it’s horseradish to me (11. 466)

Language Hat directs our attention to an interesting comparative discussion of vulgar expressions of indifference across different idiomatic phrases, linking to an isogloss of colourful terms, prompted by asking what equivalents were there to the relatively new and niche “ZFG,” like the more polite Russian version above. The accompanying image is from the 2021 film Rien à foutre which is a considered to have the corresponding meaning in French. While these may not be in common parlance and not necessarily the default (especially in polite company), it is an engrosssing look at contemptuous dismissiveness and how other languages do not fall into the negation trap that the straightforward English rendition sometimes carries with “I could care less” versus “I couldn’t care less” plus related sayings, like the figure of speech “you can’t have your cake and eat it [too]”—variants of the proverbial language fossil quoted by such writers as Jonathan Swift, Ayn Rand’s John Galt and Ted Kaczynski in the Unabomber manifesto (who’s particular turn of phrase helped lead to his apprehension)—which by dent of its similar and somewhat impenetrable logic gives rise to a cakeist factor who wish for two desirable but exclusive alternatives. The Italian version, probably the least rustic in literal translation, Volere la botte piena e la mogile ubriaca, goes something akin to wanting both the full barrel of wine and the wife drunk.