"like" and "as if"

[Laurence Horn]

>  >Don't know when she picked it up, but my grandmother used to say "A fat
>>lot of >good that'll do you !"  She said it often.
>
>>JL
>~~~~~~~~~~~
>This was (and still is) a *very* common expression among people of my
>generation. I don't know what its source may have been.
>A. Murie

Note that it appears to be the same ironic "fat" that occurs in "fat
chance", i.e. 'slim chance'.  (Not that I'm claiming the
corresponding "a fat lot of good *that* will do" really means 'a slim
lot of good'...)

Larry