In November of 2001, the general secretary of a British teachers' union, Nigel de Gruchy, was accused of calling classroom teaching assistants "pig ignorant peasants." What a lovely and evocative phrase!
My own experience with pigs, not unlike that of Lord Emsworth at Blandings Castle, is that they are rather clever. I once raised a pig, during my undergraduate years, by the name of Orwell, who was quite capable of unlatching gates in fences and other witty tricks. He also had a quite engaging sense of humour.
One wonders if this phrase is a slander of pigs and a compliment to peasants? One also wonders whatever became of Mr. de Gruchy?
He's now retired from his role as capo of the NASUWT, my wife's teaching union (hah!). He had some pithy comments about politicos at his departure:
A teachers' leader has said that politicians have been the biggest problem facing teachers in his 33 years as a union official.
Nigel de Gruchy of the NASUWT said most of them were "ambitious, self-seeking, self-opinionated rogues".
lots more good stuff at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1911096.stm:)
"Rogues" is good. We don't use rogues much here in the Colonies, either.
We don't use rogues much here in the Colonies, either.
Quite true, Father Steve. Mostly, they use us.
As for pigs, at least they bring home the bacon.
I like "pig-ignorant", and I believe that it's because it has a certain onomatopoeic quality ... you can really spit it out when you're angry!
The farmers and ranchers in Eastern Washington use the expression "dummer-na-stump" (a contraction of "dumber than a stump"), not so much because it is an apt comparison but because the "um" sound which is repeated fits nicely in the mouth.
a certain onomatopoeic quality You took the words right out of my fingers, CK [blowing kiss e], though maybe more sound-alike satisfying than onomatopeoic. Pig-ig.
Dumber than a wooden watch.
I like "Dumber than a bag of hammers"
couple of fries short of a Happy MealŪ.
Elizabeth Creith I too like the "bag of hammers."
couple of fries short of a Happy MealŪ.
My sister would say someone was "a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic" If the stupidity continued she'd add "no fried chicken, either", and in extreme cases "there goes the potato salad".
That's pretty cool, Elizabeth. I'll bet that by now, she can start with "there goes the potato salad", and you-all can share a nice private laugh without openly offending the person.
Hijacking this thread for an aside about family in-jokes as alluded to in Jackie's thread above.
We had one : "Father Murphy" based on this story:
A man dies and gets to the Pearly Gates, gives his name and St. Peter pushes a button which sends the man down a long slide where he pops up in a huge lake of sh*t. He delicately wipes his face and gradully percieves another head not too far away. Very gently and cautiously they swim toward each other. The man asks "Where the hell am I?"
The oldtimer says" "You got that right, friend, it's hell." The man considers this for a monment then opines "Well, it's not so bad."
"Ha!," says the oldtimer, "wait till Father Murphy comes by in his motorboat!"