or
"see a man about a dog"
?
Both are apparently acceptable, but we think the difference in which you use may be regional. With which expression are you more familiar, and where do you come from?
These, my friends, are the really important questions.
9 comments:
In the equine/canine battle of colloquisms, (the lion sure doesn't have the lion's share of animal-ese), I back the horse on this one.
P.S. This question will either reveal how long it's been since I've moused around on here and/or reveal how blind as a bat I am when I do but: Has the suburb tag line always been there? Maybe it's like the suburbs -- easily looked over on my way to better stuff.
I've not heard either of them in context ever.
Down under, however, they say "see a man about a wallaby."
Of this I'm certain, having watched "Finding Nemo" 7,569 times.
"See a man about a wallaby," is, according to Wikipedia, a play on "see a man about a horse and/or dog." The horse/dog version is used the same way the wallaby one is in Nemo: sometimes, it means, "I'm off to do something I don't want to tell you about," but usually, it means (more specifically), "I'm going to go urinate or defecate."
Dog? I've only heard the horse version (only, to merge the subject of two posts here, the "hoss" version). Due to overexposure to Brits, I usually say "going to the loo" which most people seem to understand.
There was the perhaps too graphic (which defeats the purpose) euphemism I heard an older gentleman from Maine use, "gotta go drain the pipes!"
This could quickly devolve into a Carlinesque laundry list of euphemisms, but even at the end of it, my favorite would still be "shake hands with Nixon." (From Summer School, 1987.)
Also, before you go citing Wikipedia, remember: Stephen Colbert, on live TV, edited Wikipedia to say the world population of elephants had tripled in the past six months.
Yes, I'm sorry, I do know that Wikipedia is not an entirely reliable source, and have said so, but it bears repeating.
Wikipedia is not an entirely reliable source.
Although for pop culture stuff, it's often as good a place as any.
Speaking of Wikipedia and pop culture, one of my favorite quotations ever from The Office (specifically, from Michael Scott):
"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information."
See a man about a horse - Texas. (That makes sense, doesn't it?)
In Texas wouldn't they say "see a man about a cow?"
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