my impression is that you work the horse to death, but keep beating it in order to (unsuccessfully, naturally) get it to keep going.

Mine, too.

I think Xander was important to buffy because of his normality and all that that meant to her. I also think that WIllow was important because she went dark and came back. I"m having trouble pinning down why I think that was so important, so maybe that means more to me than to Buffy...

Is there a cheetah? Does it have a knife?

Heh, and I was just thinking that Nutty wouldn't be beating a dead horse, she'd be jumping up and down on it on a squash court.

Random related aside - anybody see the commercial (I think it's for a soda) where a woman catches up to and passes a cheetah going full tilt? My thought when watching it was "Watch out! Nutty's comin' to getcha."

my impression is that you work the horse to death, but keep beating it in order to (unsuccessfully, naturally) get it to keep going.

That is logical. Although it doesn't really answer the question as to whether you know the horse is dead or not. Alas, ambiguity.

We are like an autistic linguists convention, aren't we?

Heh, and I was just thinking that Nutty wouldn't be beating a dead horse, she'd be jumping up and down on it on a squash court.

Dude, have you ever looked at a horse's skull? That is a brain the size of an apple, wrapped in a watermelon's worth of bone. I don't know how effective my jumpin' boots would be. Also? A cheetah's head is a lot closer to the floor.

I think that sometimes you don't know the horse is dead (and probably have to be told) and sometimes you know it's dead but you are just so damn frustrated that your cart is just sitting there not moving that you can't help yourself from beating the corpse. It's a flexible saw.

It's a flexible saw.

You're beating it with a saw? That's really gross.

Dude, have you ever looked at a horse's skull? That is a brain the size of an apple, wrapped in a watermelon's worth of bone. I don't know how effective my jumpin' boots would be. Also? A cheetah's head is a lot closer to the floor.

Details, schmetails.

Better than trying to saw it with a riding crop.

Y'know, I was going to say that this coversation has taken a weird turn, but then I realized that we're Buffistas, and weird turn is part of our regular set of directions...

When I picture someone beating a dead horse, the horse is hooked up to a cart. I don't know if this is just my brain or if there was a story to go with the cliche or what.

Sometimes, there is a stream just beyond the horse, which the person doing the beating will not be able to lead the horse to, nor make it drink from.

Is the cart before the horse?