_Angel of Darkness_ items, #1

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>4) page 15: "Like a dog has fleas" (humorously strong
>affirmation):"She smiled back at me. 'Got a cigarette?'
>        'Like a dog has fleas,' I said reaching inside the room for a
>packet and handing her one."

In my experience (and usage) "like a dog has fleas" does not mean
"certainly" or "emphatically" but rather "a lot of them" or "all over the
place". (Some dogs may not have any fleas at all. A dog which has fleas
probably has many.)

E.g.: "The Mayo Clinic has internists like a dog has fleas" = "The Mayo
Clinic has lots of internists" or "the Mayo Clinic has internists all over
the place" or "the Mayo Clinic is crawling/infested with internists" -- not
"the Mayo Clinic surely has internists".

[BTW, "flea" is medical slang/jargon for "internist" = "internal medicine
specialist/physician" ... not used much by internists perhaps ... and not
germane to the above quotation.]

-- Doug Wilson