Of minks and stoats

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 4:08 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
>
>   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."

Well, if we're looking for hypersexual weasel similes, there's this
from a 1984 installment of Matt Groening's "Life in Hell," entitled
"The 9 Types of Girlfriends":

---
Ms. Dreamgirl: "I am utterly content with you just the way you are, my
handsome genius of a boyfriend. I think we must make love like crazed
weasels now."
---

image: http://tinyurl.com/qz4acq
text: http://www.textfiles.com/sex/galfrnds.txt


--Ben Zimmer

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