Irritating Newsman

I was going to post this in the IMO section but I couldn't find the new post button in there.

I never liked to listen to the NBC evening news with Brian Williams because he talks too slow, on purpose, I think so he will be easier to understand, but for some reason, I find him annoying. He talks like he has bubblegum stuck under his tongue or something.

He was on the 12-12-12 rock benefit concert the other night and I heard him say "You can't swing a dead cat in here without seeing a celebrity". I was surprised and kind of hurt by his poor choice of words, and 10 or 15 minutes later, he said it again. I didn't think I liked him before he said that, but now I'm quite sure that I don't like him,. I emailed him and asked "why would you say such a thing about cats, not just once, but at least twice?" but I got no reply.

Hi Lukey

Generally you have to have 100 posts on TCS before you can post in IMO, so that's why you didn't see the button :nod:

I will flag your thread for review as this unfortunately probably isn't a suitable topic for the Lounge, but maybe a mod will allow it to stay.

Keep posting and soon you'll be able to say all you want in IMO :lol3:

Well good, at least I seem to get along better here than I did at another big cat forum. I'm not perfect but I'm not a bad guy.

My cats, Lukey & Cubby are both guy kitties.

That's an old folksy saying, one that doesn't have much meaning any more but still hangs on in the vernacular.  As is the case with many such sayings, the original meeting is so far gone, most people don't even give it any thought.
 

He probably doesn't dislike cats. Some people don't make good choices of words sometimes. I have nothing against him. I don't watch the evening news -- too many big pharma commercials.

He should have answered your e-mail -- just to explain himself.

It's just a saying.  Here are some links that explain it:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071201144102AAt9Uty

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/Dead-Cat.htm
 

Heh, some book I read said that it comes from cat o' nine tails, and I guess that some etymologists still think so: http://www.answers.com/topic/not-enough-room-to-swing-a-cat

First published usage was from 1655.

And now that everyone thinks of it as being a real cat, we made it more delicate it by saying dead cat because we don't want anyone swinging a live cat :tongue2:.

Most old sayings are pretty dumb when you pause to think about what it really means :lol3:.

And many of our old expressions are naval in origin.  Look up "son of a gun," "shake a leg," and many others.