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One of my co-editors is dealing with a correspondent who wants to know what the phrase "The Arab is sleeping" means - his mother (deceased) used to use it whenever they saw the sunrise from their house (in California). It usually was part of the sequence: "Isn't it going to be a beautiful day. The Arab is sleeping."
My first thought is that it's a geographical allusion to the Middle East being "on the far side of the globe," so that the Californian day is the Arab night. That doesn't necessarily tie in with the first part, though, except that they both refer to the sunrise.
Anyone else have any other ideas? Has anyone actually heard this phrase before? We've ransacked our databases and reference books, and searched the web, and nothing so far.
Thanks!
~L |
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