I wish Honore would drop these "swing a dead cat" comments.

[highplainsdem]

He's on CNN now, where he just told Wolf, "I can't swing a dead cat without hitting a reporter." Earlier today, think it was on CBS, I heard him saying that soon you "won't be able to swing a dead cat without hitting construction equipment" in NO.

And yeah, I know it's folky...but damn, it has to hurt all the people in NO and outside of NO worried about the cats there. No remarks about swinging dead cats are okay now...

[Zynx]

1. Some people use weird expressions.

[nookiemonster]

2. Ranks up there with "Beating a dead horse"

Never really understood that expression. I'm sure it's historical in nature.

:shrug:

[mrfrapp]

3. Beating/Flogging Horses

Where I come from the expression is "flogging a dead horse". I've always assumed "flogging" in this context meant "to sell". Beating and selling a dead horse are both useless activities of course so either interpretations are valid. Selling a dead horse however, has the added suggestion that the person doing the selling is being deceitful and very often that is the intention.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flog

:shrug:

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Normal expression is "not enough room to swing a cat"

which Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (the 'standard' reference for English phrases) says:

"there are various suggested origins of the phrase. Swinging cats by their tails as a mark for sportsmen was once a popular amusement. There were several variants of the diversion - see "hang me in a bottle" and "to fight like Kilkenny cats". Cat was an abbreviation for Cat-o'-nine-tails and in view of the restricted space in the old sailing ships where the cat was administered, it is most likely derived from swinging this particular kind of cat. Cat is also an old Scottish word for rogue, and if the derivation is from this, the "swing" is that of the condemned rogue hanging from the gallows."

Discussion at at online forum for phrase origins: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/215.html

[enlightenment]

5. That's the way my southern MS grandma used to say it

and I tried it when I was about 5 years old. NOT a successful experiment, although I did learn that cats can turn themselves inside out in order to scratch your eyes out!
Buttons (my cat) survived unscathed, and I got life-long memories (and the first of many, many scars).
Granny was a little more careful with the aphorisms after that, I think.
:evilgrin:

[nookiemonster]

6. My granny used to say,

"The harder you step on a dog's tail, the louder they bark"

Kinda explains the Bush adminstration, don't it?