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majroj
An invisible frog hair from and invisible flying frog - now there's something you don't read about in any science magazine.
posted by
johnmacnab
on June 3, 2010 at 10:04 AM
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TAPS
Yeuch! I'd hate to meet
that on a dark and stormy night, Taps.
posted by
johnmacnab
on June 3, 2010 at 10:02 AM
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Whacky
You could be right, Whacky - or was it Shrek? mmm?
posted by
johnmacnab
on June 3, 2010 at 10:01 AM
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Azur
No pressure at all, Azur.
posted by
johnmacnab
on June 3, 2010 at 10:00 AM
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So fine you cannot see it.
Haven't heard that in a, in a...decades.
posted by
majroj
on June 3, 2010 at 6:59 AM
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The hairy frog (of Africa) -
Looks rather coarse to me. What's so fine?
posted by
TAPS.
on June 2, 2010 at 9:52 PM
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I think Kermit
the frog made that saying up...or maybe it was his girlfriend Miss Piggy.
posted by
Whacky
on June 2, 2010 at 7:18 PM
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Looking forward to your inspirations
No pressure there.
posted by
Azur
on June 1, 2010 at 7:54 PM
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mantohave
It is certainly odd, mantohave.
posted by
johnmacnab
on May 28, 2010 at 5:28 AM
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TAPS
Thanks you Taps. From what I can gather, it is a saying from the past, and I've been trying to understand why. Going by Northsage's comment about using a frog's hair to snap a burned matchsticks, it is probably going out of fashion because fewer people smoke, therefore less matches are being used. The smokers in this part of the world are nearly all French Canadians, which is another oddity. [There is also the fact that less children are being born and us auld yins are popping off]
posted by
johnmacnab
on May 28, 2010 at 5:25 AM
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shobana
It's nice to see you shobana. From the other comments I think it is more likely a saying to keep children amused.
posted by
johnmacnab
on May 28, 2010 at 5:18 AM
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sam444
Thanks for your input sam444. It sounds as if it is a saying from the past.
posted by
johnmacnab
on May 28, 2010 at 5:16 AM
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Interesting
Interesting but odd.
posted by
mantohave
on May 27, 2010 at 10:39 AM
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"finer than frogs hair" is a term that fills me with nostalgia because my beloved father used it now and then. But, I surely haven't heard many people use it.
posted by
TAPS.
on May 26, 2010 at 6:56 AM
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This is the first time I have heard that phrase, maybe it sells properties really fast..a real estate jargon.
Thank you for stopping by.
posted by
shobana
on May 25, 2010 at 11:59 PM
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I have heard it before, too! It was way back in my childhood, an uncle said it a lot!
posted by
sam444
on May 25, 2010 at 10:10 PM
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Pat_B
'Drunk as a boiled owl' has me baffled, Pat. We used to use 'yous' or 'yous yins' to pluralize in Scotland. We also used 'Eh?' as a question, and were always being told to say 'what?' not Eh!. Later on when we became teenagers we were told that it wasn't 'what?' but 'pardon?' Then I come to a country where the question is famously 'Eh?'
posted by
johnmacnab
on May 25, 2010 at 7:10 PM
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I first heard "finer 'n frog hair" when I moved to Illinois
back in the pioneer days. It reminds me of the down home folks I found here, the women baked pies, made memory quilts for new brides or babies, and used the term "you-uns" or "yous" to pluralize "you." "Y'all" was a Georgia thing at the time, but our colloquialisms are mixing these days, and regional dialects and sayings have been carried to all points. Frog hair, hen's teeth, alligator tears, dumb like a fox, drunk as a boiled owl...
posted by
Pat_B
on May 25, 2010 at 6:15 AM
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northsage_45
Ha! Thank you Northsage_45. I used to do the self same trick with my brats, but I can't remember what it was we ostensibly plucked from mid air. I'll cast my memory net back to friends in auld Scotia and see if they can remember.
posted by
johnmacnab
on May 25, 2010 at 5:20 AM
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Maybe it's a midwestern saying, but we say that all the time, in Michigan.
I used to entertain the brats with a trick where I burn a wooden match until there is little left of it, but a withered black charstick atop an unburned stub. I would search the air for a floating piece of frog hair, and grab it quickly, before a stray breeze can carry it off. The kids were squinting, trying without success to
see the frog hair, while I surreptitiously hooked a fingernail onto the bottom of the unburned part of the match. I made a big show of wrapping the invisible frog hair around the blackened top portion, then with a quick tug,
(and an unseen fingernail flick) the match breaks into pieces, astounding the skeptical children. Then they wander off arguing about which of them is
so blind, that they could
not see all those fine frog hairs, floating in the air.
posted by
northsage_45
on May 25, 2010 at 12:19 AM
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