Cheese fallen off your cracker?

[Laurence Horn]

>on 3/3/05 3:20 am, Jonathan Lighter at wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Cheese fallen off your cracker?
>>
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>>
>>  From "Cliches (Was Re: Schoolhouse Ro)," rec.humor, April 15, 1991 :
>>
>>  He's not running on all 8 cylinders.
>>
>>  Doesn't have both oars in the water.
>>

The gold standard for me is still "a few french fries short of a
happy meal".  I recall posting a compilation of "short-ofs" (taken
from a web site devoted to the topic) a few years ago that should be
archived.

>  > JL, not familiar with any of these.
>>
>
>How about:
>
>Two prawns short of a barbie
>
>A few slabs short of a patio
>
>- Neil Crawford

And of course the process is productive.  In _The Burglar on the
Prowl_ (2004), Lawrence Block has his burglar-narrator come up with
this one, in reference to an unethical philandering plastic surgeon
who gets himself into some very serious trouble by his own arrogant
oversights:

"And he showed her Cuckoo's picture anyway?" Ray said. "Not too
bright, is he, Bernie?"
"Not the sharpest scalpel in the autoclave", I allowed, "but..."


Larry