Wierd sayings

[binky]

Originally Posted by dar512

It is carrot and stick. The phrase implies reward for doing well and punishment for doing poorly.

Sorry, which one is the punishment?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

Cuts the mustard - meaning: comes up to scratch (which could be another one except I think it has connections with golf and being a scratch/zero handicap player, but it may pre-date this)

Cuts as in dilutes rather than separates, perhaps? Makes palatable?? Undiluted mustard is pretty strong stuff, after all, and overwhelms the tastebuds.

You know ... this might make an interesting party game.

I thought maybe someone already had done this, but the objective of Wise and Otherwise is to complete a maxim, not explain it.

[Radar]

Jesus Harold Christ

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've always assumed the carrot & stick approach referred to a system of motivating by reward. In other words the carrot is dangled in front of the donkey via a long stick, and it strives to reach it.

Yes

'I know that place like the back of my hand' - when very few of us know the backs of our hands that well, and where would such a saying have come from anyway??

If something appeared or started to grow on the back of your hand wouldn't you notice? It means being able to spot any change right away.

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick

Heretic ...the H is added to skirt taking the name of the Lord in vain.

open up a can of worms...and then what happens?

They wiggle off in every direction at once and you have a big confusing mess.

quiet as a mouse...I hear them all the time.

But not running their mouths off, just the noise of doing what they do.

[Griff]

I like "Tempest in a Teapot". Say you start to actually get grumpy about an on-line argument...

[Tonchi]

Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake. Later, he also played "Little Beaver" to another Western hero, Red Ryder.

BTW: Tonto got his name by virtue of the Tonto Indian tribe. I'm not sure where they were located, but the Tonto tribe was part of the Apache Nation. I think there is even a Tonto National Forest in Arizona. Since the Lone Ranger story was supposed to start in Texas, it would be interesting to find out why the author of the original book chose a Native American who wouldn't normally have been anywhere near there, but the white man had a knack for messing up facts when these "Sage Brush Romances" became popular around the turn of the 19th Century. More BTW: Apaches never wore the kind of buckskin outfit that Tonto traditionally wears in the movies, that garb was more like what Kit Carson and the Fremont Scouts wore in the 1840's. Jay Silverheels is also using a hairstyle which is distinctly Navajo; Apaches wore their hair straight and long.

As to why the tribe ended up with the name "tonto" in the first place, we can only imagine that some administrator for New Spain or a mission padre who was exasperated with trying to get more work out of the Indians they essentially enslaved remarked "Mirad a esos tontos!" when some of the people shuffled by, and the derogatory comment stuck.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake. Later, he also played "Little Beaver" to another Western hero, Red Ryder.

Robert Blake did appear in one Rin-Tin-Tin movie as "Paul the Refugee Lad" around the same time he was in the Red Ryder films (1947).

Lee Aaker played Rusty in the Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin TV Show.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake.

One of my father's Army buddies (in the early '60s) later became a high-profile PI in LA. He told me in '78 that Robert Blake had once asked him for help in getting a handgun. Apparenty, such requests (from clients) were commonplace but he uncharacteristically decined to help Blake and explained to me at the time that he thought that people "like Blake" should never be allowed to own a weapon. It was not a decision he struggled with.

I called him during Blake's murder trial and reminded him of what he had told me 20+ years ago. He paused for a time before changing the subject.

[srobi]

Sorry but Rusty was not played by Robert Blake, although Blake was one of the Little Rascals. Rusty was played by Lee Aaker.

http://www.tv.com/the-adventures-of-...9/summary.html
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Originally Posted by Tonchi

Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake. Later, he also played "Little Beaver" to another Western hero, Red Ryder.

BTW: Tonto got his name by virtue of the Tonto Indian tribe. I'm not sure where they were located, but the Tonto tribe was part of the Apache Nation. I think there is even a Tonto National Forest in Arizona. Since the Lone Ranger story was supposed to start in Texas, it would be interesting to find out why the author of the original book chose a Native American who wouldn't normally have been anywhere near there, but the white man had a knack for messing up facts when these "Sage Brush Romances" became popular around the turn of the 19th Century. More BTW: Apaches never wore the kind of buckskin outfit that Tonto traditionally wears in the movies, that garb was more like what Kit Carson and the Fremont Scouts wore in the 1840's. Jay Silverheels is also using a hairstyle which is distinctly Navajo; Apaches wore their hair straight and long.

As to why the tribe ended up with the name "tonto" in the first place, we can only imagine that some administrator for New Spain or a mission padre who was exasperated with trying to get more work out of the Indians they essentially enslaved remarked "Mirad a esos tontos!" when some of the people shuffled by, and the derogatory comment stuck.

[lumberjim]

hand....which side IS the back? the dorsal side, or ventral?

[dar512]

back of the hand - opposite of the palm

[lumberjim]

well, i know the front of my hand better than the back.....of my hand

[wolf]

I'd rather be broccoli.

[Elspode]

Opening a can of worms usually means "making a bigger problem than the one you were trying to solve", because it is harder to deal with an open can of worms than a closed one. When the can is closed, you at least know roughly how many worms you have and where they can be found. Open the can, and the squiggle all over, and it is nearly impossible to put them back in.

Now..."Piss like a racehorse"...that's one that has always baffled the piss out of me. Are racehorses known for producing more urine than, say, a plough horse? Or is this related to the drug testing they make racehorses endure? I thought that was done via saliva, so shouldn't it in that case be "spit like a racehorse"?

Stupid sayings...

[barefoot serpent]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Now..."Piss like a racehorse"...that's one that has always baffled the piss out of me.

Race horses are given the diuretic Lasix that in addition to making them piss a lot also helps to prevent them bleeding in the lungs from the exertion during races.