalty in the term to me. Many members of the “old boy’s club” are “good ol’ boys,” but not all.
I live in a pretty interesting rural community. The majority of men either farm or have some sort of contracting business. None of them seem to make a living that way. It’s not really their fault. The economy has been really lousy here for almost a decade. Mostly the family’s regular income comes from the wives who teach or work in healthcare and the wives are frequently the breadwinners. They are working 8-5 jobs. The self-employed husbands do the school pickup and take all their daughters to a whole lot of dance lessons. They also coach their softball teams. They take care of the kids when the wives go to the lake for their birthdays to party with their girlfriends.
One of my neighbors was bitter to the end of her life last year because her father didn’t allow her to join the army in WWII as some of her female cousins had done, and later were able to go to college because of their service. That option had changed their lives.
My local lawyer is in a three generation family firm; all men. I don’t actually know if there are any daughters or wives who are attorneys or wanted to be attorneys in that family. There are a whole bunch of local women politicians. The mayor of the nearest town is a woman.
The men, when they don’t have child care duties, often do hang out in an empty room at our local gas station/quick shop and that is sort of a men only space. But they are chewing and spitting tobacco and playing gambling games for who buys the cokes. I haven’t ever heard of any women who wanted to hang out with them. I don’t really think they are conducting any important business or consolidating power. If I had to guess, that is happening at those parties at the lake. But I really don’t know.
eta: but I was pointing out the term is like “bless your heart” - different meanings to different folks
LOL, I just realized I slipped into “old boy’s network” speak for a second in my last post. In their world, the highest compliment you can pay someone is that they are “able.” Translated, that means “brilliant, extraordinary, 50 IQ points higher than the rest of the world.” If you listen to someone like, say, Warren Buffett speak, you’ll hear him using the word “able” in bestowing his highest praise.
(I don’t mean to imply that Buffett is at all sexist in the way “old boy’s network” implies. I just think it is funny the way powerful men of that generation use the word “able.”)