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Long and the short of it

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October 19, 2005, 14:13
Robert Arvanitis
Long and the short of it
Long walk for a short beer
Long walk off a short pier

Two expressions for a disappointment, a less-than-satisfactory result.

Does anyone know if one might be a mis-hearing of the other?

(There is a third one, unrelated to the first two, in regard of Napoleon's funeral -- "Long walk for a short bier...")


RJA
October 19, 2005, 16:00
Cat
I haven't heard the former, but I've only heard the latter used as a synonym to 'piss off'; 'get stuffed', etc: "Go (and) take a long walk off a short pier" (i.e f**k off and drown).
October 19, 2005, 20:55
shufitz
Might they trace back to Procrustes, perhaps? Wink
October 20, 2005, 10:49
arnie
I've only heard the latter, and that as a rhetorical question: "Why don't you go for a long walk off a short pier?" It was a favourite saying of my father's when he was exasperated with someone.

The former might be a garbling of the latter. That sort of thing happens often with English idioms.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.