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#128410 05/08/04 02:35 PM
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"A hair of the dog that bit you" is a phrase used (like you didn't know) meaning "to take an alcoholic drink in the morning after having 'one too many' the evening before". I liken the idea to: if a deep sea diver surfaces too fast he might go back down and surface a little slower to releive "the bends" - or - that a marathon runner, upon finishing a race, isn't supposed to just stop and take a nap. It is safer(?) to cool down gradually. 'nuf said about all that.

Why a hair?

- and -

Any other cannine quips?


#128411 05/08/04 04:47 PM
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can't teach an old dog new tricks.

let sleeping dogs lie.

lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas.

(and i am not much of a dog lover... i suspect those who live and love dogs will know many more.)


#128412 05/12/04 03:16 AM
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The last time I had occasion to use that phrase, I used it in the presence of my 5-year-old cousin (who hangs on my every word). She promptly asked "A dog *BIT* you?!?!!?" Which gave me the opportunity to explain metaphor at an age-appropriate level...


#128413 05/12/04 11:42 AM
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And an opportunity to explain that adults sometimes act in ways that they know they will regret the next morning.


#128414 05/12/04 01:30 PM
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I always assumed it had something to do with homeopathic magic: using a bit of the animal to combat the effects of the bite.


#128415 06/18/04 05:37 PM
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>Why a hair?

Wasn't it supposed to be a Medieval remedy or something? I remember reading about it being some kind of cure for rabies - to take a hair (possibly 'cause it's the easiest bit of the dog to get hold of?) of the dog that bit you and either swallow or apply it to the wound. That's as much as I can remember anyway.


#128416 06/18/04 05:39 PM
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It's dog's life
Barking up the wrong tree
His bark is worse than his bite


#128417 06/18/04 06:42 PM
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homeopathic magic

It may be "magic," but isn't this the same principle behind vaccines?


#128418 06/18/04 06:54 PM
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There's contagious magic and sympathetic magic. If it's truly magic of which nuncle speaks, hair of the dog would be sympathetic.

As for homeopathic medicine vs vaccination I believe the big difference in kind is that vaccination is meant to prevent and homeopathic medicine is meant to cure.


#128419 06/23/04 01:47 PM
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Sorry to be so old-fahioned, but I was using homeopathic magic in Sir James Frazer's sense. Also, I believe, called imitative or sympathetic magic.

See http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/gb05100.htm



#128420 06/23/04 02:25 PM
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Yeah, sympathetic and contagious are the terms I learned in Anthro 201: Introduction to Magic.



#128421 06/24/04 02:39 PM
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>Why a hair?

Wasn't it supposed to be a Medieval remedy or something? I remember reading about it being some kind of cure for rabies - to take a hair (possibly 'cause it's the easiest bit of the dog to get hold of?) of the dog that bit you and either swallow or apply it to the wound.


I somehow came to the conclusion a while back that the metaphor suggested itself because of how furry/dry the tongue felt.

(But don't forget this comes from the guy who thought that Premarin was a contraceptive, name derived from "Pre-Marital Intercourse")


#128422 06/24/04 03:36 PM
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Pre-Marital Intercourse

Makes more sense than the real expansion. It should be Premarur.


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...are bound to repeat them."
...............-- attributed to Santayanna among others

For a lengthier discussion of this same topic, see
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=60225

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bound to repeat them

And those who can learn from the lessons of history are bound to realise they are repeating them.


#128425 06/26/04 05:53 PM
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...the metaphor suggested itself because of how furry/dry the tongue felt.

I, too, have made that connection.

Hormesis suggests the body is responding to a hair size dose...

http://www.invisibleheart.com/Iheart/PolicyHealth.html

Thank you, Dr. Bill.

#128426 06/26/04 05:55 PM
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is it just me, or does anyone else hear Kurt Weill when they read this thread?





formerly known as etaoin...
#128427 07/05/04 11:17 PM
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Notice that a dog will not poop where he eats.


#128428 07/06/04 12:25 AM
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Notice that a dog will not poop where he eats.

But he will return to his own vomit and eat thereof. Meaning?



#128429 07/07/04 04:22 PM
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One has more nutritional value than the other because it hasn't been digested?


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1) I've seen puppies eat thier own poop.

B) Yes, eatoin, you are the only one.

&) The tail is now wagging the dog.


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