BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?

Subject: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:43 PM

You've all heard the expression "crazier than a shithouse rat"?

Well, is it true? Are they crazy? Or have they been unfairly maligned in the popular press and imagination? Is there even such a thing AS a shithouse rat or is it a completely mythical creature?

Calm, rational, unbiased comments from both humans and rodents would be appreciated.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:45 PM

I've actually never heard that one. And I didn't know rats lived in shithouses.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:47 PM

Well, that's the part that's got me puzzled too. I've seen plenty of rats, but I've never seen one in a shithouse.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:50 PM

Maybe that's the point of the saying. Maybe rats don't live in shithouses, so any rat found living in a shithouse would have to be crazy (for a rat).

Maybe Dick Cheney is crazier than a shithouse rat.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:52 PM

Aha! You might be onto something, Carol. There's nothing to eat in a shithouse, so why would a rat go there unless he was crazy?

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:53 PM

While searching around for the meaning and origin of that one, I came across this one, which I also like...

"Stronger than mule piss with the foam farted off."

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 08:57 PM

ARRGGHHH!!! (grimacing)

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Midchuck
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:14 PM

Many years ago, driving with a friend, we saw a female hitchhiker.

My friend said, "Don't stop, she's uglier than Death takin' a shit."

I'm just saying...

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:17 PM

In addition to "crazier than a shithouse rat", I've heard:

"Built like a brick shithouse" - to describe a woman's figure

"Lost as a hummingbird in a (brick) shithouse" - I've heard it with the "brick" adjective and without

"This place looks like a Chinese shithouse" - to describe an extremely messy environment such as a teenager's room

I grew up hearing all three of the above from family members. I don't believe I'd heard "crazier than a shithouse rat" until I saw the movie "Stand By Me", based on Stephen King's story "The Body". Im' pretty sure I've seen it multiple times in King's stories and novels.

Yeah, I know it doesn't help answer the original question....

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:18 PM

Never heard that expression.

Never been in a sh&thouse

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:20 PM

So you've never been to rural Alabama? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:24 PM

drove through it once .... don't recall any sh&thouses ... did see a tornado way off in the distance.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:26 PM

Well, no... Thay ain't crazy... They just misunderstood... Ya see, we ain't talkin' about rats that live in indoor bathrooms but those that live in "priveys", or "Roosevelt houses"... They take up residence in 'um 'cause they are warmer than barns and hang out purdy much to themselves until an intruder comes along... You know, people... Then they scurry all over the place tryin' to not be harmed or killed and therefore are called crazy... They ain't... Some of the people who share the privy's with the rats might be but the rat his or herself is just being a rat...

But seein' as we're talkin' rats here the one I don't really get is, "I don't give a rat's ass"??? I mean, what would one be doing with a rat's ass in the first place??? Nevermind...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:43 PM

I don't know shit about Shithouse Rats but if they ARE crazy, I say more power to them!

"Uglier than Death takin' a shit" is GREAT and I will definitely be using it, possibly in conjunction with "knock a buzzard off a shit wagon" which works with both smell and looks.

NOW......I didn't want to start a thread on this but since this thread is about "phases" and the like.......In the world of euphemisms for the male genitalia (read: Cock and Balls).....Exactly when and where did the word "Junk" first appear? I don't recall it before a brief while back but now it seems the hot word. I can understand the desire to change things from guys named "Willie" or "Johnson" or "Dick" (right here on Mudcat, dick miles was offended when I inquired how far that was) but "Junk" is a new one for me........Was I in the ICU or what?


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:52 PM

Must be Canadian rats that are crazy. In Oz we have cunning ones. To be referred to as "cunning as a shithouse rat" can be either high praise or deep condemnation, depending on the circumstance.

In polite company the expression changes to "as cunning as a sewer rat".

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:54 PM

I like that one, Jennie. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 09:58 PM

Uh, yep!

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 10:00 PM

Well, I'm all for bein' cool an' hip an' up to date an' all that shit, but I ain't callin' MY equipment "junk". Spaw's equipment... maybe.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Rowan
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 10:11 PM

Must be Canadian rats that are crazy. In Oz we have cunning ones. To be referred to as "cunning as a shithouse rat" can be either high praise or deep condemnation, depending on the circumstance.

In polite company the expression changes to "as cunning as a sewer rat".

And in company whose politeness is 'in between' it's "as cunning as a dunny rat." Perhaps we're not blessed with crazy rats. We are, however, blessed with with other types; a cove who is upmarket with bling and flash gear but not trustworthy is described as "As flash as a rat with a gold tooth."

To get the full flavour of Oz dunnies you'd probably have to be familiar with The Curse, viz,
"I hope all your chooks turn into emus and kick your bloody dunny down!"

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 10:16 PM

I've been in a few shithouses but, with the exception of one, I've never been in one that was warmer than a barn. And that one shouldn't have been, but the person whose shithouse it was, plugged up all the ventilation to make it warmer, and anything that tried to live in it longer than necessary for a quick poo would die of asphyxiation. I never, ever saw any rats in any shithouse I've been in.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 10:25 PM

NEVER light up a smoke in a shithouse! Shane did that once, foolishly, and the detonation was heard as far away as Serpent River. He survived, amazingly enough, but he was incoherent for about a week afterward...

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 10:37 PM

Could be worse Hawk. The Reg Boys along with Paw, Cletus, and Buford, had an explosive experience a while back when they went ice fishing...................

A few years ago on a cold January day, they all read Paw's birthday horoscope and were pretty depressed. It went like this:

"Born today you are a miserable pissant with no redeeming social value whatsoever. You are generous to a fault, of which, you have many. Your passion for all things artistic is overshadowed by your complete lack of talent for anything more difficult than passing copious quantities of sulphurous flatulence. You are narrow minded, completely bigoted, and steadfast in your maintenance of opinions shared only by Pakistani Dung Merchants and a pants presser in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, named Ignatz. Give up."

Isn't it amazing how accurate those things are? But The Boys didn't think so and after awhile they decided that the thing to do was something new and different. The Reg Boys being Canadian and all are of course nuts about ice fishing and since Paw had never done it, they all took off to find a place. The weather around here doesn't always freeze the lakes and it was pretty mild that year so they were really happy to find a frozen pond right in downtown Columbus. What they obviously didn't know was that this was part of the new Hockey complex and skating park.

This resulted in their spending several months in both jails and hospitals. After setting up a shack and drilling numerous holes on the new Columbus Ice Rink, they later explained to the police that they were just ice fishing. That would have gotten them off with a warning or a minor fine for such an idiotic mistake had not one of their holes penetrated a gas main. Even this wouldn't have been a major problem had not Paw and Cletus been along and were entertaining the Reg boys with a fart lighting performance which ended with an explosion taking out 2 square blocks of downtown Columbus. Typically, none of them, although hospitalized at the jail infirmary, would at first believe that they were NOT on a lake and DID rupture a gas line. Cletus just lay there in his bed, swathed in bandages, saying, "Damn,what a doozie."



Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Dec 09 - 11:01 PM

All I know (at the moment) is that no shithouse rat is crazy enough to try to make an icon outta Bill Shatner.

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: gnomad
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:52 AM

First rat I ever saw came out of the shithouse at the end of our garden. It didn't need to open the door, as that had a big gap at the bottom.

My mother and big sister (then about 7 years old) were both yelling about it, so I never knew to ask if it was crazy.

I was only just learning to use the place myself and we left that house when I was 5, so am not surprised that I never met the rat in there. I do remember that it seemed a long walk down the garden with a hurricane lamp on a winter night, and bloody cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 06:05 AM

One would presume that with all that decomposing matter, the vicinity of the original 'sh!thouse' (i.e., a small shed over a big hole, with or without grab poles, situated at the far end of the garden, known colloquially as 'outhouse', 'cludgy', 'earth closet', 'granpa's workshop' or 'the throne room') would be a couple of degrees warmer than the surrounding area. Thus any rodent would be sensible to gravitate towards it. The addition of protein-filled dung beetles and other insects would provide a handy snack for said rodents.

On the other hand, the methane fumes given off by the aforementioned decomposing matter would undoubtedly effect the rodent population, possibly with the same effect as helium or LSD, thus making the creature appear 'crazy'.

Or maybe they just like shit.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:00 AM

How about "as crazy as Joe C*nt's cat?" Triumphantly-inexplicable!

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:51 AM

Built like a brick shithouse, when said in the UK, doesn't just refer to a women's figure - it describes anybody who is large and square - and tough.

On the whole, I think I prefer saying "shite" to "shit". "Shite" has a kind of ring to it certain situations. But I'd never say "shitehouse" - just doesn't sound right.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 08:56 AM

Actually, Carol, a well constructed "privy" is warmer than a barn because of two factors... First, there's big deep hole under it and the temp below ground level is warmer than above ground and second, ahhhhhh, there is a level of composting that goes on in the bottom of the hole from, ahhhhh, the contributions that have been left...

Now I know this is hard to believe but it is true... Unless, of course, you have a heater in the barn or it is filled with animals...

Bobert (Privi-ologist) Roosevelt

p.s. But I'll admit that when it's cold out one doesn't hang out in the privy for fun...

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 09:41 AM

But the heat can't stay in because of the ventilation. At least in the ones I've been in, which were very breezy, and much colder than our barn when where was livestock in it. (Except for the one I mentioned above, which also had an electric space heater in it).

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 10:46 AM

I had always heard this as

"having eyes like a shit house rat".

The construction being that usually a shit house is in darkness, pending its use, so that the rat in residence must have had to have eyes which could see in the dark.

Another one is "having eyes in your arse".

I shall leave that one to you, fellow 'Catters.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 11:47 AM

As with most sayings involving animals, there's some anthropomorphizing going on with that shithouse rat. A shithouse is a perfectly sane place for a rat to live. It's only an insane place from a human standpoint. If we look at the rat as a genuine rat doing the things rats do for the reasons rats do them, he's normal. But when we assign the rat human characteristics he's crazy to live in a shithouse because a human who chose to live there is obviously crazy.

Maybe we should start using the saying "crazy as a shithouse human" instead. It would be more accurate.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 11:51 AM

That's probably a common expression among rats.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:03 PM

Carol,

We apparently have had different "privy" histories... lol...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:13 PM

Bobster, do you hang out in there for fun when it's WARM? :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Becca72
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:22 PM

I have heard the expression "crazy as a shithouse rat" all my life. But then again Stephen King and I are from the same state.

As for phrases to describe ugly or smelly things my favorite is "it's enough to gag a maggot".

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:26 PM

I used to keep all the styrofoam packaging of the proper size for my shithouse up at my camp. In cold weather, lift the lid and seat, place styrofoam, sit, and      in comfort.

BTW, a porcupine will eat a toilet seat for the salt... and the styrofoam too.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Ed T
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:38 PM

Some possible theories here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6759411

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Ed T
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:40 PM

This one makes sense:
It's not that the shithouse makes the rodents crazy. It's that only the crazy rats choose to live in a shithouse

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 01:18 PM

No mam, WYSuzie... Actually, hangin' out in the privy ain't in my Top Ten most enjoyable things to do with my time so if I'm a'privy sittin' there's gotta be some other motive other than jus' hangin' out...

As fir the rats??? If ya ever been in one with them dritters it makes ya' real happy to not be one... lol...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 01:20 PM

You keep your livestock in the privy to keep it warm, Bobert?

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 05:27 PM

He has to hide out there when the P-Vine gets really ticked about one thing or another that he has or hasn't done. More likely the latter. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 05:40 PM

No cellar?

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:36 PM

There's always a "cellar" in a shithouse, but I haven't known of any spouse mean or angry enough to order a mate into that cellar.

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:51 PM

Cellars are for city folks...

Shithouses do just fine fir the country folks...

As fir being banished??? I ain't sayin' I have been but I ain't denyin' it either...

As fir critters in the privy??? No farm animals, just rats, thanks...
Not that I'm aginst farm animals, mind you... Jus' we ain't got a two-holer and them privy's hard to share without that option...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 01:20 AM

City folks do their business in the cellar?

Subject: RE: BS: Sh*thouse Rats - Are they really crazy?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 02:59 AM

In England an old expression for 'oh bother' or 'oh, I say, dash it, doncha know', but perhaps an itty-·bittiy·bit stronger, has always been


R·A·T·S !!!