Sunday, October 25, 2009

Crabs in the Time of Swine Flu



First we have a guest Crab. Not quite the same as a crab à l'état sauvage (you can tell by its nice cooked color) but we are always ready for crabs of any stripe (now there's an interesting phrase to look up; see below), particularly if they look like they just ralphed.











I think this is an excellent effort by a three year old





This was Carlie's second effort, after her mother showed her what a crab looked like.

I like her first effort much, much better. It is a little like Casper the ghost.












While not technically a crab, this drawing certainly employs the joie de vivre inherent in the mere concept of crabs. I know that seems contradictory, but, trust me (said Fozzie Bear.)



"of any stripe"
from here:
Just as textile fabrics can be made with a great variety of patterns characterized by different stripes, so men can be sorted into different types, or metaphorically, stripes.
Of course some of us have access to the OED online and could tell us when the earliest use was. It seems (from the source just referenced) to be an American political term.

I did find a reference in Don Quixote, but it was referring to the results of bantamweight flagellation. (note in particular that Google Search translates as "s" the old use of "f").

3 comments:

Ray Girvan said...

some of us have access to the OED online

We do: it matches the Phrase Finder citation for 1853. But these days it's getting increasingly easy to antedate OED citations with Google Books. Earliest I can find at this instant is in Niles' Weekly Register in 1848, confirming the US political origin:

"We have understood that Wilmot, and those of his stripe, in this state are taking measures to place a Free Soil, Free Trade Electoral ticket in favor of Mr. Van Buren".

PS Glad you enjoyed the guest crab. Being near the sea, we get quite a lot of jolly ones in various forms.

Julie Heyward said...

Is the next to last one upside-down, or is that an Australian crab?

Felix said...

I notice that you pass over Bonnie's exultant, sun coloured crab (not to mention her rainbow hued name) without comment.

Do we put this churlishness down to your jaundiced eye, or something of that ftripe?