Got it, Mrrzy. I'm an admirer of Thurber and must have picked that proverb up by reading one of his books.

As a matter of fact, I've been reading "The Thurber Carnival" at bedtime, including such favorites as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the Night the Bed Fell. I've got to admit that some pieces are just not interesting, but nobody's perfect.

"The Man who Hated Moonbaum" used to baffle me, but now that I've read P.G. Wodehouse's descriptions of life in the movie industry and I've read some livre noir, I understand it.

It's not a proverb, but here's a noir phrase that lives on at my house:

    Hot coffee, black and bitter as sin...

also:

    I gave her one of my cards, one without a picture of a tommy gun
    on it.