Why do people say there is more than one way to skin a cat? Who are these people skinning cats and how can we get this atrocity to stop?

I found this answer on the intarwebz. I didn’t read it, and I know you didn’t really want an answer. But nonetheless.

And really, there is only one good way to skin a cat.

It’s pretty amusing to me how violent many of the little sayings in English are.

Ex: the ‘Ring around the rosy’ song, ‘killing 2 birds with 1 stone’, ‘beating the horse dead’, etc.

great response elchoopanebre.

Well when I skin cats, I just take a scalpel and start cutting from the mid-ventral line. Skinning cats is really a lot of work but luckily we have started buying them already skinned now. Allows more time for dissection and isolating the muscles etc.

Edit: Oh wait…you are talking about a saying? Hmm never heard of it…interesting.

I’ll join you. In the expose, can you guarantee my name will not appear when you inevitably interview me for my barbaric practices?

“Beating a dead horse” is the phrase, so technically you are not being cruel to the animal.

Figurative speech (like metaphor and comparison) was used in the earliest writing samples known.

Falling on my sword
Bats in the belfrey
Horse sense (different horse)
It is easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle, etc
Ants in my pants
Don’‘t let the bedbugs bite
Quiet as a mouse
Rats!
While the cat’s away
Belling the cat
If it’s not a zebra, it’s a horse
Sounds like a herd of thundering elephants.
Slow as a turtle

Gotta go vote. (Literally)

The bedbug one isn’t a metaphor. Bedbugs are bad news.

@asmonet – Yes I will just say that I have inside information from a reliable source that this monstrosity is still taking place behind closed doors and no kitten is safe unless the right laws are passed. If I can get one of the Public Broadcasting Channels to air it coast to coast maybe even Obama will make it a priority after he deals with the economy, national security, peace in the Middle East and Health Care. I believe cat skinning should be just as important.

I concur. I have come to realize the error of my ways thanks in no small part to your passion for the subject. You have made a difference here today, if only to me.

@asmonet – I am glad. My life had no purpose or meaning until I started this cause. I was just wasting my time away until I had an eye opening experience.

One August day I called a friend of mine from Baton Rouge and when he picked up the phone and said “Hello”, I said Hi this is GAMBIT, He immediately said “I can’t talk to you right now I’m skinning my cat.” When I asked what he meant he immediately hung up on me.

Since that day my life has never been the same and I won’t give up until all my feline friends are safe and secure.

I thank you for your support.

@Gailcalled

Don’t some versions say “let’s beat this horse dead”? I heard a teacher say it when he was re-revewing a concept to make absolutely sure everyone understood it. Maybe he used it incorrectly…

Beating a dead horse is essentially pointless.
So unless he was a very disillusioned teacher, I’d say he was using it incorrectly.

I’m partial to [via Tonedef]:
There are more ways of killing a dog than choking him with pudding.

You are most welcome, and who should I right my charitable check out to?

@ asmonet -

Charity to End Cat Skinning (CECS)
000 Kitty’s Corner
Meowsville IL. 00000

I believe we can make a difference one cat at a time.

Word.

@asmonet – :-)

There certainly is more than one way to skin a cat. I learned a few of them in a Biology class.

Beating the bishop, choking the chicken, slapping the monkey.. such violence.

The idiom is “beating a dead horse” and means to do something to no avail or *pointless.

It is part and parcel of English vernacular; your teacher was saying something different; it was English and clear but had nothing to do with the cliché,

http://www.goenglish.com/BeatADeadHorse.asp

“You are beating a dead horse when you insist on talking about something that cannot be changed. Example: “I’d like to talk with you again about what happened.” Reply: “Oh, come on. Let’s not beat a dead horse.”

Beating a dead horse is an action that has no purpose, because no matter how hard or how long you beat a dead horse, it is not going to get up and run. Example: “Let’s not talk about it any more. Okay?” Reply: “You’re right. We’re just beating a dead horse.”

To repeatedly bring up a particular topic with no chance of affecting the outcome is beating a dead horse. Example: “Dad, are you sure we can’t get a new computer for the upstairs?” Reply: “Son, we talked about this and the decision was ‘no’. You are beating a dead horse.”

I believe there is only one correct way to skin a cat.

It doesn’t really matter though, as long as the skin is gone.

If you’re trying to preserve the skin and keep the meat as solid as possible, I’m in full agreement with CherryRed.