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

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

Como las bolas del perro.

Siempre tarde, always late… Como las bolas del perro”`= Like the balls of a dog (sounds lighter in English)… What saying in English would convey the same message? I wonder. French?? Any other language here?I don’t have a drawing yet.. Hum-mm I think it would be gross, but hey… anyone can volunteer one, you are welcome…

I will try to come up with one today, it’s too early for me to draw. There are sayings for everything and on every possible wording. This saying is applied to anyone who is late on everything , at the end of the line, the last to appear, the last to understand, the last to get to the meeting, etc…

Many times sayings use the crudest way to convey a strong, direct message,and we hear them all the time when walking the malls or streets, specially from men, who are not afraid of saying the “bad” words.

Well, I think I found a good compromise.This illustrates it.

Yolanda