BOOKS: Animologies
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:
Animologies: “A fine kettle of fish” & 150
other animal expressions, by Michael
Macrone. Cader Books (151 E. 29th St., New York,
NY 10016), 1995. 160 pp., $14.95 hardback.
Michael Macrone takes a colorful crack at explaining
the origins of animal-related phrases, but misses absurdly
often––failing, for instance, to recognize that “dingbat” is
a typographical term, not animal-related, originally applied
to the ornamental battens that kept a hand-operated letterpress
from “dinging” a sheet of paper by forcing it against an
uneven surface. Macrone is equally bewildered by “bat out
of hell,” having apparently never seen bats boiling from a
cavern at sunset. And he asserts that, “Dylan Thomas
coined ass—- in a 1935 letter.” Many people still alive can
testify otherwise.