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Twice today I've heard people make rat references. The first was (and excuse the, ah, French):
...smart as a shithouse rat
and the second was
...like a rat up a drainpipe
Are these similies/metaphors used in your world(s), and does anyone know anything about their origins?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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old hand
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The one I'm familiar with:
I couldn't give a rat's arse for (what ever is being floccinaucinihilipilificated).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, rat up a drainpipe is a very familiar saying - I take it to be based on straightforward observation of their extraordinarily nimble antics...?
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Carpal Tunnel
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--like a cornered rat--
for some one in a dangerous situation, and you don't have an idea of what they might do, but think only something bad can happen..
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Carpal Tunnel
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"I smell a rat..." when suspicious of something said or some action that is proposed. No idea where it came from, I think its been around for ages!
wow
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veteran
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We have the usage of "rat" as an informer (grass, I believe it's called in the UK), which, in recent years has become a verb (see recent threads about verbing nouns), as in "to rat someone out." My father in law used to combine this with "fink" (meaning the same thing, but a word derived from labor unions) to make "ratfink". (Fink has also been verbed, as in "to fink on someone). My, my -- who would fink it?
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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It's a worrisome day when even the rats are fleeing the ship.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks folks - keep 'em coming. I feel a compilation coming on, although who, apart from me, might be interested is a mystery.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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old hand
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I've heard people described as looking like a drowned rat when they have come in from torrential rains.
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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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
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journeyman
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flash as a rat with a gold tooth
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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.
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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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 ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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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
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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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veteran
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veteran
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Ratatouille ? Rataplan ?
Rat-a-tat-tat.
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Carpal Tunnel
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rataplan
I vaguely remember a chant that went something like: "rataplan, rataplan, rataplan -plan -plan" What the hell is rataplan, tsuwm?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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What the hell is rataplan, tsuwm?Even rodents suffer from architects. 
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> What the hell is rataplan, tsuwm?
choose one:
a) the iterative sound of beating: rat-a-tat-tat
b) informing on a heist
c) rodent architects
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Carpal Tunnel
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It is also French for Rat-tat-tat.
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Carpal Tunnel
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On the subject of rats, one gone missing in NY–(forget, "How could you possible know?")
The W Grace building on Lexington Avenue and 42nd St. –near to Grand Central Terminal and Grand Central Station*– had a marque– a metal awning type marque, that was supported by 4 iron (steel? what ever) rods made to look like hawsers, with those conical devises (perhaps Cap't Kiki knows the name of them?) meant to keep ship board rats on the ship and land lubber rats on land.
On one of the rods, was a lovely rat. I don't know if she had an official name, (I always called her gracie) but she's gone!
We all seem to have rat similes, but do any of you have ornamental rats? Or missing rats? Or do any of you know of gracie?
*obviously not the same place
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Carpal Tunnel
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Helen, she of the purse that bought a thousand slips, suggested: hawsers, with those conical devises (perhaps Cap't Kiki knows the name of them?) meant to keep ship board rats on the ship and land lubber rats on land
Note that I've never, ever sung with Elton John. Or anything elsed with EJ.
The second thing is that yes, I do know what they're called but for the life of me I can't remember at the moment. It'll come to me when I'm trying to work out something trivial like the number of megawatt-hours a particular meter at a point of connection on the national grid can actually record in one half-hour period.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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tsuwm suggested here's some anecdotal evidence that they're just called "rat guards", but surely they must have another name.
Yes, there is some totally unobvious term for them. I'm trying to get hold of my father who's much saltier than me. He'll know, but like most OAPs, he's selfishly off enjoying himself somewhere without a single thought as to whether his children may need his help and succour at a moment's notice ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Nervous as a mouse in a room full of cats.
Nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Isn't the rat one of the signs in Chinese astrology? I believe being born under the sign of the rat is not considered a bad thing at all.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Isn't the rat one of the signs in Chinese astrology? I believe being born under the sign of the rat is not considered a bad thing at all
Absolutely, and you can find chinese 'scopes on the www.
If you don't seem to fit the general description of your sign in Western astrology, try the Chinese Zodiac! SURPRISE!
WOW
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I KNEW if I waited long enough I'd see the Gracie Mention here!
TEd
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old hand
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If you don't seem to fit the general description of your sign in Western astrology, try the Chinese Zodiac! SURPRISE!
The Chinese Zodiac is based on years, thereby implying that everyone born in a certain year is the same. Talk about bogus! I'm definitely not the same as everyone else in my class.
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In yesterday magazine section of the (Sunday) NYTimes, William Safire column had a word (Chad! and a phrase both of interest to this board–the phrase was "I know where the rats in the barn are," and can be found at this link. It was a new one to me.. http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20001210mag-onlanguage.htmland thanks Cap't, and Ted--from your comment, I guess the rat is Gracie to more than me...
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Big H said: "I know where the rats in the barn are,"
I love - and frequently use - the expression "He/she/it knows where all the bodies are buried." If the he/she/it is especially knowledgeable about the subject, I add "... and he/she/it even knows where the shovel (rutila?) is kept."
Ah well, just thought I'd throw that one in.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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This is not exactly a Rodent saying, but my Daddy always used to use flea-bitten as an insult. (unfortunately close to home for me at the moment, as my cat has recently become a flea-bitten feline) 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Didn`t Yosemite Sam always call Bugs Bunny a flea-bitten varmint?
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addict
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addict
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It's a vermin-related, rather than specifically rodent-related, saying, but I've always been fond of "busier than a tick in a tannery."
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>>>dn`t Yosemite Sam always call Bugs Bunny a flea-bitten varmint?<<
entirely possible, bel, but i doubt that my dad watched bugs bunny. well, come to think of it... how old were those cartoons anyway? trying to remember my loony toon history has put a strain on my brain. (ooh, sorry, i really didn't mean to make a rhyme.) they started in, what, about the 40's? maybe he watched them as a kid after all.
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stranger
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A long time ago I watched in amusement as my Vietnamese counterparts chased a rat around and around the maindeckof their gunboat. Finally they beat it to death with broomsticks and threw it into the Saigon River. At that moment my eye was drawn to two more rats coming aboard over the gangplank.
berdonmill
berdonmill
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HouseWolf howled: At that moment my eye was drawn to two more rats coming aboard over the gangplank.If they were carrying AK-47s, they may well have been cunningly-disguised VC ... did you check? If they were Norinco AK-47 copies, then one of them may well have been a friend of mine from the South Island who swears by it for deer culling purposes.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Mmm... Rat stuff.
If I may go back to "I smell a rat"...
I was working late one night in a relatively abandoned building when I noticed a horrible stench. Seconds later a rat appeared rummaging through some trash nearby. Needless to say, the saying has a very concrete origin. I think it's a gland thing.
And one more on the "French" side, as I haven't seen this on the board yet...
The classic, "Rat b*stard!" A tongue-in-cheek favorite of a few of my friends.
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