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From here: http://www.loper-os.org/?p=568

Using Squeak is “like being drowned in Skittles.” I understand that it is a monumentally great thing if one is able to see past that, but I suspect that most prospective users cannot do so.

I searched for an explanation, but I can't seem to find one. Does it mean that you're getting "too much" good stuff? So much that it's actually a disadvantage?

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    @FumbleFingers: eh? Where the heck do you get a vodka reference out of this? (If you meant that as a joke, a smiley would be helpful.)
    – Marthaª
    Jan 23, 2012 at 23:12
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    @FumbleFingers, that's like finding a reference to a cult of people who, I dunno, like to plant golf clubs in their gardens, and thereafter defining golf club as "a lawn ornament".
    – Marthaª
    Jan 23, 2012 at 23:23
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    @FumbleFingers: I'm saying this phrase has absolutely nothing to do with vodka, and you dragging a weird cordial into the question is, um, perplexing. To say the least. (Also, if you don't know what Skittles are, then you probably don't have enough information to determine whether this question is too localized or not, so you should probably refrain from voting on it. Just saying.)
    – Marthaª
    Jan 23, 2012 at 23:33
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    @FumbleFingers, ok, you and I are really in different universes or something. Why is the capitalization suddenly an issue? Skittles is a brand name, it ought to be capitalized. And nobody accused the OP of asking for a definition of Skittles. I'm accusing you and your vodka reference of being about as relevant as lawn ornaments are to golf clubs, i.e. not at all.
    – Marthaª
    Jan 23, 2012 at 23:40
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    @FumbleFingers - no, it is a phrase which I wouldn't even need to google to know what it means. We have skittles here in the UK. They are colourful. Look at the Squeak application. It's pretty self explanatory. There is no connection with some cocktail which no-one has heard of outside the US.
    – Rory Alsop
    Jan 23, 2012 at 23:43

2 Answers 2

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It's just a reference to the overdone colour scheme on Squeak:

Skittles come in all rainbow colours.

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    It's still a hopelessly localised question and didn't deserve a formal answer!
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 23, 2012 at 23:47
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    Why are you so grumpy, FumbleFingers? I couldn't have known that it wasn't a real expression, I thought it might just have been misspelled or something. I never encountered Skittles in my life. I read the FAQ and I don't think I broke any rules. Just how informal must an answer to a question like mine be? Judging from the discussion above, you didn't even get the meaning yourself, so just be thankful that it was explained to you. Anyway, I'm sad the comment was so childish -- Squeak isn't that colorful, and Pharo isn't popular, even with the Mac like color scheme.
    – Janus Troelsen
    Jan 24, 2012 at 0:42
  • @user309483: I'm not grumpy at you for asking the question. Okay, maybe the reference is to the colour of "Skittles" rather than the fact that there's a fad for mixing them in vodka. But your writer's usage isn't meaningfully an "English expression" - it's a highly localised cultural issue, so all we needed here was for you to get an answer in a comment, then close it. No-one else is likely to come here because they've just heard it and don't understand - it might well never be said again!
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 24, 2012 at 3:32
  • ...also note that even if the guy had said "It's like swimming in treacle" I'd have wanted to close after a comment. It's not my fault I'm not American so I never heard of Skittles, but these are (or should be) transparent usages for the people they're aimed at.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 24, 2012 at 3:33
  • @FumbleFingers: I don't mind closing localized questions, but I also don't think "too localized" (even "hopelessly" localized) somehow makes a question undeserving of an answer. Particularly with idiomatic usages, sometimes there's no way to tell something is so localized unless you ask first. Yoichi asks many questions that end up too localized, but there's no way to tell that from the outset, and I wouldn't chastise anyone for providing an answer – even in those instances where closure is the question's ultimate destiny and proper fate.
    – J.R.
    Feb 3, 2013 at 20:55
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Being drowned in Skittles refers specifically to the television commercials for the Skittles candy. In the commercials, millions of Skittles invariably end up falling out of the sky like a heavy rain. Being drowned in Skittles, then, is a metaphor. It means being knocked down and overcome by a deluge of colorful things.

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