Swing a Dead Cat

You can’t swing a dead cat anymore without hitting someone who’ll tell you, “you can’t say that.” But, I just did, didn’t you hear me? I feel like I’m living on the edge just typing that idiom!

“Who kicked the dog?” That’s another one. Big trouble for that one.

You’re hair looks like a rat’s nest. That’s a double no-no. Insulting the rats, on top of the person. Twice as bad.

Look what the cat dragged in. Stereotyping cats as scavengers, how dare I?

A pig fell in the mud. Now I’m just being silly. That’s not really a dirty joke! It’s just a trick.

No animals were actually injured (other than a possible personal injury claim) during the writing of this blog post.

Here’s a news flash, people identify with animal metaphors. I didn’t come up with the concept, I’m just passing it on.

Here’s something interesting. A bit of a conundrum. Apparently, animal metaphors have a history of being used for social control. I didn’t know they were that powerful! If they are that powerful, maybe we should be using them for the greater good. Like using utilizing animal metaphors to incite change in your organization? click here for a pdf not from me. I’m just sharing it.

In organizations, I can’t tell you how often I have heard “a hungry dog runs faster.” True story, when I was a freshman in high school, I worked stocking grocery store shelves in a small Midwest town before school started in the morning. Being we were smack dab in the middle of farmville, it should come as no surprise that the stock supervisor would march up and down the aisles yelling, “Get in their like a biting sow.” We all new it meant open cases, and stock the shelves with intensity and as if your job depended on doing more than the stock clerk next to you.

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Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this. - Anonymous #paraprosdokian

Dogs have owners, cats have staff. - Anonymous #parallelism #isocolon

A dog maybe a man’s best friend but a horse made history… – Anonymous #reformcliche

A Horse! A Horse! my kingdom for a horse! - Shakespeare

Photo Credit: apocs on Flickr