I heard it from Betsy on Table Talk. And I'm guessing cause ducks take small bites and wouldn't savage you like a bear might(Ok, Stephen, you can look now)
Angel: Is that what you think you are--a hero? Spike: Saved the world didn't I? Angel: Once. Talk to me after you've done it a couple more times.
'Destiny'
Spike's Bitches 37: You take the killing for granted.
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
erikaj - Aug 21, 2007 12:44:53 pm PDT #2368 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
tommyrot - Aug 21, 2007 12:45:59 pm PDT #2369 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I've heard it in several non-Buffista/TT contexts....
Toddson - Aug 21, 2007 12:47:35 pm PDT #2370 of 10001
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
I'm pretty sure I heard it before finding b.org. But then, there are expressions that are confined to either a region or other groups. (Once, in college, I used the phrase "not enough room to swing a cat" and the person I was speaking to not only had never heard it, but she ran off to write it down to repeat to ... whoever.)
Sparky1 - Aug 21, 2007 12:48:27 pm PDT #2371 of 10001
Librarian Warlord
I'm lecturing tonight at 8:20 p.m. The professor coordinating this piece of the evening students' orientation just told me what classroom we'll be in, and then mentioned that she forgot to ask the AV people to unlock the computer. I raced to catch someone before they all left for the day and found out we've been scheduled in the room where the projector is broken.
So long as we're talking about ducks and their nibbly ways.
Pix - Aug 21, 2007 12:49:14 pm PDT #2372 of 10001
We're all getting played with, babe. -Weird Barbie
I heard it from Betsy on Table Talk. And I'm guessing cause ducks take small bites and wouldn't savage you like a bear might(Ok, Stephen, you can look now)
Betsy rocks. (ETA: Whether or not it originated with her.) I use that expression all the time and love it to pieces. And yeah, I see it as every nibble being some little annoyance that isn't a big deal by itself, but the cumulative effect is really not fun.
tommyrot - Aug 21, 2007 12:51:09 pm PDT #2373 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I googled the exact phrase and got 12,900 matches: [link]
One also had the phrase "death by a thousand cuts" which is similar but sounds a little more gory....
Ginger - Aug 21, 2007 12:51:28 pm PDT #2374 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I know I've used it for 20 years, because we used it all the time at a job I had that pretty much consisted of being duck food.
Sparky1 - Aug 21, 2007 12:56:38 pm PDT #2375 of 10001
Librarian Warlord
LexisNexis has an instance of it in the Washington Post back in 1979, and that article uses it as if it's nothing new.
vw bug - Aug 21, 2007 1:03:12 pm PDT #2376 of 10001
Mostly lurking...
Huh. Interesting. I'm gonna have to tell her that she's way behind the times.
vw bug - Aug 21, 2007 1:11:21 pm PDT #2377 of 10001
Mostly lurking...
ION, today was the first day of school for my cousin's three-year-old, who needs a little early intervention. There was some miscommunication with the bus company, and he wasn't picked up until my cousin called to find out why they were 45 minutes late. Then, they lost him tonight. Poor cousin was out waiting for him to get off the bus. The bus comes, and he's not on it, and his two neighbor friends were freaking out about how they weren't allowed to let Noodle on the bus with them.
The school had him and was terribly apologetic about the whole mix-up, but still. He's three! You don't lose him! Even for a second!