rubel, my understanding of "Don't it just take the rag off the bush?" is that it comes from a contest of horse riding skill. Colored rags were hung on low bushes and riders would, at full gallop, lean precariously from their saddles and snatch the rag from the bush. As you might imagine, one had to be an excellent horseman to do this. Soon the expression came to be equated with actions (usually) which were especially good. BTW, the rags on the bushes were inexpensive replacements for chickens, which were also sometimes used.

Among the many descriptive expressions my father used was to say that something, such as shuffling cards, "sounded like a cow wetting on a flat rock". As for describing someone with prominent front teeth, he would say that the person "could eat watermelon through a picket fence". Useless things or lazy people were likened to a "bump on a log" or "bump on a pickle".

Mom still speaks of someone who worries about those situations for which nothing can be done as "crying over spilt milk".

I love expressions which conjure images which express a thought in a way that no one word could do. Another one of my Dad's was "cold as a mother-in-law's kiss". The counterpart of that was "hotter than a two-dollar pistol". My grandfather spoke of a disorganized person as "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". Something awkward or out of place was being "like a hog on ice".

My friend, David C., has often said, "We haven't had this much excitement since Ma got her tit caught in the wringer." He also speaks of things, such as banjo pickers in North Carolina, being so numerous that "you can't sling a cat without hitting one".

This last one brought a distasteful image to mind until I realized that it more than likely referred to a cat o' nine tails.