Oh, I don’t have anything to say tonight.
The cat has got my tongue.
Now there’s a phrase for you. It is just a little bit archaic now. You used to hear it more in the 1960/70s. Not so much any more. It was directed at anyone who was quiet when they were expected to speak. But… there is not a clear source about where the phrase comes from.
I have my guesses. Because every once in a while, you run into a killer kitty in life. One of those bad @ss cats… that jump on you when you walk through a room. Or the ones that slug you in the face while you are sleeping. THAT kind of cat. I bet somebody in the 1800s had one. Named Percy. And that cat hauled off and scratched that somebody right on the mouth… somehow get a slice of their tongue in the process.
And then that person…. with a cut and swollen tongue… started talking like they had marbles in their mouth. “Path muhhh duh ssllaaalth phhleeasth.” Then… someone said… “Hey, what happened to you?”
“Caaahhhht dohht muhhd thunnnghh.”
Yep. That’s probably how it happened.
At any rate… not much to say here tonight.
It seems as though I’m going to leave you high and dry.
Well there’s another one. High and dry. It could mean you’ve been smoking too much pot, and you are parched. But I doubt it. Or… mayby you are a baby… who just had a diaper change… and now you are perched… ready to eat… way up in your high chair. But I doubt it. Hey. It could be a flag flying on a very sunny day. Ahh… I doubt it.
I’ll quit jerking around. Apparently…. this term originally referred to ships that were beached. The ‘dry’ implies that a certain ship was out of the water. Not only out of the water…. but that it had been out for some time.
It was used in a ‘Ship News’ column in The London Times, August 1796:
“The Russian frigate Archipelago, yesterday got aground below the Nore at high water, which; when the tide had ebbed, left her nearly high and dry.”
So… you are beached like a boat. I’m leaving you high and dry.
Truthfully…I just can’t come up with a thing tonight.
So, until I have a windfall, remember this.
Tonight… A miss is as good as a mile.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Hope springs eternal.
But…
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
And finally, my last observation… or perhaps advice.…
You can’t run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
I don’t know what that means. But I don’t hunt… so I’ll just run with the hares, I suppose. Away from the cat. The one who has my tongue.