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I was just talking to my mum, and she mentioned that someone was as skinny as a matchstick with the wood shaved off . I'd never heard that one, so I thought I'd share it here, and ask people what their favourite people descriptors are. Personally, I also like mad as a cut snake , and various others I can't think of off the top of my head.
Alexis
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whatever became of Twiggy?
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old hand
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Whatever became of Twiggy?
She shaved, and - POOF!
Of course, Lewis Carroll gave us "Mad as a hatter," and one that I've used is "ugly as the northernmost part of a south-bound warthog."
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old hand
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A long time ago, I learnt: "As keen as a whistle" - never found out the connection. Does it still have currency?
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What a great thread, alexis! I like your original example - never heard that before! I like "dumber'n a barrel of hair" - which apparently gets used in Texas. The Globe and Mail, "Canada's National Newspaper!", occasionally runs an item called "word watch" on the back page of the front section - sometimes it's very amusing.....that's where I got this expression from. I haven't heard "sharp as a whistle" but I like it. I HAVE heard "sharp as a tack," "sharp as a knife," and "so sharp he'll cut himself." Conversely, people sometimes talk about someone as being "not the sharpest knife in the drawer." But whether that means that person is dumber'n a barrel of hair, I guess I'll never know. 
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Cool as a cucumber; hard (or tough) as nails; smooth as silk; hotter than Hades (oops, that's not an "as...as" construction, but it could be).
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As dumb as a box of rocks.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Actually, mad as a hatter came considerably before Lewis Carroll. Madness was a symptom of mercury poisoning; the mercury was used in the manufacture of felt, from which the hats were made.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Remembering this from my childhood, I went back to the old book and found it. The comparsions are nowhere near as clever as those above, but they are cleverly combined.
As wet as a fish--as dry as a bone;
As live as a bird--as dead as a stone;
As plump as a partridge--as poor as a rat;
As strong as a horse--as weak as a cat;
As hard as a flint--as soft as a mole;
As white as a lily--as black as a coal;
As heavy as lead--as light as a feather;
As steady as time--uncertain as weather;
As hot as an oven--as cold as a frog;
As gay as a lark--as sick as a dog;
As savage as tigers--as mild as a dove;
As stiff as a poker--as limp as a glove;
As blind as a bat--as deaf as a post;
As cool as a cucumber--as warm as toast;
As flat as a flounder--as round as a ball;
As blunt as a hammer--as sharp as an awl;
As brittle as glass--as tough as gristle;
As neat as a pin--as clean as a whistle;
As red as a rose--as square as a box;
As bold as a thief--as sly as a fox.
I'm still scratching my head over "as keen as a whistle", noted above. What's keen about a whistle?
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