A question for any Brits out there

[China_cat]

or anybody else who has spent time in the UK. I'm reading a book, a British mystery and I came upon a sentence that is just so ridiculous that I can't believe anybody would say it/write it/not edit it out. So I'm led to believe it's some kind of Britishism that I just don't understand and I would like to.

To set it up, 2 men are in a car driving. Not teenagers, solid citizen types. The driver, when stopped, listens to language tapes. The radio isn't used at all. As they are driving the passenger (protagonist in first person mode) remarks "Humph hummed in tune with his socks"

Hummed in tune with his socks????????

British saying or crappy editor?

[tjwmason]

1. It makes no sense at all to me I'm afraid.

lived here all my life too (and intend to do so for the rest of it as well).

[China_cat]

4. This is not the first

instance of poor proof-reading/typesetting in this book but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something that actually meant something.

What a waste. Really good premise, wonderful setting, good build up...but I don't know if I can take much more of the errors and, like this one, seeming nonsense set into type. It just fractures the whole reason that I read.

[billyskank]

2. Never heard of that one

:shrug: It's either a very obscure colloquialism, or it's nonsense.

[tjwmason]

3. I can't even think of something similar which it might be

which got set as that by mistake.