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A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse

To make a long story short, I love a good idiom but, make no bones about it, suffering fools is the last straw.An idiom can be defined as a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.We once had a Polish housekeeper (she spoke English very well) who looked at me with utter disbelieve when I said, “The dog is having a cow.”These colloquial metaphors allow us to add spice and flavor to our language giving us a unique poetic lingua franca of our culture.Colloquial language is based on casual, familiar spoken phrases that are regional, ethical or culturally-based.Take for instance the words used to describe a carbonated beverage: In the Midwest it is commonly called “pop,” while in the Northeast and West it is referred to as “soda.” But in the South it is “Coke” regardless of brand.Idioms are colloquial metaphors, or as the idiot said, “What’s a meadow for? Cows, of course.”A metaphor is a device used in literature and especially in poetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context are associated with objects and entities in a different context. It compares two subjects without using ‘like’ or ‘as.’As in, “Roses are red, violets are purple, sugar is sweet, so is maple surple.” Because there are no words in English that rhyme with purple or orange we are forced to use the kind of silliness that drives a word-maven up the wall.Yet every cloud has a silver lining and every dog has his day, so, we use idioms to sometime express a truth more truthfully.Most of us never know when to bite our tongue but we are more often than not happy to bite off more than we can chew, while putting our foot in our mouths.Sadly, most of our fellow citizens and more than a few politicians will bend over backwards to beat around the bush.Too bad most bad politicians spend their time barking up the wrong tree forcing the good ones back to square one.In his play As You Like It, Shakespeare writes, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances.”The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a person’s life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon (old age) and second childhoodThe man in the poem goes through these stages:* Infancy: In this stage he is a baby.* Childhood: It is in this stage that he begins formal education, leaving only momentarily the protective shelter of his home.* The lover: In this stage the boy/man is always rueful due to some reason or other, especially the loss of love. He tries to express feelings through art, sport or other activity.* The soldier: It is in this age that he begins to think less about himself and begins to think more of others. Still he is easily aroused and tends to be hot headed. This is a period where he is constantly working towards making a reputation for himself and gaining recognition, however short-lived it may be, even at the cost of his own life.* The justice: In this stage, he has acquired wisdom through his many life experiences. He has also reached a stage where he has gained prosperity and social status. At this juncture, he becomes very attentive of his looks and begins to enjoy the finer things of life.* Pantaloon: He begins to lose his appeal both physically and mentally. He begins to lose his resolve and assertiveness, and shrinks in stature and personality.* Second Childhood of dependence: Faced with mental dementia and death, he loses his status and he becomes a non-entity. He becomes dependent on others like a child and is in need of constant support before finally dying.However, there are many men and even a few women who never progress through these stages, some have their lives cut short and others more tragically never travel life’s road beyond, childhood, lover or soldier phase. They never know the ropes, lend an ear, let sleeping dogs lie or stop being a loose cannon.They are chickens with their heads cut off never realizing that pride goes before a fall.From the new kid on the block to the old salt, these fools get off on the wrong foot in a New York minute. Never playing with a full deck, they let the cat out of the bag and never accept blame by constantly passing the buck.Of course, I can always smell a rat and will beat any offender like a rented mule.So, for now, I will turn a blind eyes to their silliness, keep writing until the cows come home, knowing the bigger they are the harder they fall.With tongue firmly in cheek, I bid you a big Fondue or any other malapropism that suits your fancy.
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Comments

  • Great minds think alike and Fools seldom differ
    Or..... Great minds seldom differ
    Or..... Fools think alike
  • For even more sillyness, I like to mix the idioms:
    A bird in the hand is better than a gift horse in the mouth.
    You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him gather moss.
    A stitch in time is a penny earned.
    Don't count your chickens in the same basket.
    Etc, Etc.
    Anyone else have any more such offerings?
    Bless,
    Ken
  • I would like to hear Mr. Billy-Bitt wax poetical about the concept of Furst Yew-saggge...hope I am not too far off-topic but I think I am in the right neck of the woods even if you can't get there from here...any thoughts, O great former Star-WOW????
  • they still call it "pop" here in Rochester!
  • Pat,
    You are no dim bulb, I can't hold a candle to your patter. Man, have I got a big cheesy smile on my kisser , see you on the sunny side.
    Keep it hanging bro.
    B
  • smiley-laughing024.gif
    smiley-eatdrink004.gif

    You guys have the manifestation of gifts of idiom. I now see people from other countries say our language is is so hard to learn. Heavens to Betsy. They must be banging their heads against the wall when learning it.

    Reminds me of when Alan Moorhead come in residence from Ireland and had not been used to hearing some of our dialects. THe story goes he heard Howard Allen talk about the Special Corps one night. Howard pronounced it with his drawl...."Spayushall Corps" Alan seriously thought he was referring to some sort of Space Corps and had to ask someone what that meant.

    Hey Billy, what is your opinion of Figures of Speech as we were taught basically from E.W. Bullinger. Outside of the Way I have never heard anyone else refer to those. Honestly some of them seem to be subject to a mans interpretation. Others are obvious like falling off a log backwards such as Polysyndenton, many ands. He really got deep with some of those.
  • Billy,

    Just thought I'd drop you a line to lay it on you that your rap has been a real eye opener to me. Who would have thought back in the day when we were all just wet behind the ears, knee high to a grasshopper, young whippersnappers that we would reach this stage in our lives. Now here we sit, a bunch of old geezers chewing the fat over such earth shaking matters. When I got an earful of what you laid down, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Now I don't care too much about having my day in the sun, but before the parade passes me by, I reckon I ought to weigh in on the matter. So, even though you may only give me a penny for my thoughts, I'm fixin' to put my two cents in.
    It did my heart good to stumble across such a lighthearted topic. I can't say that I laughed my ass off, but It just tickled me. It's so random, lol. Your musings on idioms came as a nice change of pace after reading brother John's recent metaphorically named blog. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to pick a bone with John. I understand how he might want to pull his hair out over getting the cold shoulder. Why, some folks would probably lose their minds or at least blow their tops to be snubbed that way. If somebody turned their nose up at me like that, I'd probably want to knock their block off. So who cam blame a fella if he wants to let off a little steam by taking such mule headed turkeys out to the woodshed. What a trip! I don't know what their hang up is that they want to lay that guilt trip on their brother, thinking that they are all tripped out. It blows my mind! Somebody should get his act together. When this stuff come up, we need to stand our ground and not give a tinker's damn or a rat's ass about what people think. It would have to be a cold day in hell before anyone should stand for this or take it lying down. But I don't want to go around biting people's heads off, melting their face, or tearing them a new one. And I can't spend 24/7 sweating the small stuff. As time goes by, the older I get, the more I see that it just plain don't make any horse sense to knock myself out shaking my fist at the wind. So in the immortal words of that old sage Tom Burke, don't let a leper give you the finger when instead he should just be trying to lend a helping hand.
    Now, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I do believe we can all use a little more sunshine in our lives. After all, laughter is the best medicine. It does help one to take a load off, and it does a body good. So, let's look on the bright side, and be glad for what we have. We may not have much, but we do have each other, right? And even though I've been told that you can't go home again, since there is no place like home, I'll just call anyplace I hang my hat home because after all, home is where the heart is. Now that may seem like a paradox to you. What's a paradox, you ask? Two doctors - which is a good thing because as we all know, two heads are better than one. I can't claim that there was no pun intended there, so instead I will ask you to pardon my pun. I'm sure you will, since what is good for the goose is good for the gander. After all, I put up with your play on words and not just because you got Shakespeare into the act.
    Well, this is all in good fun until somebody gets hurt. So, let's not have any funny business here. Or horseplay for that matter. And I especially don't want to see any funny business with horseplay. We do have to handle this with kid gloves because some of these colloquialisms change over time. While it was okay for the greatest generation to make love with their best gal at the movies while watching Andy Hardy pull a boner, today that's just gay. But then what do I know? It might be cool, or it might be bad. I'm not hip enough to say - it might be the shit. Whoops, my bad.
    Well, I could go on and on, but I didn't mean to chew your ear off, and I don't want to beat a dead horse. And I think I hear the fat lady singing, so I better run now. I think I'll make like a tree and leave. I'm going to blow this pop stand. I'm going to make like horse shit and hit the trail. Catch you on the flip side. See you later, alligator...

    Pat
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