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

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:11 AM -0400 9/3/10, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>When they can ride bicycles.
>
>Jesse

Hey, give 'em a brake!

Actually, this discussion is unaccountably making me thirsty...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTT2-TNuegM&feature=related

LH

>
>On Fri, Sep 03, 2010 at 03:04:30PM +0000, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>>  But at what moment would evolving fish stop being fish?!
>>
>>  --Charlie
>>
>>  ________________________________________
>>  From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf
>>of Jesse Sheidlower [jester at PANIX.COM]
>>  Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 9:42 AM
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  On Fri, Sep 03, 2010 at 09:37:51AM -0400, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>  >
>>  > 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.
>>
>>  I don't have that reading at all.
>>
>>  There is no way a fish, at any stage of advancement, can use a
>>  bicycle, which to me is the whole point of this. Even the
>>  greatest, smartest, most agile fish is still a fish living
>>  underwater, where a bicycle is useless.
>>
>>  Even if you want to hypothesize a fish who develops legs,
>>  walks out of the water, and becomes human, well, then it's no
>>  longer a fish.
>>
>>  Jesse Sheidlower
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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