Of minks and stoats

[Alison Murie]

On May 10, 2009, at 6:26 PM, Alison Murie wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Of minks and stoats
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> On May 10, 2009, at 4:08 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
>> Subject:      Of minks and stoats
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>>
>>  With regard to minks and their hypersexuality, I once came across
>> an insult uttered in the House of Commons:
>> "The right honorable gentleman has the morals of a stoat."  (a stoat
>> = ermine = type of weasel; and minks are closely related to
>> weasels).  I sometimes wondered how the morals of a stoat would be
>> much different from the morals of any other wild animal, but thanks
>> to ads-l (All praise!), I now know.
>>
>>  I can locate the exact reference if anyone is curious.  Also, btw,
>> this was part of my checking into the origin of the song "Pop Goes
>> The Weasel."
>>
>> Gerald Cohen
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> If you'd ever seen a chicken flock laid waste by a weasel, you
> wouldn't wonder that its morals might be impugned by the impoverished
> owner!  The resemblance of this sort of wanton killling to, e.g.,
> certain infamous airstrikes by manned & unmanned aircraft in the
> Middle East, may cause some to hesitate to attribute an evil nature to
> weasels.  It's hard to see any evolutionary advantage to either of
> these behaviors.
> AM
>

~~~~~~~~
I meant to say "a particularly evil nature."
WRT to Pop Goes the Weasel, we were told in grade school that this
referred to an implement of the tailor's which apparently disappeared
& reappeared unexpectedly.  That never made any sense to me, but I
suspect it didn't to the teacher who was passing it on, either.  As a
matter of fact, weasels can & do make a loud popping noise when
annoyed. I cornered one in our woodshed once and was startled by its
POP!
AM

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