Walking the cat

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/1/2010 06:23 AM, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>This definition extends the cat metaphor:
>
>"Walk back the cat" is spy slang for retracing the train of evidence and
>assumptions until the double agent, the false source or the analytic error
>is identified. The cat unraveled the ball of string. Rewind the twisted yarn
>to find the flaw."
>
>  http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/004092.html

And in response to George A. Thompson:
>Finally: isn't "walk back the cat" an odd sequence of words?  I
>myself would be unlikely ever to talk of cat-walking, my experience
>being that cats walk when and where they will, but if I were to do
>so, I would say "walk the cat back".

'Walk back" to emphasize the unraveling?

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org