"A hair of the dog that bit you" is a phrase used (like you didn't know) meaning "to take an alcoholic drink in the morning after having 'one too many' the evening before". I liken the idea to: if a deep sea diver surfaces too fast he might go back down and surface a little slower to releive "the bends" - or - that a marathon runner, upon finishing a race, isn't supposed to just stop and take a nap. It is safer(?) to cool down gradually. 'nuf said about all that.

Why a hair?

- and -

Any other cannine quips?

can't teach an old dog new tricks.

let sleeping dogs lie.

lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas.

(and i am not much of a dog lover... i suspect those who live and love dogs will know many more.)

The last time I had occasion to use that phrase, I used it in the presence of my 5-year-old cousin (who hangs on my every word). She promptly asked "A dog *BIT* you?!?!!?" Which gave me the opportunity to explain metaphor at an age-appropriate level...

And an opportunity to explain that adults sometimes act in ways that they know they will regret the next morning.

I always assumed it had something to do with homeopathic magic: using a bit of the animal to combat the effects of the bite.

>Why a hair?

Wasn't it supposed to be a Medieval remedy or something? I remember reading about it being some kind of cure for rabies - to take a hair (possibly 'cause it's the easiest bit of the dog to get hold of?) of the dog that bit you and either swallow or apply it to the wound. That's as much as I can remember anyway.

It's dog's life
Barking up the wrong tree
His bark is worse than his bite

homeopathic magic

It may be "magic," but isn't this the same principle behind vaccines?

There's contagious magic and sympathetic magic. If it's truly magic of which nuncle speaks, hair of the dog would be sympathetic.

As for homeopathic medicine vs vaccination I believe the big difference in kind is that vaccination is meant to prevent and homeopathic medicine is meant to cure.

Sorry to be so old-fahioned, but I was using homeopathic magic in Sir James Frazer's sense. Also, I believe, called imitative or sympathetic magic.

See http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/gb05100.htm

Yeah, sympathetic and contagious are the terms I learned in Anthro 201: Introduction to Magic.

>Why a hair?

Wasn't it supposed to be a Medieval remedy or something? I remember reading about it being some kind of cure for rabies - to take a hair (possibly 'cause it's the easiest bit of the dog to get hold of?) of the dog that bit you and either swallow or apply it to the wound.


I somehow came to the conclusion a while back that the metaphor suggested itself because of how furry/dry the tongue felt.

(But don't forget this comes from the guy who thought that Premarin was a contraceptive, name derived from "Pre-Marital Intercourse")

Pre-Marital Intercourse

Makes more sense than the real expansion. It should be Premarur.

...are bound to repeat them."
...............-- attributed to Santayanna among others

For a lengthier discussion of this same topic, see
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=60225

bound to repeat them

And those who can learn from the lessons of history are bound to realise they are repeating them.

...the metaphor suggested itself because of how furry/dry the tongue felt.

I, too, have made that connection.

Hormesis suggests the body is responding to a hair size dose...

http://www.invisibleheart.com/Iheart/PolicyHealth.html

Thank you, Dr. Bill.

is it just me, or does anyone else hear Kurt Weill when they read this thread?

Notice that a dog will not poop where he eats.

Notice that a dog will not poop where he eats.

But he will return to his own vomit and eat thereof. Meaning?

One has more nutritional value than the other because it hasn't been digested?

1) I've seen puppies eat thier own poop.

B) Yes, eatoin, you are the only one.

&) The tail is now wagging the dog.