Monday, March 9, 2009

i feel silly

posting after i posted the last post.
now i just feel silly for having written 'post' 3 times in 7 words.
i understand that i live with one of you and talk to the rest of you regularly on the phone but gee whiz a hidey ho on a post every once in a while wouldnt kill you.
wow. i sound like my family. i'll lay off laying on the jewish guilt.
also sorry for the cryptic posts last week. i temporarily confused this blog with my other one where iget to be all emo and angsty and cryptic and wax philisophical and pretend i have an extensive readership. though i will say my site monitor shows ive gathered a little international crowd thanks to an old post with thelwell pony cartoons that lures in the brits and extensive posting about missy higgins that attracts the aussies... and then there are a bunch of germans though im not sure what in the world got them interested. probably the prevelance of gloom in my writing.
thats not fair to the germans. i had a very cheery german babysitter for a summer. she was 6'1 and liked to lie topless in my yard tanning even though she knew we had neighbors who could see through the privet hedge. im not one to judge her on that.
anyway.
today i spent a good hour trying to figure out the saying, phrase, idiom, axiom, whatever you call it that people say when someone is using a highly inappropriate and oversized tool for a job. Like, a shovel to scoop sugar, or a forklift to raise a casseroule, or a hedge trimmer to clip a toenail... or something. it was/is for a byline im writing for work and i need this phrase as a catchy intro but even posting as my busy message on gchat didnt yield the answer id hoped for. someone suggested killing mosquitoes with a machine gun. someone else mentioned bringing a gun to a knife fight and still others insisted it was smashing a walnut with a sledge hammer but besides being disconcertingly violent, im sure those are not commonly used.. i know theres one out there ive heard before... anyway chew on that my friends. and if you think of it, shoot it to me and save me from the torment.
going back to work. hoping youre all doing well, whatever the weather.
love D

10 comments:

Craig said...

I'm terrible with common saying; I just butcher them.

I can only think of: Don't bite off more than you can chew

And the one I just made up: Using a rail stake for a toothpick.

Anonymous said...

It's like killing a ant with a hammer.

or

It's like killing an ant with a cannon.

?

Related, in an old job of mine they had this 4 foot long monkey wrench for stubborn pipes, and they claimed you only needed to lay it against the pipe and the pipe would loosen up on its own.

D said...

HA!
L will remember our coach had some saying that was really very crude that she used to describe a big woman with a little man... something about a tent peg and a ___hammer. i cant remember it exactly but all day thats all that was in my head...
i like your suggestions boys, thank you.

A said...

this isn't the right one but perhaps "making a mountain out of a molehill" could be useful?

D said...

no its about tools, A. TOOLS. its driving me mad. its making me want to gouge my eye out with GIANT GARDEN TROWEL.
(an example of using a tool too big for the task)

L said...

yes! i can 2nd this do NOT trust craig with idioms....at all
sorry craig

L said...

UGH!
this is driving me nuts...although in my search i did find this gem:

Why use an ox-slaughtering knife to kill chickens? (a "chinese proverb" supposedly)

I also found these: a person who's a little crazy is said to have a "kangaroo loose in the top paddock"..i'm going to try to use this one in everyday life

in austrailia/the UK instead of saying "all talk, no action" they say "all talk and no trousers"...which i think i prefer

also if you buy something sight-unseen: "you are buying a pig in a poke"

also, call the badger a bishop

i'm not really sure what that one means

still looking!

L said...

also, "no room to swing a cat"
ooh! i just thought of a prime craig-like example of combining idioms (i'm not sure you actually said this craig, but it is very craig- esque)

"more than one way to swing a cat"

and another more fun one:
to die in the UK: "to pop one's clogs"

L said...

ugh i give up

going to sleep

D said...

just fYI kids, if you ever need an answer to a pesty question or need something pulled off the tip of your tongue, L is the one to turn to. the girls a pitbull. she gets this bee in her bonnet and wont give it up :) perhaps thats why she should go to law school afterall... hmm.
anyway, keep her in mind, folks.