Skinning Cats...
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me "There's more than one way to skin a cat" I'd be retired and living off the profits of my investments. Well, I'm not collecting dollars and it's true, although I've never skinned a cat, I'm sure there is more than one way to do it.So, let's say I really did work for a place that skinned cats... Taxidermy perhaps?
Right answer. It was my summer job... lots of cats came in and I got them all. The boss told me he's never seen someone work so quickly and paid me extra if I could skin them in a way that required less time to stuff them (that was his job) because I skinned them and he stuffed them. What a great job, but many things come to an end and I found another job.
Later in life, I got to talking at a pub and the subject came up about skinning cats. Okay, I skinned a few... hundred and described how I developed some different ways to skin cats. But... it sounded so over the top that no one believed me. I really was telling the truth and someone at the end of the bar went around telling people I was a BS'er simply because in his neck of the woods no one had accomplished what I said I had done.
Trump fabricated a story/lie about Obama that people believed. Millions of dollars were wasted on finding the truth. Years later, he admitted it was a farce but people to this day believe the lie... it did sound convincing. If you are convinced that the lie was true chances are the person who started the lie would be unable to change your mind.
That's human nature.
So any time I went into that bar I was perceived as a liar simply because of a person who fed people BS about me. Then one day, the best customer of the taxidermist happens into the pub. He recognizes me from years past and mentioned how much money he made selling stuffed cats that he knew I had skinned. Some of the people stood around with mouths opened... "You mean he was telling the truth?" one of them said...
I've seen some YouTube videos uploaded by Dude Perfect. It's a group of guys who document some amazing stunts, some have been entered into the Guiness Boooook. Anyway, their videos are really cool... I've seen an outtake of the amount of failures it takes to get one successful stunt. Hundreds.
What sticks in your mind is the 'first try' success these guys have on video...
Comments (5)
Chat said:
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me "There's more than one way to skin a cat"
My brother said that just this morning on the way to breakfast.
They fabricated a bunch about Hillary too and the clueless still believe them.
Some people would actually prefer to hear lies, as long as it validates what they want to believe.
Shameful !
The earliest version of the saying in this particular form is in the book "Way down East; or, Portraitures of Yankee Life" by Seba Smith circa 1854, in which he wrote "This is a money digging world of ours; and, as it is said, ‘there are more ways than one to skin a cat,’ so are there more ways than one of digging for money."
Mark Twain used this updated version several years later, in 1889's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," in which he wrote "She was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat." It was no doubt due to the author's fame that this version of the saying became and remained popular.