sketched out

I don’t want to get all up on my High Horse or anything, but I’m done. Stick a fork in me I’m done!

Actually, it was a really great experience and I sort of hate to see it end. So, I may do it again some time in the future. But for now, I am free to do as I please, which actually, probably won’t be all that much different from this exercise, hee hee!

You just never know, do ya?

Thanks everyone for all your great comments, feedback and cheering me on. I really appreciate it more than you can know. You’re all a stupendous bunch, you wonderful bloggers and blog readers you!

When the cat’s away, the mice will play

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The cat was barely out the door, before the card game began.

Unfortunately Seymour thought they were playing “Go Fish,” and was accused of cheating at Poker by his unsavory friends.

If her clothes didn’t end up severely stretched out and reeking of wet dog, Sheila Sheepington-Fleecewater would probably have less of a problem with the wolf borrowing them.

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It’s been a while, so thought it was high time to do an animal idiom.

One uses this saying to describe someone or something that seems to be good but is actually bad. There seems to be a few different ideas about it’s origin, but here is what Wikipedia has to say about it.

Mortimer became a mole, not for any political reasons, nor was it a passion for intrigue… he simply liked the trench coat and all the cool gadgets.

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Kathy of Moongazing Hare bestowed this award upon me, which is really an honor, since I just adore her work! Thanks so much Kathy!

The rules of accepting are as follows:-
1) Put the logo on your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

You know, I’ve met so many lovely people and visit so many “Brillante” blogs that I am tempted to just list all of them… but that would be a ridiculously long list and a cumbersome task, and I’m way too lazy to work that hard.

So I’m going to follow the rules and hone the list down to 7. Whoops, forgive me, I messed up, there’s 8… oh well, you see, it’s reeeeeally difficult.

Here’s my list in alphabetical order… drum roll please:

Alicia of My Place over the Hill

Colleen of The Frog Blog

Eli of Art by Eli and creator of “Critters”, (a great comic strip)

Gina of Dua Mata Saya

Julia of Bobo’s Fun Place

Laurel of Studio Lolo

Radha of Ratlion’s Den

Roberta of A Mouse in the House

You guys are Brillante!!!!

Well, the heat wave is over, for the moment. It’ll be back and I have fudgesicles at the ready.

In the mean time, here are some hot, hot chicks for your animal idiom pleasure. ( It’ will be interesting to see how much traffic I get via the search words ‘Hot Chicks.’)

Henrietta prided herself on being one of the rare hens with teeth and never failed to brush them.

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I’m still on this animal idiom kick. I imagine it’s because ideas for daily sketches can be a bit elusive at times and this theme is pretty rich with visuals. Why, I haven’t even exhausted the chicken phrases yet.

Let’s see, there was the “chicken who crossed the road”, supposedly to get to the other side. However, I think that’s “a cock-and -bull story.” If she hadn’t “counted her chickens before they hatched”, she may not have “chickened out”. Now, she’ll have to wait “till the “chickens come home to roost.”

Sorry, had to get that get that off my chest.

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I’m cheating a bit. This is from an older post. I freshened Henrietta up a bit with some color and pushed her chicken butt back on the stage. If you would like to see the older post and the black and white image, take a look here.

The Illustration Friday theme this week is “Fail.”

NIGHTMARE

I woke up with a start today,
because my dream went wayward.
I dreamt I went to my first class,
naked as a jaybird.

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“Naked as a jaybird” seems an odd phrase, especially when you consider the blue jay is quite nicely outfitted in blue, feathery, finery. However, I couldn’t really tell you the origin of this idiom, although some folks speculate that the term may have something to do with the youngsters of the jay family.  Baby jays, featherless, (naked, you might say) have a tendency to get so overexcited and impatient about getting out there and flying, that they sometimes clumsily plop right out of their nests. So, I suppose we can just go with that one, unless anyone out there can unlock the secret.

Hee hee, little naked jaybirds scrambling about on the ground, waiting for mama jay to bail them out. How embarrassing, eh? Wonder if they ever dreamt that would happen.

CAT-BIRD seated.

If you are sitting in the “Catbird Seat” you are sitting pretty, or in a favored position. You have the upper hand, an advantage.

Now there seems to be a bit of debate on whether the legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber coined this phrase or if he borrowed the folksy phrase from his Southern origins. Some feel he may have lifted the phrase from James Thurber’s 1942 short story of the same name “The Catbird Seat.” However, according to Wikipedia, Barber’s daughter claims her dad began using the phrase only after reading Thurber’s story. But then Red Barber says Thurber purloined the term from him… and so it goes, back and forth. Is it really important? Not so much.

In another part of the world, the Australian bowerbird is also known as the catbird. This little guy is known for his elaborate, artistic displays, in order to attract a mate. Some males will gather up hundreds of shells, colored glass or rock and arrange them into a remarkable “seat” upon which his potential mate will be enthroned. A favored postion? Sitting pretty perhaps?

Hmmmmm. I think I get it now.

Well, regardless of the etymology, it seems our hero above, in the makeshift bird costume, as hard as he may be trying, is not fooling anyone, least of all his little bird friend. Cat-bird is in anything but a favored postion. Nor is he sitting or otherwise pretty.

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As an aside, I hadn’t realized until looking up the etymology for this phrase that the bowerbird would be involved. Ironically, my friend Laurel at Studio Lolo had posted a beautiful painting of one of these magical fellows. Take a look.

The fact that her job as hostess
at the Olive Garden was
less than lucrative, did not stop Thelma
from putting on the dog last Saturday night.

.

I sometimes feel as though, despite my frantic speeding about, a snail’s pace is all I am actually achieving. Do you ever feel that way?

or

“You’re not going to be happy until you put someone’s eye out
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A bull’s-eye is the center of a target in both archery and darts. The shot taken to achieve this feat is called hitting the bull’s-eye.

Although originally a sports term, bull’s-eye can be used for pretty much any design or pattern utilizing concentric circles. Bull’s-eye can also be used to describe a lens of short focal length, a circular window, a piece of glass inserted into a ship’s deck, or those round, striped mints you stuff into your pockets when the waitress isn’t looking, as you leave the restaurant. That’s right, I know you do.

Being quite the versatile idiom, hitting the bull’s-eye along with hit the mark and hit the nail on the head is used when someone or something is absolutely correct. For example:

“Honey, your remark about my butt looking fat in these jeans really hit the bull’s-eye. Now here’s your pillow. Enjoy sleeping on the couch tonight.”

Anywho… bull’s-eye… versatile… oh yes, the origin. Yeah, no luck there. It may have been used since the 17th century, but the etymology seems to be a mystery. At least none of my sophisticated sources (Google) has revealed anything.

I do have one question however. Why a bull’s eye? Why not a fish or a bird or a bunny’s eye? How about dinosaur’s eye? Something to think about when you don’t have anything more important to ponder.

When we’d rather not reveal the source of the slanderous gossip we are whispering into the ear of our co-worker, we might find ourselves using the phrase “a little bird told me.” Yeah, it’s a cute saying and people have been using it for ions, but why? We all know birds can’t talk?

Or can they?

We all know that teaching a parrot to mimic certain words is possible, but are they capable of more?

As I perused the March issue of “National Geographic” I came across an article called “Minds of their Own, Animals are smarter than you think.” In this article, among many fascinating examples, was one about an African gray parrot named Alex. Alex not only spoke, but he spoke his mind, so to speak.

His owner roommate, Irene Pepperberg decided to teach him to reproduce the sound of the English language so she could then ask him questions about how he saw the world. She did this at a time when most scientist thought of animals as automatons, incapable of any thought. Animals were thought to be merely robots programmed to react to stimuli, nothing more.

One of the ways Pepperberg demonstrated Alex’s ability to think was to hold up a green key and a green cup.

She asked Alex, “What’s the same?”

Without hesitation, Alex said “Co-lor.”

She then asked “What’s different.”

“Shape.” Alex squawked.

Alex also had his own name for apples, one of his favorite foods. Because they tasted a bit like banana to him and because they looked a bit like cherries, Alex made up a name for them: ‘ban-erry.”

Y’all really have to read this article.

Amazing what you can do with a brain the size of a shelled walnut.

RED HERRING

Most film buffs know that a “red herring” is a plot device used in film noir, murder mysteries and suspense films, to distract the audience away from the more important aspect of the plot. The red herring can sometimes be a character, believed by the audience to be the killer, only to discover later in the film that they are innocent and another character, never even considered is, in fact, the murderer.

Now that you have your twist ending, do you know where the term red herring originated?

Wikipedia tells us:

A tradition whereby young hunting dogs in Britain were trained to follow a scent with the use of a “red” (salted and smoked) herring. This pungent fish would be dragged across a trail until the puppy learned to follow the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odor of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring (which has a much stronger odor) across the animal’s trail at right angles. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent.

I’ve also heard that British fugitives in the 1800s would rub a herring across their trail, in order to divert the bloodhounds pursuing them.

All this talk is whetting my appetite for a bit of kipperes and toast (not) and a Hitchcock film or two.