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#12262 12/07/00 09:27 PM
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I've heard people described as looking like a drowned rat when they have come in from torrential rains.


#12263 12/07/00 09:39 PM
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or that they have hair like rats tails!-- one my mother used on me, till in the mid 60's, having long straight hair, with out a bit of curl was in style.. of course those were also the years i was maturing, and as i did, my hair got slightly curly! not like sibs, who from infancy looked like Shirley Temple's, albeit with black hair.



#12264 12/07/00 11:56 PM
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Still in the rodent category but cuter :
Quiet as a mouse.
Nervous as a mouse in a room full of cats.
The Mouse ran up the clock, hickory dickory dock.
Then, there is Aesop's "The Lion and the Mouse" with its famous line "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."
If that's not enough, then how about : "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" with its observation : "A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety."
Finally -- lest you think I have abandoned the main topic : check out Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" which mentions more rats than you can shake a stick at! wow


#12265 12/08/00 12:34 AM
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flash as a rat with a gold tooth


#12266 12/08/00 01:23 AM
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Was it James Cagney who said "why, you dirty rat" through clenched teeth? This was a bit before my time but I seem to recall something of the sort.


#12267 12/08/00 01:30 AM
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check out Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" which mentions more rats than you can shake a stick at!

Aah, what memories! I had a stand-up argument with my fifth form English teacher about this poem - she insisted first that Transylvania was somewhere in North America, then North Africa, then that Romania was an SSR, part of the USSR, first she said de jure, then de facto. This at a time when Romania was a maverick among Eastern Bloc nations. That, together with the great difficulty I had, even then at the height of my love affair with the German language, wrapping my tongue around Hameln, and my identifying with the lame little boy, mean that this opus is indelibly inscribed on what is often mistaken for my mind.


#12268 12/08/00 02:53 AM
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Lapsed Lasagne quoted: flash as a rat with a gold tooth.

I sure haven't heard that one before. Thanks to all the contributors so far. Keep them cards and letters rolling in, folks.



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#12269 12/08/00 03:05 AM
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Zaphod Beeblebrox once said: "I wouldn't trust myself further than I could spit a rat." In the TV series, that came out as "I wouldn't trust him as far as I could spit a dead rat" which phrase I use often.


#12270 12/08/00 04:57 AM
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In reply to:

Lapsed Lasagne quoted: flash as a rat with a gold tooth.


but abstained from ratatouille.

Ratbag?

Ratty for in a bad mood.

Bingley



Bingley
#12271 12/08/00 03:05 PM
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I was expecting the ozzies to chime in with 'ratbag'; how about rat-kangaroo (or kangaroo rat).

ratatouille? rataplan!


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