Whistling "Dixie"
The song even added a new term to the American lexicon: "Whistling 'Dixie'" is a slang expression meaning " in unrealistically rosy fantasizing". For example, "Don't just sit there whistling 'Dixie'!" is a reprimand against inaction, and "You ain't just whistling 'Dixie'!" indicates that the addressee is serious about the matter at hand.
Read more about this topic: Dixie (song)
Famous quotes containing the word whistling:
“So the old flute was doomed and its fate was pathetic,
‘Twas fastened and burned at the stake as heretic,
While the flames roared around it they heard a strange
noise—
‘Twas the old flute still whistling ‘The Protestant Boys’.”
—Unknown. The Old Orange Flute (l. 37–40)