#72445 - 06/14/02 04:11 PM
Re: As happy as...
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addict
Registered: 04/24/02
Posts: 475
Loc: manchester uk
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the shambles reference was confusing as in manchester the shambles has always meant the fish market (where fish-wives scream their opinions). since the bomb the shambles ( est around 1580) was relocated but still boasts an oyster pub. i thought the shambles was exclusively a term for fish market, or dodgy dealing place for hawkers of questionable repute
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#72446 - 06/14/02 05:27 PM
Re: As...as
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veteran
Registered: 10/11/00
Posts: 1346
Loc: Sussex, England
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"as mad as cheese" and "as mad as eggs" Brilliant! Robert, in case you didn't know yet, perhaps we need to explain that a "Mancunian" is someone from Manchester, England. Mancunians have a culture all of their own, as witness the phrases above  Actually Manchester is probably renowned worldwide for its football (erm, soccer) and should be for some of its music. Which doesn't detract from the fact that most Mancunians are mad as toast.  Fisk
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#72447 - 06/14/02 05:49 PM
Shambles.
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veteran
Registered: 10/11/00
Posts: 1346
Loc: Sussex, England
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in manchester the shambles has always meant the fish marketNice meeting you dody - another fellow Brit, and yet another set of pronunciations for the Board! Yeah, that reference on shambles (confused onlookers please see my previous post for happy as a sandboy link) talks about the wooden bench upon which butchers used to display, and maybe carve up, their wares. Maybe fishmongers used something similar? As for "dodgy dealings", you still get those at markets, eh? Fisk
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#72448 - 06/14/02 07:59 PM
Re: Shambles.
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member
Registered: 04/30/02
Posts: 148
Loc: Melbourne, Aus
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Hmm, a thread that I started, and now I'm dancing a merry tangent... a shambles, to me, is a mess, a cock-up, close to a disaster sometimes. I knew the other meanings (particularly its geog origin) but that's the most common here in Aus.
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#72450 - 06/14/02 08:10 PM
As smart as Einstein
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/04/01
Posts: 2605
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As dumb as a box of rocks.
An odd fleeting thought is that Albert Einstein's surname means a stone. Somehow, though, I don't think that "as smart as a stone" will ever come to mean "as smart as Einstein".
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#72453 - 06/14/02 10:40 PM
how we roared!
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old hand
Registered: 02/18/02
Posts: 833
Loc: Eastern Ontario, Canada
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as cunning as a very cunning fox that has just become professor of cunning at cunning university (off 'Blackadder' the telly programme)
and
as camp as a row of tents
made me laugh out loud!
This is a great thread - I'm enjoying it so much!
From Tennessee Williams - and not as funny as the above:
as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof
(or was it "as restless as"? - that somehow makes more sense)
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#72454 - 06/14/02 11:43 PM
Re: how we roared!
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old hand
Registered: 11/12/00
Posts: 819
Loc: Portland,Oregon, USA
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as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof
I once heard somebody Spoonerize this as "...a tit on a hot can roof." OUCH!
As important as a fart in a firestorm
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