|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Several subscribers out there are writers, I know, at least
in desire if not publication. I thought perhaps people would enjoy sharing some favorite similes that have been composed, or just read somewhere. I hate to start a thread with no example, but for the life of me nothing comes to mind.
|
|
|
#4545
07/30/2000 12:20 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 140
member
|
|
member
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 140 |
Jacqui dearest, I am concerned about your desire to start a thread without fulfilling your full responsibilities as The Initiator. Perhaps this is a case of "The Web That Has No Weaver"?
Rgds, sakezuki lusy
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ok, you've shamed me into an attempt.
Pet names are to my heart as soft rain to wilting flowers.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724 |
Jackie - THAT is sheer Poetry! May all the similes hide their faces in shame.
|
|
|
#4548
07/31/2000 11:08 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I am honored, Avy. Thank you.
|
|
|
#4549
07/31/2000 12:00 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
<Pet names>
which reminds me …
The new bloke in town was in his local pub when he met a shearer on leave. "I've got some sheep ready to be shorn", he said, "Can I get you to do them?"
"Sure", said the shearer, "How many have you got?"
"Four", said the new bloke and, after a very long silence, the shearer said quietly: "And what are their names?"
I'm going away for a few days soon to get all this 'sheep' nonsense out of my system.
|
|
|
#4550
07/31/2000 10:14 PM
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
here's one:
profanity flows forth from his mouth like cool, freshly melted snow from a spring.
|
|
|
#4551
08/13/2000 10:31 AM
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
tactful as an elephant in hobnail boots.
Also, not original, but I have always loved both
'as much use as a chocolate teapot' and
'as much chance as a snowflake in hell'.
BTW, what is the derivation of the much more common 'hasn't got a cat in hell's chance'? Just why should cats fare so very badly in hell?
|
|
|
#4552
08/13/2000 11:42 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
>>tactful as an elephant in hobnail boots.
Gee, that's me at times! But I've never heard the
cat-in-hell one! Sounds catty-wampus to me.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
While not a simile, I have always been very fond of the phrase "It was raining hammer handles."
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ted, I always heard it as "pitchforks and hammer handles".
Regional diff., probably.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
gee, and I always though it was just cats and dogs. . .
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
It's raining cats and dogs
and pitchforks and assorted frogs...
oops, wrong thread.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Originally, I must have read it on wall, somewhere, and it stuck in my mind, contrary to most other things:
"A man without a woman is like a fish without a bicycle"
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
and speaking of writing on walls...
Hell hath no Fury like a Plymouth
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
>Hell hath no Fury like a Plymouth
Why this reminded me, I have no idea, but I did hear about the time Sherlock Holmes caught the man-eating Japanese car, which asked Holmes how he had figured out who it was. Sherlock responded, of course, "Elementary, my were-Datsun."
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
"Elementary, my were-Datsun."
under the circumstances, shouldn't that read "alimentary"?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724 |
This beautiful simile is from Yeats :
"Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence."
I guess examples like these could go to disprove the idea -
the simile is the creatively challenged cousin of the Metaphor.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
"A man without a woman is like a fish without a bicycle"
Isn't this usually the other way round? 'A woman without a man...' I can't for the life of me remember who said it - maybe Gloria Steinem?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
>and speaking of writing on walls...<
I always liked:
les noms des fous
sont ecrits partout
(the names of fools are written everywhere)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
There was a series of badges (buttons) in the eighties including:
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
and
"A woman needs a man like a moose needs a hatrack"
(I assume the latter was American as we don't really have moose, only deer.)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 200
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 200 |
this was my favourite way to begin an essay at school:
"businesses, like pizzas, come in three sizes; big, medium and small."
this invariably got me a good mark, possibly because the teacher could easily understand it.
by the way (BTW) you can substitute just about anything for "businesses".
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 5
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 5 |
One simile I only ever heard used by my grandmother and my mother both of whom alas no longer with us..
in describing a thin person... straight up and down like a yard of pumpwater
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 6
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 6 |
Not original, and not exactly a simile, but catchy:
"Benetton's ads using deathrow inmates are very well-executed."
"He now stands squarely in the president's inner circle."
"This deadlock has life in it yet."
I readily add that I am not prepared to offer any similes.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
not exactly a simile, but catchy:
That phrase reminded me of one of the most descriptive sentences in the Hitch-Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy, one that has always been a favourite of mine: "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
moving at the speed of a pregnant snail
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Or the scholar's favourite: a virgin field pregnant with possibilities.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
#4571
09/12/2000 10:52 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
<"A man without a woman is like a fish without a bicycle">
Bridget, there's an article in today's Melbourne Age [from the Telegraph, London] about Gloria Steinem which attributes the maxim to her in the form "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle". It seems pretty tame stuff to some of the vitriol being squirted among feuding feminists (according to the article): "an imploding beanbag of poisonous self-pity" and "infirmary feminism … a catch-all vegetable drawer where bunches of clingy sob-sisters can store their mouldy neuroses".
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
an article in today's Melbourne Age [from the Telegraph, London] about Gloria Steinem which attributes the maxim to her in the form "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle". It seems pretty tame stuff to some of the vitriol being squirted among feuding feminists (according to the article): "an imploding beanbag of poisonous self-pity" and "infirmary feminism … a catch-all vegetable drawer where bunches of clingy sob-sisters can store their mouldy neuroses". <
Ah. Not sure whether I should be grateful to you or not for pointing out my apparent common ground with the Torygraph! However, the quotes sound much as I would expect from this particular newspaper!
(Whoops - politics! No offence intended to anyone!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>apparent common ground with the Torygraph
Sound's like you might prefer the Grauniad! I've posted a list of British newspapers in "Politics and the Press" in case anyone is wondering what we are talking about.
I found this explanation for "Grauniad" (or is it just another urban legend?): A while ago, the Guardian (which had not long ceased being the Manchester Guardian) was printing in London as well, but was having operational difficulties that meant that, as I understand it, all the text of the paper had to be re-keyed a second time, in a hurry. As a consequence, it became a by-word for typos. One day, they printed their own name as "Grauniad" in a classified ad. Private Eye took this up with amusement and has been referring to the organ as "Grauniad" ever since. -Ian Phillipps, Brass Band mailing list
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle".
This week's Time magazine has a blurb mentioning Gloria Steinem. She's getting married. I guess she doesn't conform to her own sayings.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle".
This week's Time magazine has a blurb mentioning Gloria Steinem. She's getting married. I guess she doesn't conform to her own sayings.
Or, like so many of us, she spends a lot of time wanting (and chasing after) things she doesn't need...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
>she spends a lot of time wanting (and chasing after) things she doesn't need...<
Hi Bridget,
Great! I think this is the original deep meaning of the phrase about the fish and the bicycle. Things that are needed cannot be the subject of fancy dreams.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Oh boy, this thread sure has turned a couple of corners! I
love this place!
Now--wsieber, Dearest, I have to say that there are some people, including right here in the U.S.--indeed, even
my own state--for whom the necessities are dreams.
And, Bridget, I think that first, those of us who have the
luxury of chasing after things we don't need should count
our blessings.
But also--I am very thankful that we live in a time and place where hunting and chasing are more usually done in fun, such as a guy sneaking up and grabbing his girlfriend
up off the floor, then carries her off for a screaming walk
around the room. Most of our hunting and chasing now have
far less serious consequences than civilization did hundreds and thousands of years ago.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
What's this talk her quote being an analogy for chasing after your dream? Since when do fish yearn for and chase after bicycles?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Since when do fish yearn for and chase after bicycles?Can you prove that they don't? 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
What's this talk her quote being an analogy for chasing after your dream?
After some creative interpretation, I think I understand
your question. He didn't say it was an analogy. It seemed
to me that he was taking the well-precedented license of
nudging the thread around a bend.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
>taking the well-precedented license of nudging the thread around a bend<
You almost made it..I actually bent the thread around a .. nudge.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
> Can you prove that they don't?
The last fish I spoke to had no revolutionary tendencies.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
>Since when do fish yearn for and chase after bicycles?< Amsterdam is known for its channels ("grachten") criss-crossing the city. Every year people throw hundreds of bikes into the channels. Why should the serious-minded Dutch do such a thing if not to cater for the need of their fish ?
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,916
Posts230,310
Members9,209
| |
Most Online4,606
Sep 17th, 2025
|
|
|
|
