A new proverb

 

“There’s nothing wiser than a sleeping cat!”

I came out with this gem last night; not at all sure where it came from but it has a certain ring of truth about it.

The two little sketches above are of two of my cats. The one on the left is Robin, my white and black ex-tom, and the one on the right is Clara, my dark tortoiseshell queen. Clara was a cat we rescued and while I loved her dearly, I didn’t mourn her when she died, two years ago. She suffered, we are sure now, from feline dementia and while she lived to a grand age of 16, she was not “all there” for many of the 8 years she lived with us. She did however have a great gift that continued despite her mental decline; she could make any guest feel special and privileged. She would approach someone sitting in our home and be so sweet and friendly that it put people at their ease, unlike my beloved Watson who various of our friends and relations were frankly terrified of. If Clara came and sat on your knee, you felt like a small furry angel had descended on you; if Watson sat on you, you didn’t move a muscle in case he turned into a tiger and ate you all up.

But I had a bond with Watson that I never had with Clara. We knew each other, warts and all. Watson sat with me through some of the hardest times in my life, a few feet away so as not to intrude on my pain, but close enough so I knew he was there. I sat up with both of them as they lay dying. Watson passed while I slept next to him, dozing off exhausted. Clara kept me by her side until the last moment, when, uncharacteristically, she bit me. I think I was the first and last person she had ever bitten.

I have no idea where this post came from or where it goes or what it means, if anything, other than I miss my cat still.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

 

A wonderful saying, and so true. It is unsurprising therefore, to find that first appeared in the Greek Philospher Plato’s work “Republic”.

Could Plato, in all his musings, I wonder, have envisaged his wise words being appropriated by the eclectic musician Frank Zappa for the naming of his band “The Mother’s of Invention“? I think not! The band in turn inspired the famous lyric in Deep Purple’s classic anthem “Smoke on the Water”-“Frank Zappa and the Mothers, had the best place around..”

Strangely, referring to another saying in our current theme, there is an album by a band called Jellyfish entitled “Spilt Milk”. Now I will neatly connect my ramblings by telling you there’s a track on that very album entitled “Sabrina, Paste and Plato”…

Art imitating life, or the other way around?

Kev Moore

Crocodile Tears

By Miki

“Pleurer des larmes de crocodile”

“To cry crocodile tears “

I really wondered how these so brutal looking creatures could cry, so I made some research into the origin of this expression. It is a very old one and already had its equivalent in Latin and in Greek.

It comes from a legend which says that the Nile crocodiles attracted their prey by loudly wailing to break the hearts of the naive people who were passing by. They, curious to see what was provoking such awful laments, came too close…

Nines, and their place in Proverbia

Make no mistake, the number nine turns up everywhere in our quotations and sayings.

“The whole nine yards” – an americanism I think, but surely derived from

“Dressed up to the Nines” which, meaning to be dressed flamboyantly and to one’s absolute immaculate best, is supposedly referring to the generous nine yards of cloth required to tailor a superlative outfit, waste being no barrier to achieving the greatest result. It also has several other possible derivations. One, from Shakespeare’s time, hints that the best seats in the playhouse, by the stage, were 9 pence, and one had to dress accordingly if one sat in them. A further contender is to be found in Naval lore; one’s dress uniform was commonly known as “eights” and its thought by many that “dressing to the nines” was going one better.

“A stitch in time saves nine” very probably only utilises the word “nine” to achieve a certain assonance and make the saying more memorable, but it is clearly extolling the virtues of fixing a small problem now, to avoid greater problems later.

“I’m on cloud nine” , used to denote when someone is euphoric is further proof that nine figures greatly in proverbs and sayings. Does this mean that it’s two better than seventh heaven? I’ll leave that to the mathematicians!

Kev Moore

Horses, and their place on Proverbia

Horses, real or imagined, seem to figure prominently in our rich tapestry of sayings. Here’s a few off the top of my head….

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink”

I guess this is really saying, you can have the most perfect plan, put everything in place, offer every incentive, but if the other guy doesn’t want to co-operate, it’s not going to happen!

“Its no use shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”

Pretty self-explanatory, meaning, its no use trying damage limitation after the damage is done! (also covered in “it’s no use crying over spilt milk)

“Get down off your high horse”

Being on one’s high horse means to assume a superior position, real or imagined. To exhort someone to dismount is to give them a reality check!

“Rare as rocking horse sh**”

I’m not sure if it qualifies as a saying as such, but certainly, in music circles, it is bandied about with great gusto, as in “I haven’t got a chance to get tickets for the one-off Led Zeppelin show, they’re rare as rocking horse sh**, which, I’m sure you’ll all agree, is extremely rare, being as they’re usually made out of wood. More likely to find shavings…

Kev Moore