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ENJOYING 1

THE MANY AMENITIES of North Vancouver’s Silver Harbour Centre,

Helen Smith finishes off a hand-made pot in the Centre’s hobby room. See story on
- page 10 opposite [Hanne Mortil photo}. oe

‘the bag when we went into
. the’ community newspaper
business a'month ago. Since
‘then it’s been touch and go
: but no one has given us the
cold shoulder. and I don’t
think we will be hoist on our
~ petard. It will be a close call
_ but we'll make it...

So now all we have to do is

to grind out enough cliches:

and it will be a ‘horse of a
different color. . oo

All of which. makes. me
“wonder: once | again, | as’ a
professional “"wordsmith,
about this business of using:
words whose’ meaning
“totally unknown tous: For. a
long time, I have ‘made, ‘a
‘minor hobby, out. of: finding —
the meanings and origins of
‘¢liches and } can report that «
“letting the cat out of. the
is a phrase going back
to medieval. times. when
people went to market where
they would often ‘‘buy a pig
in a poke’’.
rip-off artists then, too, the
customer sometimes. found,
when he opened the poke,
that he had purchased a cat
rather than a piglet. In other.
words, he had been ripped-
off - and what does that
mean? When you rip some-
one off, what do you rip? And

how? And why? Can anyone

help me on that one?

our |

Probably readers

won't. know the meaning of.

rip-off since they are not:
“hipp ies. - ‘and what is a
“hippy? I know that it comes

“out of San ‘Francisco in the

60's where there were. people
who were hip. But what does
hip mean?,

’

Since they had.

It’s all Greek to me. It is
also Dutch.

i do know that touch-and- —
go is a_ seagoing term
meaning that the ship has
touched a reef-and gone on.
In other worlds, it was a close
call. And what is a close call? |
‘Some people say it is a.
baseball expression but it

eel stanley
=> Burke |

. pre-dates baseball by many _

years. Is is perhaps a cricket _

The ‘cold. "shoulder. was
what you received in ‘ancient,
times when’ you were: not:
offered hot food on arrival -in
a house.- You were simply
told to.whack .off.a hunk of

cold meat from the side-

board.

To be hoist on your own
petard is another medieval
expression and it refers to
the storming of a castle. The
petard was an_ explosive —
device which was supposed’
to blow a hole in the. wooden
gate but which ‘sometimes
blew holes. in. the wooden- —
headed warriors’ who
off. Military men in those
days, as now, sometimes got.
carried. away by their own
technology - and sometimes |

got carriedout by it. The |

petard is a” French ‘word |
which literally ‘means .wind- -
break and the petard: was.
screwed to: the ‘castle. gate

‘

et it:

and v was: supposed. to. deflect:
the blast ‘inward. against the
gate -. but, as I. said,
sometimes went in the other
. direction: “against the | gate-_

crashérs. ; an

‘When you get to studying
these cliches you realize that"
they are long in the tooth -
and does that one need
explanation? In this rubber-

-tired world, maybe it does.

People who are not yet long
in the tooth, and whose
closest contact with a ‘horse.
has been on the television
screen, may be unaware that
a horse's teeth grow longer
as it ages. Anyway, it seems
to be that we need new
cliches geared to the modern
age, and I invite readers to
-make contributions.

' tof . a

Asa starter, here area few
sayings which I think deserve
"to opereme cliches:

UA Rolling Stone Gathers: a
High Polish.

Look as You Leap - at Least
You'll | Know | Where’ You
. Were. ; Oy

A Penny Saved isa Penny
Removed from the Purchas-
ing Power'of the Nation.

Many ‘Hands Make High
Production ‘Costs and = Price
Us Out of the Markets of the

Worlds

Hmmmm - that one is
getting too close to the bone
so I'd better stop. i

Close to ‘the bone? : What -
| the hell does that mean ‘-

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