Metaphor and Reality: Bull in a China Shop (Add Your Own)

[BlackShanglan]

This has to be my favorite Mythbusters investigation of all time. The Youtube link has the whole sub-episode on the "like a bull in a china shop" metaphor, but for the really amazing footage, you can jump forward to about the last third of the segment.

Bull ballet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQvJPr8THlw

Clearly, it's time to retire this metaphor. Any more?

 

[BlackShanglan]

Oh, and I can't find footage right now, but the Mythbusters also recently offered a convincing demonstration that describing a volatile and potentially explosive situation or temper as "like a powder keg" is beautifully apt.

 

[Handprints]

Clearly, it's time to retire this metaphor. Any more?

"All hat and no cattle." Maybe it's because I'm not Texan but the mental image this conjures up for me usually renders me unable to speak for a moment.

Regards,
H

 

[rgraham666]

'Crazier than a snake's armpit' has always been one of my faves.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Here are a few old-fashioned, rural, and/or southern expressions that might need a bit of testing.


Madder than a wet hen

Busy as a one-armed paper hanger

Busier than a one-legged Indian at a butt kicking

Hot/Red as a goat’s butt in a pepper patch

Hotter than the hinges of hell

Cold as a well digger’s ass in Idaho

Colder than a witch’s tit in a brass brassier

Bigger than a two-hole outhouse

Handy as a pocket on a shirt


Rumple Foreskin

 

[BlackShanglan]

"All hat and no cattle." Maybe it's because I'm not Texan but the mental image this conjures up for me usually renders me unable to speak for a moment.

Regards,
H

That's a relatively new phrase to me as well, and I always end up seeing an enormous hat with shoes peeking out from under it, wiggling as someone inside talks in a muffled voice.

I rather like it.

 

[Vermilion]

That's a relatively new phrase to me as well, and I always end up seeing an enormous hat with shoes peeking out from under it, wiggling as someone inside talks in a muffled voice.

I rather like it.

Sounds like the 'all mouth and no trousers' phrase to me...

as in - lots of big claims, but not the bottle (or balls) to back it up.

My favourite saying of this type, though, is 'Fur coat and no knickers' - some controversy as to its precise meaning, but I still like it.
x
V

 

[TE999]

Some that come to mind are:

Dumb as--a box of rocks
a stump
ditch carp.

Slow as--cold molasses
smoke offa shit
snail with rheumatiz.

Ugly as:--sin
a mud fence
a bulldogs ass.

Be 'on' you like:--a duck on a June bug
white on rice
ugly on an ape.

Dead as:--a hammer
John Brown
a stomped on toad frog.

I'll think of more I'm sure.

 

[CharleyH]

I have always been amused by the expression, 'Lazy as a whore'.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

"Swearing like a brush-binder" - aren't brushes bound by machines these days?

 

[slyc_willie]

"Like flies on shit."

"Sicker'n a dog." (You have to say it that way, preferrably with a southern or East Texas accent; and why are dogs considered sick?)

"Slept like a log." (last I checked, logs didn't sleep -- yes, I understand the reference)

"Sweating like/nervous as a whore in church." (I still hear people use this one, and I always give them funny looks)

"Shaking like a leaf." (I have never actually seen a leaf shake. Fall, yes, get blown around, but never shake)

 

[trysail]

"He (she) is as rich as nine yards up a bull's ass."
(this is, presumably, obvious)

"He'll hit the hip for you."
(Someone who can be relied upon)

"Built like a brick shithouse."
(Something that's sturdily constructed)

"Three sheets to the wind."
(obvious to sailors, but for landlubbers- a colloquialism for being stinking drunk)

"Swallow the anchor."
(Retire from the sea)

 

[Liar]

Bull ballet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQvJPr8THlw

Clearly, it's time to retire this metaphor. Any more?

More bull ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9wh3kyMKJU

 

[starrkers]

Sticks like shit to a blanket
Nutty as a fruitcake

Old Aussie favourites:
He/she shot through like a Bondi tram (someone left in a hurry)
He's pissed as a tick
Drier than a dead dingo's donger (thirsty)
Flat out like a lizard drinking (busy)

 

[slyc_willie]

More bull ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9wh3kyMKJU

To quote the esteemed philosopher B. Bunny:

"What a gulla-bull! What a nin-cow-poop!"

 

[christabelll]

Nervous as: a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs
a whore in church with a 50 dollar date outside

 

[glynndah]

My favorite: grinning like a possum chewing on yellow jackets

 

[Lisa Denton]

Southern sayin I made up myself.

Shania Twain puts the cunt in country.

 

[Lisa Denton]

This has to be my favorite Mythbusters investigation of all time. The Youtube link has the whole sub-episode on the "like a bull in a china shop" metaphor, but for the really amazing footage, you can jump forward to about the last third of the segment.

Bull ballet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQvJPr8THlw

Clearly, it's time to retire this metaphor. Any more?

This might be a metaphor about a child calling the police. Its also one of my favorites on youtube, people put many things on there, and this is an actual t.v show. Many, many moons ago, I dunno how long because I first saw this show on the late nite re-runs, when Willian Shatner wasn't old, he did a reality type show called "Rescue 911" that was awesome. They would recreate events involving people calling 911 for help.

It is titled "Arlington" because it takes place in Arlington,Texas. I researched this true story several years ago and found out several things. The police of course thought the father in the story was involved in something like drugs or crime but after investigating concluded he was not. The burglar of course wasn't able to tell his side but apparently it was just a random home invasion robbery.

To clarify a few things without giving the story away, the burglar has a handgun, the father keeps an unloaded hunting rifle in the house that the son knows where is and how to load it, and there was no second robber outside.

Without further ado, here is the true story of an eight year old girl calling 911 for help while her father fights a robber with a gun and knife. The girl does great at first, but the call goes into a communications fustercluck before long, after all, she is only eight years old.

Rescue 911 -- Arlington

Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGqHQelCe_A

Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTF9PhTjDMk&NR=1

 

[keeblercrumb]

This has to be my favorite Mythbusters investigation of all time. The Youtube link has the whole sub-episode on the "like a bull in a china shop" metaphor, but for the really amazing footage, you can jump forward to about the last third of the segment.

Bull ballet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQvJPr8THlw

Clearly, it's time to retire this metaphor. Any more?

I always seem to be telling these stories.... sorry.. but things just remind me of them.... This is about an old metaphor being lost in translation..

Our Construction Manager early on here in Russia was a big, tough and very bright guy from the "old school" of construction.. Dale was also from Rural Arkansas and given to colorful speech to say the least. When it came to getting things done, Dale was more than a match for our Russian contractors, pretty tough in their own right.

Dale was in the middle of a pretty good rant trying to motivate a contractor.... The whole conversation was being translated by Kostya, an earnest young interpreter in our employ. Dale was keen that every word be translated to insure communication, and Kostya had learned to take that advice to heart. .... The contractor tried to offer a defense that he as being held up by the lack of some material....

Dale listened to the translation before he blistered the man, closing with……
"there is more than one god damned way to skin a cat!”

There was a pause as Kostya blinked his eyes a few times and finally proceeded to translate it into Russian. The contractor also looked a little shocked and quietly nodded his concurrence… and the meeting soon adjourned.

After the contractor had left, a somewhat ashen faced Kostya returned to the room where Dale and I were still chatting and asked…

“Are we really going to kill a cat?”

After years of hearing about us bloodthirsty imperialist types… here, finally, was the evidence that it was all true.



(I am sad to report that Dale died of cancer a year later… but his legend lives on with all who knew him)..

-KC

 

[neonlyte]

Are not most of the posted examples similes rather than metaphors? On the other hand, who am I to be questioning grammar One of the few grammar lessons I retained was that saying 'X was like Y' was a simile, whereas X is Y is a metaphor... which leaves me wondering about 'low-tar cigarettes', probably a misnomer.

 

[Stella_Omega]

"Sweating like/nervous as a whore in church." (I still hear people use this one, and I always give them funny looks)

Tell me about it-- two of the most devout women I've known were hookers.

"Shaking like a leaf." (I have never actually seen a leaf shake. Fall, yes, get blown around, but never shake)

Quaking Aspen, Poplar, Ash...

 

[BlackShanglan]

Keebler, your story reminded me of one I heard from a colleague. He'd been working in manufacturing and was sent to Russia to examine a factory his employers were considering buying. The news from his fact-finding expedition was not good; the factory was in poor shape at every level, and the last day of their visit involved them presenting, to the assembled staff of the factory, their findings. It was not a happy occasion.

My colleague, attempting rather hopelessly to inject some note of cheer, drew near the conclusion of his speech (the last before they would be addressed by some sort of government minister) with the observation that "the opera isn't over until the fat lady sings," i.e., the situation isn't quite doomed yet, which to his astonishment drew gales of laughter and seemed to cheer everyone immensely. He was baffled by his success but happy to take credit for it.

Then he sat down, and the doors opened for the government minister to enter. She was the biggest, fattest woman he'd ever seen in his life.

 

[starrkers]

Are not most of the posted examples similes rather than metaphors? On the other hand, who am I to be questioning grammar One of the few grammar lessons I retained was that saying 'X was like Y' was a simile, whereas X is Y is a metaphor... which leaves me wondering about 'low-tar cigarettes', probably a misnomer.

Yes they are. I thought that after I posted mine.
Scouries is an ass is a metaphor, as well as the truth.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I thought the expression was "like a bull in a vagina shop."

No wonder no one ever took my concerns seriously.

--Zoot