These derogatory expressions puzzle me. It's not a good thing to be small potatoes - but why not? (I suspect this expression started before people got keen on "new potatoes" which are usually on the small side, and delicious when boiled with a bit of mint! nothing bad about being a small potato if you are also a new potato.)

One of my brothers recently used the term "small beer" to me, I think about a tourist attraction. Something along the lines of, "I think people from Europe would find such-and-such very small beer." (Can't remember what the attraction was.) Why is small beer bad? I have a feeling it's probably a brewmaster's expression - but how did it arise?

And then, when you wish to point out that someone thinks he's pretty special, when in reality he's pretty average (can you be degrees of average?!), you cut him down by calling him "a big fish [or frog] in a small pond." Is this to say that of course he thinks he's pretty special, because there ain't much for him to compare himself to? ie, if he were in a bigger pond, he couldn't, ahem, crow so much? (do fish and frogs crow?! big ones do!)

Anyone know anything fascinating and illuminating about any or all of these phrases?

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.