Contest - A Simple Question

stahrwe · Sat Jan 29, 2011 2:43 pm

How many ways are there to skin a cat?

Suzanne · Sat Jan 29, 2011 4:11 pm

Two, the right way and the wrong way.

stahrwe · Sat Jan 29, 2011 5:46 pm


	Suzanne wrote: Two, the right way and the wrong way.

That's an interesting answer though it leaves open the question of which is which and, there is at least one more answer.

thanks.

Saffron · Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:17 pm


	stahrwe wrote: How many ways are there to skin a cat?

How about -- There is more than one way....

Suzanne · Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:25 pm

Darn, Saffron got back to you faster than I could.

My way may be different than your way, which may be different from Tom's way, Dick's way and Harry's way. Today's way may be better than yesterday's way, and tomorrow will bring yet another way.

Is there an actual number of ways to skin a cat?

This is not so simple, except to say, there are more ways than just one to skin a cat. But this is the usuall response.

stahrwe · Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:16 pm


	Suzanne wrote: Darn, Saffron got back to you faster than I could. My way may be different than your way, which may be different from Tom's way, Dick's way and Harry's way. Today's way may be better than yesterday's way, and tomorrow will bring yet another way. Is there an actual number of ways to skin a cat? This is not so simple, except to say, there are more ways than just one to skin a cat. But this is the usuall response.

Alas, I have never skinned anything other than my knees and do not think I could ever skin a cat being very fond of them which leaves one wondering how the expression started.

Still, Saffron's answer is the one I expected and so she is awarded that satisfaction but the fact that yours was not expected makes it admirable.

Suzanne · Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:39 am


	stahrwe wrote: Alas, I have never skinned anything other than my knees and do not think I could ever skin a cat being very fond of them which leaves one wondering how the expression started.


	Quote: There are several versions of this saying, which suggests that there are always several ways to do something. Charles Kingsley used one old British form in Westward Ho! in 1855: “there are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream”. Other versions include “there are more ways of killing a dog than hanging him”, “there are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it with butter”, and “there are more ways of killing a dog than choking him with pudding”.Mark Twain used your version in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889: “she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, that is, more than one way to get what she wanted. An earlier appearance is in ’Way down East; or, Portraitures of Yankee Life by Seba Smith of about 1854: “This is a money digging world of ours; and, as it is said, ‘there are more ways than one to skin a cat,’ so are there more ways than one of digging for money”. From the way he writes, the author clearly knew this to be a well-known existing proverbial saying. In fact, it is first recorded in John Ray’s collection of English proverbs as far back as 1678.Some writers have pointed to its use in the southern states of the US in reference to catfish, often abbreviated to cat, a fish that is indeed usually skinned in preparing it for eating. However, it looks very much from the multiple versions of the saying, their wide distribution and their age, that this is just a local application of the proverb. The version more than one way to skin a cat seems to have nothing directly to do with the American English term to skin a cat, which is to perform a type of gymnastic exercise, involving passing the feet and legs between the arms while hanging by the hands from a horizontal bar. However, its name may have been suggested by the action of turning an animal’s skin inside out as part of the process of removing it from the body