Comments | boygirlparty: never look a gift horse in the tooth

boygirlparty

never look a gift horse in the tooth

Jul 08, 2011 08:00

the other day, i was looking up the origin of the phrase "long in the tooth" as i myself am feeling a little long in the tooth lately. i think i had a momentary obsession with the idea that the gums might recede and recede until the teeth just have nothing left to hold onto and fall out. gross thought, i know, but i'm the daughter of a former ( Read more... )

funnystuff, blogging about blogging, ridiculous, random

Comments 11

ext_703155 July 8 2011, 15:21:25 UTC

Horses sure do have tempers. Personally, I think one should be careful especially with gift horses, as the sweet sound of their name must mean that there's a hidden evil side to them...despite their manes being made of pretty, colourful strings.

mnemsyne July 8 2011, 15:44:42 UTC

That's the exact etymology of that phrase I've heard all my life, so I'm pretty sure the internet isn't full of shit on this one.

Free horses sound like a great idea though.

Well I had it all wrong! anonymous July 8 2011, 16:53:03 UTC

I always thought the phrase was "don't kick a gift horse in the mouth" which sounded like good common sense to me. Somehow, I imagined the horse was not so much the gift as the bearer of the gift. So I just assumed if a horse was bringing you a present, you shouldn't kick it in the face.

Re: Well I had it all wrong! boygirlparty July 8 2011, 16:59:25 UTC

why would you kick a horse!!!

Re: Well I had it all wrong! loolica July 8 2011, 20:17:06 UTC

Especially one that was bringing you a present!

you are hilarious anonymous July 8 2011, 17:52:38 UTC

and this post is exactly why i think you should write more. - Lilly
(this wouldn't let me post my ID. not trying to be creepy)

tiffanyharvey July 8 2011, 17:57:43 UTC

I always thought it meant what you read. I know you always see people on TV & movies checking a horses teeth when they are thinking of buying them (I thought they just wanted to make sure they had good teeth?), so I thought it meant just that... you shouldn't do that with a gift, at least in front of the person, because that would be rude.

tiffanyharvey July 8 2011, 19:40:12 UTC

I have heard this saying and that exact definition in regard to retired race horses given to breeders... and we all know how people in the gambling industry are on the up and up! Funny, I always thought of the other end of the horse as being more dangerous. Someone should invent Horse Diapers! BTW, Tiffany, I love your work! I am sure you know of Scott Kim. Have you ever read Godel, Escher, Bach - By Douglas Hofstadter? Great Book! Your ambigrams seem to fit in well with his logic. Sorry, off topic, I know. ~Wayne

tiffanyharvey July 8 2011, 20:12:42 UTC

Wow, thank you! Yes, I do know of of Scott Kim ~ he and John Langdon are the two most well known ambigram artists (John did the designs for the Angels & Demons book/movie). I have not read that book, but I do recognize the name Douglas Hofstadter, who is generally given credit for coming up with the word "ambigram". I'll have to check it out!