[Ads-l] teach a pig to play a flute

[James A. Landau]

On Wed, 19 Jul 2017 10:25:46 Zone - 0400  "David K. Barnhart" <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
wrote:
>
>I found this term in Farmer & Henley under the entry _pig_.  
>
>I have found precious little even in Google.  Evidence there suggests a
>Chinese origin, perhaps.

I am told (by a professional military historian, yet) that Catherine Parr told the following story to her third husband Henry VIII:

A man once got a sum of money from a king on the promise he would teach the king's horse to sing within one year.  When asked why he had made such a dangerous deal, he said, "In one year the horse may die, or the king may die, or I may die, or, who knows? the horse might learn to sing".

    - Jim Landau

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