Meaning Of “UFF-DA”
“Uff-DA” is not in the Norwegian Dictionary, but for Norwegians,
it is an all purpose expression
covering a variety of situations such as:
Looking in the mirror and discovering you’re not get’n better just gett’n, older.
Trying to dance the Polka to Rock-n-Roll music.
Losing your wad of gum in the chicken yard.
Having Swedish meatballs at a Lutefisk supper.
Walking downtown and then wondering what you wanted.
Arriving late at a Llutefisk supper and getting served minced ham instead.
Trying to pour two buckets of manure into one bucket.
Having a mouse crawl up your leg when you’re on a hay load.
Eating hot soup when you have a runny nose.
Getting out of bed in the morning with a backache.
Getting swished in the face with a cow’s tail.
Waking yourself up in church with your own snoring.
Forgetting your mother-in-law’s first name.
When two steady girlfriends [boyfriends] find out about each other.
Noticing non-Norwegians at a diner using lefse for a napkin.
Sneezing so hard that your false teeth end up in the bread plate.
Not being Norwegian !!!
LARS OLAFSEN
This guy is walking through Chinatown and sees a building with a sign "Lars Olafsen's Laundry."
"Lars Olafsen?", he thinks. "How in the world does that fit in here?"
So, he walks into the shop and sees an old Chinese gentleman sitting in the corner. The visitor asks,
"How in the world did this place get a name like Lars Olafsen's Laundry?"
The old man answers "Is name of owner."
The visitor asks, "Well, who is the owner?"
"I am he," answers the old man.
"You? How did you ever get a name like Lars Olafsen?"
The old man replies:
"Many years ago when I come to this country, I was standing in line at Documentation Center. Man in
front of me was big blond Norwegian. Lady look at him and go, 'What your name?' He say, 'Lars Olafsen.'
She look at me and say, 'What your name?' I say, 'Sam Ting.'
IRISH AND NORWEGIANS
We celebrate March 17th in commemoration of St. Patrick's great and noble deed in driving the
Norwegians out of Ireland.
It seems that centuries ago many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the Norwegian
winter. Ireland was having a famine at the time and food was scarce.
The Norwegians were eating almost all of the fish caught in the ocean, leaving the Irish with nothing but
potatoes.
St. Patrick, taking matters into onto his own hands, like most Irishman, decided all the Norwegians had to
go. Secretly he organized the IRATION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians). Irish
members of the IRATION sabotaged all the power plants in hopes the fish in Norwegian refrigerators
would spoil, forcing the Norwegians to a cooler climate where their fish would keep. The fish spoiled all
right, but the Norwegians, as everyone knows to this day, thrive on spoiled fish. Faced with failure, the
Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage caves in the dead of the night and sprinkled the
rotten fish with lye, hoping to poison the Norwegian intruders, but as everybody knows, this is how
lutefisk was introduced to the Norwegians, and how they thrived on the lye soaked smelly fish.
Matters became even worse for the Irish when the Norwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop
to make lefse. Poor St. Patrick was at his wits end. Finally, on March 17, he blew his top and told the
Norwegians to "go to hell" -- and it worked, because all the Norwegians left Ireland and went to
Minnesota.