BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.

Subject: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: jimlad9
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:06 AM

Who was Larry?.

Is Pig s**t as thick as they say?.

"She has a face like a robbers dog.".............What breed do robbers use?

" She had a face like a pig with piles"............Can any vet confirm that pigs suffer from piles?.

Are Parrots noted for being sick?.

He is a bigger liar than Tom Pepper and he was thrown out of Hell"..Who was TomPepper?.

" As fit as a Butchers Pup"...................How fit is that?..

" Boobs like Mudgie Mailbags"               What?.

" That story would bring a tear to a glass-eye"..................Has any one see this happen?.

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Alec
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:10 AM

And whie were at it is there any reason why newts might be considered more prone to alcohol abuse than other amphibious reptiles?

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: skipy
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:25 AM

it's mudgee mailbags.
You ran this thread 17 mar 02!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Doktor Doktor
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:35 AM

Hope I have Skipy's powers of memory when I get that old ;)

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: skipy
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:59 AM

not memory, Google.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Scrump
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 11:59 AM

Talking about sick parrots (an expression associated with football [soccer]) reminds me of a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to a BBC radio match report on Saturday afternoon, just after Norwich City had lost at home. The reporter said "Delia Smith must have been sick as a pig in the directors' box just below me" which conjured up a lovely image and made me chuckle.

[For anyone who deosn't know, Delia Smith is a well-known "TV chef" in the UK, and is chairman of Norwich City Football Club]

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Mr Fox
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:39 PM

Re parrots:

The full expression is: "As sick as a parrot with a rubber beak"

Re "she had a face like" - How about: ".......A bag of spanners" and/or: "............A bag of smashed crabs"?

Not to mention variations on bulldogs, nettles and wasps.

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: fat B****rd
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 02:52 PM

Larry Foley, a pugilist of the late 19th early 20th Centuries. (I think)

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 02:57 PM

Slicker than a butcher's prick.

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: bubblyrat
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 02:58 PM

Presumably Larry Grayson, as he was always saying what a Gay Day it was.

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 03:35 PM

This is not funny. Larry was my brother and he was not happy at all. The expresion began as cruel joke and it almost killed him. In the end he was run over by the marshmallow delivery truck. He would have wanted to go that way, he loved marshmallows.

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: skipy
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 03:43 PM

A neat question, but American readers in particular will need some background before I can address it. The phrase happy as Larry seems to have originated as either Australian or New Zealand slang sometime before 1875. This date is earlier than that given in most dictionaries, but H W Orsman, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of New Zealand English, has traced it to a New Zealand writer named G L Meredith, who wrote in about 1875: "We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats". Unlike other odd phrases — the Australian happy as a boxing kangaroo in fog time and the New Zealand happy as a sick eel on a sandspit come to mind — it was meant positively: extremely happy or content.

There's a suggestion that it comes from the name of the nineteenth-century Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847-1917), though why he was especially happy nobody now seems able to say. Perhaps he won a lot of contests? (He was certainly one of those who originated gloved boxing rather than bare-knuckle fighting in Australia and his name is still remembered there.) But this origin is far from certain and the early New Zealand reference renders it less so, without ruling it out altogether.

Dr Orsman's suggestion is that it is more likely to come from an English dialect source, larrie, joking, jesting, a practical joke. Another possible link is with the Australian and New Zealand term larrikin for a street rowdy or young urban hooligan, recorded from the late 1860s but known especially in both countries from the 1880s onwards in reference to a specific subculture. Like other groups before and since, the larrikins had their own dress style, in their case very neat and rather severe. The word may well have come from English dialect larrikin for a mischievous youth, once common in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, which itself is closely related to larrie. Either of these sources could afterwards have been reinforced through a supposed connection with Larry Foley.

(cut & paste)
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:14 PM

Larrikin on the face of it would be a diminutive, meaning Little Larry; and as for who "Larry" would be, it sounds distinctly like a variant on "Harry", as in "Old Harry", meaning the Devil - which would suggest that calling "mischievous youths" larrikins would be equivalent to calling them young devils, which seems likely enough. After all, thats what they are called often enough to this day.

So perhaps "happy as Larry" is really "happy as the devil."

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: GUEST,Pedantic one
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 10:46 AM

Newts aren't reptiles

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Alec
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 10:49 AM

True,but to the best of my knowledge they aren't topers either.

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: GUEST,Larry
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:41 AM

As happy as ME thats who, now fuck off

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:48 AM

I had a friend who had a pond full of newts. We'd go newt watching in the spring, to see them look for a mate in the lawn. We always took a large quantity of cider with us and the further down the bottle of cider we got, the more newts we saw!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:58 AM

Pig shit consistency, like most animal by-products, varies in accordance to the diet. It does, however, stink unlike anything else on earth (except maybe a vulture) and it has one of those palpable odours that seems to cling. Therefore 'thick as pig shit' would depend entirely on what you feed your pig.

To be happy as a pig in shit probably refers to the animals habit of rolling in mud and (as they don't have WC facilities) shit to protect itself from the sun. Pigs do not have sweat glands so the phrase 'sweating like a pig' is misplaced. That phrase refers to the fat 'sweating' out of a joint of pork when it's being cooked. To prevent sunburn, piggies roll in mud. Mud is made of dirt and liquid. When water is not available, this liquid can be urine. Urine smells. The pig rolls in it and gives the impression it is covered in shit. The pig is content because it will now not become pork crackling before its time.

This is why it is important to a) provide the pig with a good supply of dirt and water, b) provide the pig with shelter from the sun and c) put the pigsty well downward of the prevailing wind.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: 'As Happy as Larry'___Larry who?.
From: Slag
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 08:10 PM

Larry was the one with all the frizzy hair. Curly was bald and Moe was angry all the time.