Framing the Dialogue

This afternoon as I was driving to a meeting and listening to the host of the “Third Most Listened to Show in America,” the host was discussing his lack of intelligence and described himself as “Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.”  If you knew me you would know that I love this kind of humor and my mind started rattling off all of the other phrases that mean the same thing…hence this article.

We really need to preserve these phrases for our posterity and our children.  I have done a number of workshops teaching educators about the environment.  One of my favorite activities is called Raining Cats ‘n Dogs where the audience selects a common phrase (in this case dealing with water) and has to draw the phrase without using words or numbers.  The other members then have to guess the phrase.  It makes a good icebreaker.

A teacher recently chose “Doesn’t have both oars in the water” and drew it.  Most of the adult teachers were familiar with the phrase, but when I have showed the picture to young folks, they have never heard this phrase.  Just what are we teaching our children these days?

I actually used one of these euphemisms in an earlier posting and will start off my list with that one:
 

• Not the brightest bulb
• Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
• Not playing with a full deck
• Does not have both oars in the water
• A few bricks shy of a load
• Not the sharpest tack in the drawer
• Not running on all cylinders
• Quiver is missing a few arrows
• Not the sharpest tool in the shed
• No lights on in the attic
• Their elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top
• Not the brightest crayon in the box
• Nice house, not much furniture
• The light’s on, but nobody’s home
• Bored in college

That is all I have for now and I look forward to your contributions…