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quickjuggler commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
I, Jason Quick, M.A., am a one-armed juggler and inspirational speaker. I have been quite useful in the past and hope to be useful in the future as well.
www.jasonquick.net to find out how useful I can be.
October 21, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
Wow! I will have a look later. (Unfortunately I can't see videos on my work computer.)
October 21, 2008
sionnach commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
Quicksilver's point is well taken; I apologize for the insensitive nature of this entry.
I am happy to delete it, though it seems more in keeping with Wordie practices to leave it in, while acknowledging its problematic nature.
October 24, 2008
bilby commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
You didn't coin it sionnach, it's in general use. In that sense an apology is not due to yourself, though I am sure it will be appreciated by many. I wish quickjuggler well in his endeavours and am thankful he brought this to our attention.
October 24, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
I think "as busy as a one-armed juggler" is still a fairly useful (sorry) phrase. Though I guess its meaning could be antonymic (did I use that word correctly?) in that some might think (like me) that it means "really super busy," and others "not busy at all."
Without intending any offense, how does this phrase's problematic nature impact the similar phrase, "as _____ as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest"? I'm curious as one of my favorite crab-boat captains on Deadliest Catch says it fairly often. I've never seen or heard of an ass-kicking contest (unless you count boxing), so this seems a slightly more whimsical phrase in that it's an unlikely event to occur in reality. Whereas, as we've seen, there are some one-armed jugglers around (welcome, quickjuggler!).
October 24, 2008
dontcry commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
Yes, bear, same with paper-hanger. "Busy as a one-armed paper hanger" always meant really busy to me - and really talented! I've always found that hanging wall paper required three arms, at the very least!
October 24, 2008
seanahan commented on the word as useful as a one-armed juggler
Clearly, in an "ass-kicking contest", the object is to kick your opponent in the buttocks. If you only have one leg, it is very difficult to kick someone, which seems where the expression comes in.
Now, the one-armed juggler idiom doesn't really make sense, because you can juggle with one hand. I can do two regular sized juggling balls one hand, which while not impressive in any fashion, confused me as to the usefulness of the expression. Obviously there are talented jugglers like Jason Quick who can perform very complicated juggling maneuvers with one handed.
Still, there must be hundreds of expressions like this, someone should collect them all.
October 27, 2008