"loose as a xoose"

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 1/19/2002 11:48:47 AM, preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU writes:

<< The "on the other hand" was always my childhood folk (and not
necessarily false) etymology. Loose as a goose was first applied to
the runs. (I'm at my office without a dictionary and don't know how
to spell the D-word.) Later I heard it to mean other "looses"
(relaxed, for example), but that was not my earliest encounter.

dInIs >>

My father always said, "Loose as a moose" ...