Rubbing things the wrong way…

This weekend, we dismantled our Christmas tree and I took it to the Park City special recycling center created just for that purpose.

In the past, I used to place the tree on the roof rack, but these days, since our seasonal ornament isn’t taller than 6 feet, I somehow stuff it inside my car, but make sure it’s oriented in such way so it slides easily out of the vehicle when I unload it at the recycling place.

I want to pull it off without ruffling its branches and having them hook up into the interior of the car.

When I explained this to my daughter who is fluent in French but doesn’t necessarily possess all the vocabulary nuances of her parents’ mother tongue, I introduced the expression “à rebrousse-poil”.

This means rubbing something up the wrong way or ruffling something up, which are mere approximations in the translation of that act, which means in fact “going against the direction of an animal hair”, but generated much laughter, discussions and research in this early new year!