"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle"

[Charles C Doyle]

Well said, Fred!

--Charlie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Shapiro, Fred [fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 9:37 AM
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One thing that has struck me about "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" or the earlier "a man without God is like a fish without a bicycle" since I first heard them in the 1970s is that they both seem a little flawed as parodies.  The idea of the second one, for example, is that a man doesn't need God.  But "a fish without a bicycle" could also be interpreted that the fish is not advanced enough to appreciate a bicycle, so that the fish is at fault, suggesting in the parodic context that there is something deficient about the man rather than that God is useless.

Fred Shapiro

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