I love Connie Willis. I have read Doomsday Book oh, probably four times. And the "She could embroider and milk a cow" never struck me as odd, perhaps because in context it made sense.

My personal favorite is in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Dumbledore says to Harry, at the end, "The reason you can speak Parselmouth is because Voldemort, who really is Slytherin's last remaining ancestor, can speak Parselmouth..."