Edna-isms, Part Forty-two

1.   "Breeding a scab on your nose."  I found only one reference to this online, on some woman's blog, and she said it was a common Midwestern phrase meaning you are asking for trouble and you are likely going to get it. I think my mother used it to mean we were acting up and were about to get in trouble (i.e., punished--although my mother was not a punishment kind of mom).  It was kind of like another saying she used, "You're cruisin' for a bruisin'."

2.  "What in the name of Peter Alice?!"  This was a common cuss phrase.  I have no idea where it came from.

3.  "Spitting distance."  Ah, I always thought this was just my mother's phrase, but it is a known idiom meaning "within reach or not far away."