kitbradley said:

"YOU CAN CATCH MORE FLIES WITH HONEY THAN YOU CAN WITH VINEGAR"

What the hell? What kind of ding-dong would want to catch flies????

I've always heard "U can catch more bees with honey"...but again, why would U want to catch bees (unless U are making honey)?

Timmy84 said:

Alej said:

Let's look for the purple banana till they put us in the truck.

What the fuck?

No one knows what the hell Prince meant with that lyric to this day. I doubt we'll know now nearly 30 years later.

It's probably one of those lines that sincerely make no sense - not even to him. He probably just wanted to sound interesting.

Timmy84 said:

benjaminira said:

KidaDynamite said:

CallMeCarrie said:

You totally just sold me on your argument!

I had to google one the other day that didn't make sense to me...

"The world is your oyster."

Any guesses?

I guess they mean that you have to keep searching through it until you find your pearl. (whatever it is your life that's making it worthwhile) buy that's just my take on the saying.

What I read said that because an oyster is easy to open to get the pearl,

it means that anything is at your fingertips. (paraphrasing)

I'm still not buying it though!

Alej said:

Timmy84 said:

No one knows what the hell Prince meant with that lyric to this day. I doubt we'll know now nearly 30 years later.

It's probably one of those lines that sincerely make no sense - not even to him. He probably just wanted to sound interesting.

Basically.

Alej said:

Timmy84 said:

No one knows what the hell Prince meant with that lyric to this day. I doubt we'll know now nearly 30 years later.

It's probably one of those lines that sincerely make no sense - not even to him. He probably just wanted to sound interesting.

He showed out his geekinees in that line among MANY other examples. Which is one of the many reasons why I love this lil' purple smurf

[Edited 6/20/11 8:26am]

purpledoveuk said:

benjaminira said:

I think it's "spitting image", but I don't know what that means either!

Well this thread has shown me I perhaps know more than I thought... Spitting image means 'looks identical/similar'to ie he's the spitting image of his dad. I'm not certain but I think it's one of those phrases that's been twisted over time with the 'SPIT' originating from 'SPLIT' and is a very old carpentry term for mirroring the grain when joining two pieces if wood so that they looked the same Come on..is that all you've got...IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT!!!!!!

You're correct on what it means, but it IS actually "spit and image"--that's the original phrase. Nothing to do with carpentry.

"I, George W. Bush, promise to uphold the bla bla bla...."

"paint the town red" I know that it's supposed to mean something along the lines of going out on the town and having a grand ol time but....even after looking it up it appears to have no conclusive reason as to why or how it came to be.

it indeed makes no sense.

Anybody say "the whole nine yards" yet?

Efan said:

purpledoveuk said:

benjaminira said: Well this thread has shown me I perhaps know more than I thought... Spitting image means 'looks identical/similar'to ie he's the spitting image of his dad. I'm not certain but I think it's one of those phrases that's been twisted over time with the 'SPIT' originating from 'SPLIT' and is a very old carpentry term for mirroring the grain when joining two pieces if wood so that they looked the same Come on..is that all you've got...IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT!!!!!!

You're correct on what it means, but it IS actually "spit and image"--that's the original phrase. Nothing to do with carpentry.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1977/whats-the-origin-of-spitting-image

Efan said:

Anybody say "the whole nine yards" yet?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/504/whats-the-origin-of-the-whole-nine-yards

Seems that this one is a little more difficult to pin down, but the consensus is that it has to do with the amount of fabric used.

jone70 said:

Efan said:

Anybody say "the whole nine yards" yet?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/504/whats-the-origin-of-the-whole-nine-yards

Seems that this one is a little more difficult to pin down, but the consensus is that it has to do with the amount of fabric used.

Yeah, I've heard that explanation before. There are a ton of origin theories for this one. But I've never really understood why any of them would ever catch on in a big way.

jone70 said:

That's the bee's knees. I know it means that something is the very best,

most excellent, or cool; but why are the bee's knees so cool? For that matter,

do bees even have knees?

obsessed said:

Alej said:

Let's look for the purple banana till they put us in the truck.

What the fuck?

well...in his defense, it is about going crazy

NDRU said:

purpledoveuk said:

obsessed said:

That's the bee's knees. I know it means that something is the very best,

most excellent, or cool; but why are the bee's knees so cool? For that matter,

do bees even have knees?

Something I can answer (I specialised in entomology...you have no idea how many years I've waited to say that ) Bees do have knees in as much as they have joints but It's usually considered that a knee involves a cap (patella) of some form at but bees don't. The saying...I dont know - it may be a mishmash of 'business' but that wouldn't makes sense in itself and, as for the idea that it comes from the fact bees carry pollen behind their knees...they don't so it can't be true. Did I tell you I specialised in entomology ? [Edited 6/20/11 11:18am]

Thank you! I'm still a bit confused about the mishmash of 'business', but that's OK.

I'm just happy that you finally got to tell us that you specialized in entomology!

I could have used some of your knowledge in high school(millions of years ago) when

I was collecting bugs for my biology class. Actually, I thought it was fun, but then

didn't end up with a very good grade on my collection; and here I thought it was top-notch!

Just goes to show what I knew!

"A cat could have kittens in the oven but that don't make them biscuits!"

"I'll kill you dead before I see you wrong"

"Turn the other cheek"

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

"It is what it is"

"He did a 360"

"I'm not a woman, I'm not a man, I am something that you'll never understand"

HotGritz said:

Do u promise 2 Love Honour & Obey!!!!!!!

purpledoveuk said:

obsessed said:

That's the bee's knees. I know it means that something is the very best,

most excellent, or cool; but why are the bee's knees so cool? For that matter,

do bees even have knees?

Something I can answer (I specialised in entomology...you have no idea how many years I've waited to say that ) Bees do have knees in as much as they have joints but It's usually considered that a knee involves a cap (patella) of some form at but bees don't. The saying...I dont know - it may be a mishmash of 'business' but that wouldn't makes sense in itself and, as for the idea that it comes from the fact bees carry pollen behind their knees...they don't so it can't be true. Did I tell you I specialised in entomology ? [Edited 6/20/11 11:18am]

Now there's something you don't hear everyday...

purpledoveuk said:

obsessed said:

That's the bee's knees. I know it means that something is the very best,

most excellent, or cool; but why are the bee's knees so cool? For that matter,

do bees even have knees?

Something I can answer (I specialised in entomology...you have no idea how many years I've waited to say that ) Bees do have knees in as much as they have joints but It's usually considered that a knee involves a cap (patella) of some form at but bees don't. The saying...I dont know - it may be a mishmash of 'business' but that wouldn't makes sense in itself and, as for the idea that it comes from the fact bees carry pollen behind their knees...they don't so it can't be true. Did I tell you I specialised in entomology ? [Edited 6/20/11 11:18am]

You rock! I love a smartyvpants!

"Before we work on artificial intelligence why don't we do something about natural stupidity?" ~Steve Polyak

Umm... yeah. ..... that's all.

"Any last words?"

Like I need to give you an explanation before you shoot me anyway lol

CallMeCarrie said:

JustErin said:

Stax said:

Here is one: "You can't compare apples to oranges."

I think it is supposed to mean "apples and oranges are totally different and, thus, you can't compare them."

But that makes no damn sense. The whole point of comparison is to determine how two things are alike and how they are different.

Of course I can compare an apple to an orange. Watch me.

An apple is spherical in shape. So is an orange, but more so.

An apple is usually red, but an orange is, well, orange.

Both have seeds.

Both are fruit.

See, I just compared an apple to an orange.

[Edited 6/16/11 15:37pm]

Can I have your babies?

The saying is 'Like comparing apples to oranges'

It's applied when somebody mistankenly compares two unrelated items as though they are equal when providing an argument/point.