A Bird In the Hand...

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A bird in the hand can get mighty messy.

I don't know what I just read, it doesn't make any sense at all, can't even think about it I give up.




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Maybe this is a generational thing. Because when I want to know the answer to something like that I just look it up. Not only do I immediately get then answer, but I can also find out what the origin of it is.

On an ep of Shin-Chan the stupid teacher said "A bird in the hand is worth getting your rocks off in a bush"



Ozzy Osbourne said at the end of No More Tears," "It's just a hand in the bush (In the bush, in the bush, in the bush)"

Like naturalplastic, I also thought this one was very straight forward. The Norwegian version I grew up with says: "It's better with one bird in your hand than ten on the roof".

To me, it couldn't be clearer that it means that what you got is better than something you may or may not get. You already have what you need for now, no need to be greedy and maybe lose what you've got.

to Skilpadde: Thank you.

To Nick007: I thought it was "a hound in the bush", not a "hand in the bush" (some dialogue sampled from some old movie) in the Ozzy song.

A stitch in time saves nine is obvious, coming from a time when clothes were still mended. A tiny hole can be fixed with one stitch, if you let it go for a while, you have a bigger hole, more stitches, more trouble to fix.

I remember being confused by all of these things as a child and have memories of my mother trying to explain them to me, when my mind was so literal. Related to the birds in the bush, Mom said the best way to catch a bird was to put salt on its tail.

Good point. ONE stich now might prevent the need for nine stitches later.

That salt on a bird's tail thing was current when I was a kid.

As a child I couldn't figure out WHY salt on tail feathers disables the aeronautical ability of birds. Would bother grown ups to explain it. My exasperated mom just tossed out that "it means that if you're close enough to the bird to put salt on its tail then...you can GRAB the bird. It doesn't literally mean that salt disables birds". Made sense to me. If you're castaway on Gilligans island and hafta forge, and you sneak up on a bird, you imagine that you have a salt shaker, and when you can imagine seasoning the birds tail...GRAB the bird.

My mom would mend clothes, and I still have the dry cleaners mend my work pants.

But lots of expressions are indeed fossils of past history.