Now this is interesting - I just checked on that phrase, via google, and, the very third entry, I found that it cropped up in this very context, dated just a few weeks back, "Fish Rot from the Head - Ex-Inmate Alleges U.S. Abuse at Guantanamo" - and yet I know I never saw that before. Synchronicity. Or maybe it's just that it's a piece of folk wisdom that leaps out at you when this kind of thing happens.

I wonder if anyone has ever checked if it's literally true. (If anyone feels like singing this song, go ahead and do so.)