MEMO COPY in re Ardi is home and dry
Kent Paul Dolan
> Louann Miller wrote:
>> William Morse wrote:
>>> And the other question about ardi is, do the
>>> fossils know they are lying in a box with a lid
>>> on it? Or wasn't that the reference of your
>>> subject line?
>> "home and dry" is a stock phrase.
"Stock phrase"? Something cattle mutter among
themselves before stampeding?
>> I wanted one with 'dry' in it.
"Vodka martini, dry" has always worked for me.
> I just learned something. "Home and dry" is not a
> stock phrase in the US, but is in Great Britain.
> My experience with the phrase was from a scene in
> "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", which of
> course was written by an English playwright.
> But the scene was doing combinations of home,
> high, and dry. "High and dry" is a stock phrase in
> the US as well, and I didn't realize that "home
> and dry" was also a stock phrase.
> And if you aren't familiar with the play, it is
> well worth reading. The box with a lid on it
> refers to what I consider one of the better
> soliloquys in modern plays:
> "Do you ever think of yourself as actually dead,
> lying in a box with the lid on it? Nor do I
> really. Silly to be depressed by it. I mean, one
> thinks of it like being alive in a box. One keeps
> forgetting to take into account that one is dead.
> Which should make all the difference. Shouldn't
> it? I mean, you�d never know you were in a box
> would you? It would be just like you were asleep
> in a box. Not that I�d like to sleep in a box,
> mind you. Not without any air. You'd wake up dead
> for a start and then where would you be? Apart
> from inside a box. That's the bit I don't like,
> frankly. That�s why I don�t think of it. Because
> you'd be helpless wouldn't you? Stuffed in a box
> like that. I mean, you'd be in there forever. Even
> taking into account the fact that you're dead. It
> isn't a pleasant thought. Especially if you're
> dead, really. Ask yourself: if I asked you
> straight off I'm going to stuff you in this box
> now � would you rather to be alive or dead?
> Naturally you�d prefer to be alive. Life in a box
> is better than no life at all. I expect. You'd
> have a chance at least. You could lie there
> thinking, well, at least I�m not dead. In a
> minute, somebody�s going to bang on the lid and
> tell me to come out. (knocks) "Hey you! What's
> your name? Come out of there!"
When I am in my box,
Deceased down to my socks,
"Dry" is surely not an early prospect.
For flesh will turn to goop,
Bones mixed in the soup,
"Slurpy"'s more the phrase that I'd expect.
Box air will turn to methane, all,
Last meal ferment to ethanol,
Global warming will be traced right back to me.
Then "they"'ll pound upon the lid,
Yell down "Hey, soupy kid",
"Can you dry up? Your decay gas's far too free."
xanthian, "neither a metrist nor a rhymist be".