Cal.E.'s Korner
C.: Well, D.C. still isn’t feeling “up to par,” so I am writing this blog….by myself. This saying caused me to do some research, since when T wanted to stop cat fighting and took up golf, the goal was to be as far under par as possible.
T thought he had done this on his first try but then found out he must play the back nine of holes.
Anyway, the saying “feeling up to par,” originated before the modern game of golf was invented. It is an old Latin…no not him.
That’s David “Big Daddy D” Latin. He was the star player on Texas Western’s all-black starting five that won a national championship, defeating the all-white Kentucky Wildcats in 1966, according to CNN, and Cats Need kNowledge is never wrong.
Anyway, the old Latin saying has been used in unusual ways on this strange planet, but always means “par”’ is normal, such as the expression, “par for the course.” This term originated from the golf game. It means that a situation is not unusual, even if it is undesirable.
On to more strange expressions on this strange planet. “Get your goat.”
This originated with horse racing. Since most thoroughbreds are high-strung, trainers would put a calm animal, usually a goat in the stall with the horse. If a rival competitor stole another competitor’s goat, that competitor is said to have “gotten the other competitor’s goat.” This tactic made the horse that didn’t have a goat nervous, which would burn energy and keep the horse from being in top shape during the race.
“Mad as a wet hen” is an expression that originated from farmers who would dunk a hen in chilly water if she pecked the farmer’s leg when s/he was gathering legs. The poor hen was just following a natural instinct, protecting her potential chicks…
not them, one of these.
And, my personal favorite, “raining cats and dogs” in Norse mythology. Norse folklore has it that Odin, the god of storms, usually had dogs and wolves at his disposal, and witches rode the sky with black cats by their side. Sailors would then say it was “raining cats and dogs,” lik eit alsways is when D.C. comes to visit
me in Wayne Manor,
if the sailor was caught in a heavy downpour.
Well, that’s all the time we have for today, folks. That’s the end of this cat ta(i)le.
Please join us next time for another edition of Cal.E.’s Korner.
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