Tuesday, September 8, 2009
quicko: convict culture
Okay, so it's not so prevalent any more in the literal sense, but the convict history really does (Australians assure me of this) shape and influence the Australian psyche. It's therefore one of rebellion, of not wanting to submit to anyone or anything. It's the tall puppy (this is how they put it) gets shot down. Hence, though their history has its own abysmally bleak moments, it doesn't have slavery in the American 18th/19th century sense. And today, it's more a sense of unity, solidarity and recycling. You'd never expect it, and, yep, they may lie, cheat and steal, but at least they've gone green.
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4 comments:
Damn straight. One thing, though; I'm not sure if it was a typo or a genuine miscommunication. Anyone caught shooting a puppy would have the RSPCA on them so fast it would make their head spin. We cut down tall POPPIES.
Nobody here shoots puppies, just to reiterate.
OHH! Um, yes, this actually was a genuine miscommunication. I'd heard the idiom from multiple sources and always came away with the idea that it was better in dog-land not to grow too fast, but, not wanting to get shot down, I never pressed the point. I chalked it up to being an idiom and idioms can be strange beasts and I didn't really think anything more of it, since I figured I understood the gist of what it meant. But -- I'm still confused. Why would one shoot a flower? I mean, at least a dog is an object that physically you could imagine a person shooting ... but a poppy?
Strictly speaking we cut them down, rather than shoot them down. As you point out, a poppy would be difficult to shoot down unless you were a phenomenally good shot. Think of one tall stemmed flower standing higher than the others, and therefore being the first one taken out by the gardening secateurs and you've got the idea.
You'll probably hear shoot down variations and maybe others since, as you say, idioms are strange and frequently illogical logical beasts.
Fantastic. I've got it now. What would I do without you? (Keep my puppy at home, clearly.)
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