Suckin' wind
Donna Richoux
there was a clip of House prosecutor Lindsay Graham of South Carolina
saying something like "We're sucking wind right now." My husband and I
were so struck by that line and what it might signify that we did not
quite grasp the context.
If someone, especially a US Southerner, knows this expression and can
illuminate, please do so.
My immediate impression was it meant, "We are struggling, we are not
doing well" and I said, based on something I saw in a.u.e once, that it
related to motors malfunctioning when they took in too much air.
In our discussion that followed (covering every possible shade of
meaning of the word "suck," innocent and salacious) my husband looked in
all of the dictionaries in the house. To our surprise, the Random House
American College Dictionary, 1962, had these terms:
windsucker, n. a horse afflicted with crib-biting
wind-sucking, adj. cribbing (def. 1)
cribbing 1. Also crib-biting, windsucking by horses, an injurious habit
in which the animal bites his manger and in the process swallows air.
So was Lindsay Graham, with his Southern mannerisms, referring in some
way to a problem that horses have?
With great interest --- Donna Richoux
snews
runner
completes his run... He stands there gasping for breath, taking in as much
air as possible. Sucking wind. And being in that condition, the "runner" is
unable to perform any other activities. They are essentially disabled for
the
moment. The only thing they can do at the time is suck wind.
I don't know where I got this impression of the term however...
Donna Richoux wrote in message
<1dmaspq.y1...@p137.hlm.euronet.nl>...
Gary Williams, Business Services Accounting
<stop...@rochester.rr.com> writes:
>I always thought that sucking wind was like the period of time after a
>runner completes his run... He stands there gasping for breath, taking in as
>much air as possible.
I, too, thought the expression had to do with a state of exhaustion (although
in my case the race did not have to be over for me to reach that condition).
But the idea that Donna had, that it referred to an engine taking in air rather
than fuel, makes a lot of sense; I may have put my own twist on the meaning
because I am knowledgeable neither of motors nor of motor sports.
It certainly has _something_ to do with not doing well.
Gary Williams
DK
>cribbing 1. Also crib-biting, windsucking by horses, an injurious habit
>in which the animal bites his manger and in the process swallows air.
>
>So was Lindsay Graham, with his Southern mannerisms, referring in some
>way to a problem that horses have?
>
>With great interest --- Donna Richoux
This is the only context in which I'm familiar with the term. We had a
couple of wind-suckers at a training stable I worked for. I didn't even know
it *had* a colloquial use!
--Katrina
Donna Richoux
in response to my request about the meaning of:
> >wind-sucking, adj. cribbing (def. 1)
> >cribbing 1. Also crib-biting, windsucking by horses, an injurious habit
> >in which the animal bites his manger and in the process swallows air.
>
> This is the only context in which I'm familiar with the term. We had a
> couple of wind-suckers at a training stable I worked for. I didn't even
> know it *had* a colloquial use!
Well, it's good to hear the term is used meaningfully somewhere. Was
that in the States? What is most striking about a windsucking horse --
does it make noise, or act sick, or lose endurance, or what, do you
remember?
Best wishes --- Donna Richoux
Richard F Ulrich
: I always thought that sucking wind was like the period of time after a
: runner
: completes his run... He stands there gasping for breath, taking in as much
: unable to perform any other activities. They are essentially disabled for
: the
: moment. The only thing they can do at the time is suck wind.
- The picture I come up with is someone "sucking wind" like that,
and it is purely descriptive. But in the stories,
the poor sucker is left that way by being punched in the belly,
isn't he? Then the bad guy who hit him stalks off....
Rich Ulrich wpi...@pitt.edu
Jitze Couperus
(Donna Richoux) wrote:
Around here it is seen merely as a bad habit - like cribbing, or
taking a nip at your posterior as you try to pick the hooves. No
loss of endurance is implied, nor any other health problem. Sometimes
owners will put a special collar on the horse to try and break him/her
of the habit, but I'm not sure how that is supposed to work. The most
striking aspect is the noise it makes, which can be quite disconcerting,
and drive you nuts after a while. As it's name suggests - a loud wheezing
sucking sound.
I was surprised by the above definitions because I see cribbing (chewing
at fences or stables or whatever is handy) as a distinct problem from
wind-sucking - although the two do seem to go together in a given horse.
But then I am no expert - merely the poor bugger who gets to fix
the fences and stable doors on a regular basis.
Stupid beasts - and dangerous at both ends.
Jitze
DK
>> >cribbing 1. Also crib-biting, windsucking by horses, an injurious habit
>> >in which the animal bites his manger and in the process swallows air.
>>
>> This is the only context in which I'm familiar with the term. We had a
>> couple of wind-suckers at a training stable I worked for. I didn't even
>> know it *had* a colloquial use!
>
>Well, it's good to hear the term is used meaningfully somewhere. Was
>that in the States? What is most striking about a windsucking horse --
>does it make noise, or act sick, or lose endurance, or what, do you
>remember?
>
It *was* in the US. One of these horses would hook his front teeth over the
edge of his stall door (well cribbed, meaning in this case chewed up by the
horse). He would pull his head straight back, putting tension on the teeth,
and inhale sharply with a fairly disgusting grunting sound. This is
typically what "sucking wind" is like, and as far as I know the only reason
it's undesirable (aside from the chewing up the stall part) is that it's
annoying.
Another weird one is "roaring": I saw this once. A horse stood in the middle
of a coral and began sucking air into her lungs with great force, making a
strange sound not unlike a distant lion or a Mexican howler monkey warming
up. I think this behavior without the noise is also called "sucking wind",
and it looks *really* strange. I don't know why they do this, but it's rare.
--Katrina
DK
>owners will put a special collar on the horse to try and break him/her
>of the habit, but I'm not sure how that is supposed to work.
Can't tuck their chins in far enough to be able to breathe and bite the edge
of the wood at the same time. Pretty cruel, I think.
--Katrina
SLHinton17
traditional song about John Henry's contest with a steam drill:
Well, the shaker say to John Henry
"I think this here mountain's cavin' in!"
But John Henry say to the shaker, "Man --
That ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind,
Lord God!
That ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind."
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
Armond Perretta
>SLHinton17 wrote: ... The phrase has been used
Sam, you been adiggin' in that ole Carl Sandburg book
agin, or were it an Alan Lomax tome this time? You shore
know that there traditional music stuff.
(On a sincere note, I find your traditional music comments
quite interesting and informative. Please keep it up.)
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat (Remove BOAT)
Larry Phillips
>
> Can't tuck their chins in far enough to be able to breathe and bite
> the edge of the wood at the same time. Pretty cruel, I think.
Lets see... you make it so the horse has a decision to make, which is
basically to try to keep doing the undesirable action, and have some
discomfort, or stop doing it and be comfortable. Must be a new meaning
for the word 'cruel'.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
I like deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound of them
as they go flying by.
David McMurray
> DK wrote:
> >
> > Can't tuck their chins in far enough to be able to breathe and bite
> > the edge of the wood at the same time. Pretty cruel, I think.
>
> Lets see... you make it so the horse has a decision to make, which is
> basically to try to keep doing the undesirable action, and have some
> discomfort, or stop doing it and be comfortable. Must be a new meaning
> for the word 'cruel'.
If the action is undesirable, why does the horse keep trying to do it?
Oh, you mean the horse's _owner_ thinks it undesirable.
Well then, who gives a shit what the horse thinks? Cruelty, shmuelty.
--
David
Larry Phillips
>
> If the action is undesirable, why does the horse keep trying to do it?
Doesn't matter.
> Oh, you mean the horse's _owner_ thinks it undesirable.
Of course. You could argue that the owner has no right to own the horse,
and I might agree with you. You could argue that the owner should not
onject to the horse's behaviour, since it is probably predicated on the
fact that he is imprisoned in a stall, and I might agree with that.
Aside from this, though, under current laws the owner may own the horse,
and may keep it in a stall. If the owner then wishes to prohibit the
horse from doing something harmful (to the owner, the owner's property,
or himself), I think that giving the horse a choice is far less cruel
than (for example) beating it.
DK
>DK wrote:
>>
>> Can't tuck their chins in far enough to be able to breathe and bite
>> the edge of the wood at the same time. Pretty cruel, I think.
>
>Lets see... you make it so the horse has a decision to make, which is
>basically to try to keep doing the undesirable action, and have some
>discomfort, or stop doing it and be comfortable. Must be a new meaning
>for the word 'cruel'.
Well, it's not cruel like hoof spikes or tail-breaking, but it's not very
nice. Try holding *your* chin at an unnatural angle all day and night. It's
not as
though the collar is perfectly flexible except at those moments the horse
makes a move to crib. It bites into the horse's throat any time it tries to
lower its chin, a natural action involved in quite a lot of what a horse
does. Also, when the horse goes to scratch an itch with its
teeth, chances are it can't do that either, at least along much of its back,
chest and shoulders. Much simpler to paint the edge of the stall door in
something nasty-tasting.
--Katrina