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Many rural fairs and events have competitive sheep-shearing events.
There is also an old English proverb, "There's more than one way to skin a cat".
For urban environments which lack the space to pasture livestock, combine the two into Competitive Cat Skinning, effectively sheep-shearing in miniature,
with extra claws.
Judges award points for closeness of cut, fleece removed in one piece, rapidness of cutting; points will be deducted if the animal is injured in any way, or if the shearer bleeds excessively during or after the cut. Goggles are permitted to slightly reduce the risk of loss of sight.
The sheared fleeces can be washed and then stuffed into pillows for allergy sufferers.
World Wide Words on the phrase's origin
http://www.worldwid....org/qa/qa-mor1.htm
Unclear. I liked the catfish explanation, but the author doesn't believe it. [jutta, Aug 19 2009]
Sekhmet - Egyptian cat god
http://www.mnsu.edu.../religion/cats.html
"So extreme infact was the devoutness of the Egyptian culture to the cat, that if a human killed a feline, either intentionally or unintentionally, that human was sentenced to death." Sounds like good order prevailed, unlike now. [xenzag, Aug 19 2009]
Knitting with .. dog hair?
http://www.amazon.c...eater/dp/0312152906
No cat hair edition. Amazon search tag "wtf". [jutta, Aug 23 2009]
why it should be "competitive"
http://www.google.c...al&client=firefox-a
Unfortunately, Professor Niedermann's own work seems not to have made it online, so we are left with tantalising references to it from other texts. [pertinax, Aug 24 2009]
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Annotation:
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I suspect that, despite biomechanic & cybernetic advantages, some contestants might be tempted to shave corners... |
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the adjective in the title sounds like an expletive. |
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Where, much like soccer, Brazil would be the world #1. |
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//environments which lack the space to pasture livestock// and yet possess the required area necessary in which to successfully pendulate a feline. |
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"The sheared fleeces can be washed and then stuffed into pillows for allergy sufferers." Now that IS cruel. |
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Now if you replace "cats" with "catholics", I would like this. I hear they burn quite well too. |
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and this weeks hate commentary will be directed towards Catholics... stay tuned next week when we roast gay Jewish Wiccans for warmth. |
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I'm guessing "skin a cat" is a whatsisism: degeneration of another phrase, totally unrelated to cats or skinning. (though "catfish" sounds pretty reasonable). |
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oh yeah [+] though the title is pretty misleading |
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//gay Jewish Wiccans// Only the one legged, bald, dwarve variety are considered exempt. |
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Cats are amazing... justifiably worshipped in ancient Egypt. see link. |
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//worshipped in Ancient Egypt//
didn't they used to have huge grain storehouses ? no wonder self-perpetuating mousetraps were popular. |
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Cat fur will not come off in one piece, it doesn't have the
intertwining that allows sheep's wool to do this. At bast it
would come off in staticy clumps. This also makes it difficult
to spin, although it has been done, usually by mixing in some
wool. |
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Why does she not want to know how [MechE] is able
to make such a statement, as she runs down the
street holding claire in both hands screaming bloody
murder...whilst typing this. |
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I wonder if I'm the only one here who has actually skinned a cat? That's been long enough ago that the $200 from a bobcat pelt would buy me a bit more than 400 gallons of gas, but I can still remember the smell. Offered a chance to do it competitively, I think I'd pass. |
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On the other hand, my father was a "catskinner" by trade; however, in that case, the term had nothing to do with felines, but Caterpillar brand bulldozers, specifically, the operation of such. That could be an interesting competition. |
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Baked....they have it in China. As PETA likes to point out (with their hidden cameras on 'record'), however, it's actually not as rosey as it sounds. In the joking spirit of the idea, perhaps I'll spare you the gruesome link. |
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Just a comment on the origin of the phrase "more than one way to skin a cat"... |
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When removing the hide from an animal, the method is often dictated by your reasons for skinning. For example, if you were skinning a deer, you primarily want the meat; but you also want to keep the skin mainly intact. You'll open the abdominal cavity to remove the viscera, so there's a big hole in the hide, but the rest of the hide you take off all in one piece. (Except for the lower legs and the head. They don't get skinned.) |
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A beaver, on the other hand, is only skinned for the pelt. So you start at the back end, make as small a hole as possible, and turn him wrong side out, and keep everything on the pelt - right down to the paws, lips, eyelids and whatnot. |
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Now, if you were going to skin a cat (I'm thinking some mangy 16th century London stray) the meat is not something you'd want and the hide is worthless as well. So how to proceed? Any way you want to. Start at either end, chop as many holes as you want, it doesn't matter. |
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(Compare to my bobcat skinning experience - if I made a hole in the belly hide, the fur-buyer would drop his offer by $40. A hole in the shoulder area would cost me $100. Minimum wage was $2.35 an hour, and I was trying to pay my way into college, so in that case there was only one way to skin that 'cat - *very* *very* *carefully*.) |
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[Bliss] I was refering to the original idea involving shearing,
not actual skinning. Trust me, my cat is far more likely to
take my skin off than the other way around. |
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Ahhhh, that helps...(not). It was the "spin" part that
sort of made me choke back my spittle. At first read
thought you meant "spin as in spinning cats by their
tails above your head', type spinning. Then finally I
understood about that part. Phwww. |
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In my neck of the woods 'skinning the cat' was what we called hanging by your knees, up-side-down, from a suitable tree limb or climbing apparatus. A competition on doing that for as long as possible would be pretty boring until the end when the ambulance arrives. |
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//"cats" with "catholics"// |
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[xen], I think your <ironicorange> html tag failed to display properly in some browsers. Just so's you know. |
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For any sensitive readers who may not know our [xenzag]: He's kidding! (I'm almost certain). |
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Wow, bubba, that's a mouthful. Excellent play by play. |
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Yes, it has the bitter precision of one who writes from personal experience. |
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No, but I see lint wigs on the horizon... |
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Some youths in a country town where my parents used to be teachers would insert a needle as used to inflate balls, connected to an air compressor, under the skin of a (previously killed) cat. They would then inflate the skin, separating it from the underlying tissues, making subsequent removal easier. I have such a skin somewhere, and it has been very cleanly removed. |
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Poor Rayford. We know vision is sometimes
compromised as we age... |
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(god jutta, I hope that is clean dog hair...ewww.) |
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The jury's still out on that one. The OED gives both spellings as valid. |
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Etymology, though, is on [Unabubba]'s side. |
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