The "Big Bad Wolf" and chickens?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/4/2011 11:14 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>Which mistake was made: confusing chickens for sheep, or a wolf for a fox?
>DanG

Well, I don't know about a "Big Bad Wolf" and sheep either.  And Burr
definitely wrote this phrase, and with initial caps.  So I have to
assume he was not much thinking about a fox.  I have to assume he was
confusing pigs with chickens.  But we all know pigs can't fly.  Nor
does Burr's simile.

Joel


>On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      The "Big Bad Wolf" and chickens?
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > In his review of the movie "Last Lions" in the Boston Globe, Ty Burr
> > note that Jeremy Irons, its  narrator, once played "the villainous
> > uncle" in "The Lion King".  Burr writes, "this is a little like
> > hiring the Big Bad Wolf for a documentary about chicken farming."
> >
> > Shouldn't that be "about hog farming"?  Or perhaps "pig housing"?
> >
> > (And the analogy feels a bit off anyway, but I can't articulate why.)
> >
> > Joel
> >
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