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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
I don't know either where the phrase "Has the cat got your tongue?" comes from, but in French, there is an expression je donne ma langue au chat, when you give up searching for the solution of a riddle...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Thanks, Faldage--I like having my mind set at ease about such things (geez, I must be on a roll: that first came out as my mind set at east {hmm--I do always seem to be running in circles...}). Anyway--I like the list of similar phrases he has at the end. Though "30" was lost on me. I also liked the list of questions at the bottom. This one will keep me bemused for a bit: In my personal and family development class (home ec) my teacher said that salt and pepper are married, so that's why they always have to stay by each other. If they are, then one has to be the husband and the other the wife. All of the people I've asked have agreed that the pepper would be the husband and the salt the wife. Well, what if the fork, knife, and spoon were a family. Which would be the dad, the mom, and the kid, and would the kid be a boy or a girl?
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
the pepper would be the husband and the salt the
wife.Well - there's Lot's to be said in favour of that, I s'pose, Jackie! 
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
But pillars of salt don't shake.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
A Lot YOU know!
Edit: Oh heck. I missed the post preceding Bill's.
TEd
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Speaking of salt to shake, I saw a site when salt was thread topic. In many parts of England
there were salty springs. Boiling the water caused salt to start precipitating, and the small
pure crystals could be harvested by passing the suspension though a fine filter. I hated myself
for not thinking of that.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Re: "I see, said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw"
this is a bit of Americanizms... American's in the 1800's had hundreds of these...
one classic, with many version
One dark morning, in the middle of the night,
two dead boys, got up to fight,
back to back they faces each other,
drew their swords and shot each other,
a deaf police man heard the noise,
and came to rescue those two dead boys,
if you don't believe my story, ask the blind man,
he saw it it all!
the classical american song "old susanna" is very similar
It rained all night, the day left,
the weather it was dry,
the sun so hot i froze to death,
susanna, don't you cry.
Oh susanna, don't you cry for me,
i come from alabama with a bango on my knee.
both Mark Twain and Washington Irving used similar elements in some of their short stories, with characters talking contrary.
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