I think I picked that one up from the 60’s Batman show. Odd that The Penguin would be a good influence on my vocabulary.
May I assume you’re familiar with the addendum: “…and those who can’t teach, teach teaching”?
Usually, the cat isn’t dead in that phrase. Could they have been laughing at your alteration?
“That movie has legs.”
Not well known outside of show biz.
[hijack] My favorite Yogi story occurred in 2003 at the Yankees’ home opener. A list of the deceased great Yankees players was flashed up onto the scoreboard. Whitey Ford told the New York Post that as he and Yogi were walking off the field together, Yogi said, “I hope I never see my name up there.” [/hijack]
The cats I’ve swung were always dead first.
Never heard of a bumbershoot.
My (answer) phrase which gets blanks looks: “Or what.” (In response to a sarcastic question like “Is this great, or what?”)
Huh? You swing a live cat?
Not unless you want your forearms all clawed up and bloody.
My wife looked at me funny the first time I used “rat’s nest” to describe a tangled mess of cables. She had never heard that, and had always used “wasp’s nest” to describe the same thing, which is totally nonsensical to me; wasps are actually pretty orderly.
Of course I do! The dead ones don’t really swing, being all stiff and rigor-mortissy.
FWIW “room to swing a cat” gets about 710,000 hits on Google; “room to swing a dead cat” only gets 6990.
Bringing this full circle, I had not. However, I entirely relate.
The version I heard ends with “…and those who can’t teach, administrate.”
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” - I had to explain that one to my team mates.
I referenced the Marx Brothers and got a bunch of blank looks also. Kids these days - no knowledge of the classics. More to come, but I’m off to the saltmine. Not sure my co-workers have heard that one before.
I once thought that everyone knew that “show your ass” meant to act out in public, not literally show your ass. But apparently not. Must be a Southern thing.
I’ve heard both “rat’s nest” and “mare’s nest”, but never heard “wasps’ nest”.
I refer to reading glasses as “cheaters”, and gotten quite a few strange looks for that.
It’s funny that in this thread, it’s obvious that many of the posters don’t know what “No room to swing a cat” means.
It refers to a cat o nine tails
My best friend and I were watching American Pickers the other night. Mike said, “I’ll be on that like a duck on a June bug!” My friend burst out laughing. “Where does he come up with those sayings?” She asked. She’d never heard it before.
Several times, when I used “Have you stopped beating your wife?” in a debate, I got indignant replies about how I dared to suggest they are violent towards their spouse.
“Bumbershoot”? Count me as one of the ignorant ones.
Except that the first recorded use of the phrase actually pre-dates the first recorded use of the name ‘cat o nine tails’. So that doesn’t really stand up. Sorry.
Me too, assuming that my current age (36) is considered late 30s.
The only time I’ve ever come across it is in reading Gone with the Wind, where it appears a number of times.