[Evening. Darkness over the face of the land. Are there clouds? It's too dark to tell. Schmutzie and The Palinode relax on the couch, untroubled by darkness.]
Schmutzie: My family has the strangest saying: 'Nervous as a cat.'
Palinode: It makes sense.
Schmutzie: But I've never heard anyone else say it. Just my family. [Pause] Maybe it's from the German.
Palinode: I doubt it. They don't have cats in Germany.
Schmutzie: [accepting the premise] But they have the word for cat.
Palinode: Yes, but they have no idea what it means.
3 comments:
German for cat is 'pussy' which is why it is never used in English.
My family also used that expression and they are Irish, not German. They also used to say, "Dark as the inside of a cow." Ask Schmutzie if she's ever heard that one.
I think that may be a shortened version of "nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs".
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