1. (Vulgar) Wank, ham shank, hand shandy (act of masturbation).
2. (Vulgar) Crap, bullshit (worthless thing or activity)
3. (Vulgar) Crap, bullshit, wankery (dubious or too elaborated construct, in general intellectually).
Derives from "branler" (to wobble, te be unstanble, also in slang to wank).
Se taper une branlette = to pull one's wire, to have a ham shank
Lire des bouquins, c'est le la branlette = Reading books is a fucking waste of time.
La droite, la gauche, le libéralisme, le communisme, c'est de la branlette tout ça ! = Right, left, free market economy, communism, that's all bullshit.
Fogey/fogy /fougi/ sl. (early 18C+, orig. Scot) old-fashioned, stuck-in-the mud.
Person with old fashioned ideas which he is unwilling to change: Come to the disco and stop being such an old fogey!
You think me an old fogeyand an old tory, his thoughtful voice said. I saw three generations since O’Connel’s time. I remember the famine. Do you know that the orange lodges agitated for repeal of the union twenty years before O’Connel did or before the prelates of your communion denounced him as a demagogue? You fenians forget some things. (James Joyce, Ulysses. Penguin Books,1992. p. 38)