# Too mini for the BBQ Pit...a rant **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 4, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277 "2011-06-04T02:20:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/1 "2011-06-04T02:20:51Z")
“Don’t look a gifthorse in the mouth” This does not mean that a person is not showing proper appreciation for a gift. It means that they are expecting the gift to be “more”, or “better” than it is. They are looking inside the gifthorse’s mouth to see if there is anything else for them inside of it, having exhausted the contents of the bags the horse was carrying. That’s why it’s a gift _horse_, because the horse was needed to carry all the _gifts_. A generous thing received by someone who not only does not appreciate it, but expects more than they received. Get it? Are there really any arguments about this one? I thought it’s meaning was clear and common. I see from it’s constant misuse that I was wrong. :smack: Disagree? Or have a super mini-rant that stems from a legitimate act of ignorance by another? Let’s share! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Teufelblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@Teufelblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teufelblitz)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/2 "2011-06-04T02:25:08Z")
I would only quibble that looking it the mouth is assessing the quality of the horse (determining age by teeth, etc), not looking for valuables stuffed inside. In the latter case, it may be easier to wait a day and look the horse in the arse. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/3 "2011-06-04T02:29:59Z")
Yeah, I was taught that it’s being picky and suspicious - that you’d check the teeth of a horse for age if you suspected the “gift” was not a good as it appeared superficially. Now, this could be a load of Dingo’s Kidneys, for all I know, but it makes more sense than your version. Why would a horse suffer gifts being stored in her mouth? What gift could you possibly keep there? A shiny gold bit? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/4 "2011-06-04T02:32:47Z")
Yeah, it’s being picky and exacting without having expended any effort of one’s own. “I know it’s a gift, but is it good enough for me?” ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/5 "2011-06-04T02:46:54Z")
> [@echo6160](#): > > They are looking inside the gifthorse’s mouth to see if there is anything else for them inside of it, having exhausted the contents of the bags the horse was carrying. That’s why it’s a gift _horse_, because the horse was needed to carry all the _gifts_. > ! Eh, is this a joke? The horse is the gift. You can determine a horse’s age by examining it’s teeth. When someone gives you a free horse, don’t stand around checking to see how old it is. In other words, don’t evaluate the merit of people’s gifts to you. or even more simply, “be grateful for what you receive.” Modernization would be: don’t look under the hood of a gift car. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/6 "2011-06-04T02:58:13Z")
I’ve never heard the OP’s version either. Why would someone put a gift in a horse’s mouth? I’d imagine the horse would swallow it. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/7 "2011-06-04T03:02:21Z")
Maybe the horse’s mouth is full of chocolate. [QUOTE=echo6160] They are looking inside the gifthorse’s mouth to see if there is anything else for them inside of it, having exhausted the contents of the bags the horse was carrying. That’s why it’s a gift _horse_, because the horse was needed to carry all the _gifts_. [/QUOTE] This is hilarious and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/8 "2011-06-04T03:03:43Z")
I’m reminded of the poster who was absolutely convinced it was “creamed cheese,” and that everyone else was simply wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/9 "2011-06-04T03:21:34Z")
I love the little details like the horse having bags full of gifts, too. Maybe we should do a full body cavity search too, to make sure the horse hasn’t keistered a significant quantity of Special K. I feel kind of bad for laughing. There are things in my general knowledge bank that I learned when I was a kid before I had a bullshit detector. Every once in a while I’ll think about something that I thought I knew, and be like, “Whoa, how did I ever believe that?” And this goes double for anything religiously related. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/10 "2011-06-04T03:26:59Z")
I know the saying is: “Don’t look a gifthorse in the mouth” …but shouldn’t it be?: “Don’t look in a gifthorse’s mouth” …or? “Don’t look in the mouth of a gifthorse” ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/11 "2011-06-04T08:05:27Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I’m reminded of the poster who was absolutely convinced it was “creamed cheese,” and that everyone else was simply wrong. I’m reminded of when a Doper confessed to thinking Jerry Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis were the same person. The quote he used was, “Goodness gracious great balls of HEY LADY!!” Don’t remember who it was, though. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/12 "2011-06-04T10:07:01Z")
That was [lno](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=62082) in an awesome rant thread. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/13 "2011-06-04T12:04:03Z")
As the OP said, he/she later realized they were wrong. Also (IMO) it’s “gift horse”, not “gifthorse”. Anyhow, anybody else got a mini-rant they want to share? That is what the OP asked for. Mine today is pretty pitiful: It’s a beautiful Saturday in my favorite time of year & I need to go to work both today & tomorrow. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Charley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/97f17d/32.png) [@Charley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charley)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/14 "2011-06-04T12:53:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > As the OP said, he/she later realized they were wrong. I didn’t read it that way - more that the OP thought everyone understood the ‘correct’ interpretation, but now believes they were wrong about that. But, yeah - the OP’s interpretation makes no sense to me. I’ll mini-rant though. Couldn’t sleep last night, obviously, since I’m stuffed to the gills with baby, so I went into the spare room so I could read and not disturb my husband. The cat came sniffing around me and was wonderfully sweet, mudging up and settling down beautifully to sleep next to me. (For background, I should point out that our cat is like a prototype version - she is pure cat as far as I’m concerned. She’s arsey, independent, rarely interested in putting herself out just to please anyone else. She’ll demand attention on her terms but refuse it on any other occasion. We all kind of admire her spirit). We dozed together, until I was tired enough to go back to bed for real. I felt really well-disposed towards her. This morning I find that after I went to my own bed, she’s weed in two separate places on the spare duvet. Aaaaaargh! There’s nothing wrong with her, she just sometimes decides she can’t be bothered to go outside. I feel like I’ve been suckered by her! She pretended to be sweet and lovely, then as soon as I let my guard down she shows her contempt for her humans. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/15 "2011-06-04T13:54:44Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I’m reminded of the poster who was absolutely convinced it was “creamed cheese,” and that everyone else was simply wrong. A [favorite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=486331&highlight=creamed+cheese) to be sure. When my daughter was 5, she was convinced that “tank top” was “tang top”, and she would get so freakin’ belligerent about it. My mini mini-rant is that I jabbed the roof of my mouth with a cracker and it hurts. Like, stupid hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/16 "2011-06-04T18:09:24Z")
The real tragedy is when the recepients become convinced their gifts were stuffed inside the horse like a pinata. They tie the gift horse up in a tree and begin beating it with sticks to get the prizes out. The unfortunate horse is quickly killed by this mistreatment. This, of course, is the origin of the expression “beating a dead horse”. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/17 "2011-06-04T18:27:36Z")
Is it okay to look a _dead_ gift horse in the mouth? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/18 "2011-06-04T18:41:44Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I’m reminded of the poster who was absolutely convinced it was “creamed cheese,” and that everyone else was simply wrong. OMG that was hilarious. “Let’s call it a draw”. I myself am approaching that level of dumbness about “another think coming”. I know it’s correct but I simply cannot bring myself not to say “another thing coming”. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/19 "2011-06-04T22:09:16Z")
I just discovered today that Isaac Babel and Isaac Bashevis Singer are not, in fact, the same author. I had another think coming. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277/20 "2011-06-04T22:18:24Z")
Do bear in mind however that the trojan horse was a gift. Declan [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-mini-for-the-bbq-pit-a-rant/584277.md?page=2)