# Common analogies that almost no one really understands? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082 "2006-03-20T03:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrtyBlvd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DrtyBlvd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrtyBlvd)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/41 "2006-03-23T23:56:15Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > The Whole Nine Yards. Even The Perfect Master is uncertain of the origins of this phrase. It was used to denote expending all of ones’ ammunition in one ‘press’ from the wing mounted World War two planes, the P52 I think - the ammo belts were 9 yards long… ---
**Author:** ![Faruiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Faruiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faruiza)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/42 "2006-03-23T23:57:38Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > The Whole Nine Yards. Even The Perfect Master is uncertain of the origins of this phrase. Ooooh! Me! Meeeee! I know this one. Your typical concrete transport truck holds nine cubic yards of concrete. When you want everything in the vessel, you’re getting the whole nine yards. ---
**Author:** ![DrtyBlvd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DrtyBlvd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrtyBlvd)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/43 "2006-03-23T23:59:11Z")
Ack - Missed a comma, looks like I am certain - add one after the P52 please and re-read! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/44 "2006-03-24T00:03:51Z")
The Master Speaks: [The Whole Nine Yards](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_252.html) ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/45 "2006-03-24T00:08:47Z")
Are we doing analogies here, or just general figures of speech? [/jr mod] ---
**Author:** ![Faruiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Faruiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faruiza)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/46 "2006-03-24T00:24:53Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > The Master Speaks: > > [The Whole Nine Yards](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_252.html) Well, damn. Won’t be the last time I’m wrong to be sure. How can you blame me? I work in the construction industry…most notably in the part of it that uses concrete trucks a whooooole lot. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DrtyBlvd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DrtyBlvd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrtyBlvd)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/47 "2006-03-24T01:49:22Z")
ROFL - I would have put money on your concrete idea! (Until I read better;) I never realised this particular expression was so, err, ‘unauthenticated’ ! ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/48 "2006-03-24T09:46:11Z")
**"The pot calling the kettle black"** I think everyone understands that one even though most of us don’t cook in a big black iron pot or have a big black kettle. But I used to watch sheep in the meadow from my kitchen window while I washed dishes! **"Throw the baby out with the bathwater"** Does that still make sense? ---
**Author:** ![QuarkChild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c5a1d2/32.png) [@QuarkChild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuarkChild)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/49 "2006-03-24T10:09:40Z")
I just got a puppy, after never having lived with one before. When I see him trotting around after me, I always think, “Wow, he’s following me around like a puppy…oh.” But I don’t think that phrase will become obsolete any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![blueslipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@blueslipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueslipper)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/50 "2006-03-24T12:02:13Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > \*\* > > **"Throw the baby out with the bathwater"** Does that still make sense? [http://english1010.com/throw\_the\_baby\_out\_with\_the\_bathwater.htm](http://english1010.com/throw_the_baby_out_with_the_bathwater.htm) Throw the baby out with the bathwater Meaning: We use this expression when we want to keep the valuable things when we get rid of the things we don’t want. It is usually used in the negative to mean that we don’t want to throw out the good stuff when we throw out the bad stuff. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/51 "2006-03-24T12:57:57Z")
How about Sweating Like A Pig As has been pointed out many times, Pigs _don’t sweat_, which makes this analogy particularly pointless. Of course, the real meaning must be something like “Sweating _so much and so pungently that you smell_ Like A Pig”. Having grown up near the Rutgers College Agriicultural Station (or, as we called it when I was little, “The Piggy Farm”), I very early learned what pigs in much smell like. Our daughter MilliCal has been to enough farms to appreciate this one, too, but I’ll bet a lot of city and suburban folk haven’t first-hand olfactory experience of a pig. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/52 "2006-03-24T13:50:49Z")
> [@DrtyBlvd](#): > > Ack - Missed a comma, looks like I am certain - add one after the P52 please and re-read! 🙂 It would be a P51. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/53 "2006-03-24T16:25:27Z")
Funny - my friend and I were recently discussing the phrase “water under the bridge.” Which confused the heck out of us. It basically means it’s in the past, right? Shouldn’t we say it’s “water that passed under the bridge a long time ago?” Even then it sounds rather odd. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/54 "2006-03-24T16:28:37Z")
I used to abhor anutical clichés, but I’ve come about. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/55 "2006-03-24T16:29:48Z")
And then I even stopped spelling “nautical”. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082/56 "2006-03-25T00:07:28Z")
> [@twopiecesofeight](#): > > A friend told me she’s met younger people who don’t get it when she says this. > > I told her to use “You people are beginning to sound like a skipping (or scratched) CD” instead. > > For some reason, a phrase by Douglas Adams really sticks in my head: “As pretty as an airport.” Newer airports are much classier these days, so I don’t know if the analogy is as effective if I use it among non-geeks. CDs skip the same way records do, except much faster, so instead of repeating two or three words over and over, it’ll repeat about one sound. But CDs ALSO skip forward, omitting a few seconds of material, which is totally different. I don’t think “… hung in the air in exactly the way bricks don’t” will become obsolete for a very long time, if at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-analogies-that-almost-no-one-really-understands/349082.md?page=2)