Farberisms

These are a collections of actual things that Professor David Farber has said. He says such strange things that his students have compiled them into farberisms. This isn't a complete list, BTW.

• A buck in the hand is worth two on the books.
• A dog under any other coat is still a dog.
• A hand in the bush is worth two anywhere else.
• A lot of these arguments are fetious.
• A lot of things are going to be bywashed.
• A lot of water has gone over the bridge since then.
• A problem swept under the table occasionally comes home to roost.
• A rocky road is easier to travel than a stone wall.
• A stop-gap measure is better than no gap at all.
• A whole hog is better than no hole at all.
• Abandon ship all you who enter here!
• After that, we'll break our gums on the computer.
• All the hills of beans in China don't matter.
• All the lemmings are coming home to roost.
• All you have to do is fill in the missing blanks.
• An avalanche is nipping at their heels.
• An enigma is only as good as it's bottom line.
• An ounce of prevention is better than pounding the table.
• Another day, a different dollar.
• Any kneecap of yours is a friend of mine.
• Anything he wants is a friend of mine.
• Are there any problems we haven't beat out to death?
• As long as somebody let the cat out of the bag, we might as well spell it correctly.
• At the end of every pot of gold, there's a rainbow.
• Before they made him they broke the mold.
• Beware a Trojan bearing a horse.
• By a streak of coincidence, it really happened.
• By the time we unlock the bandages, he will have gone down the drain.
• Cheapness doesn't come free.
• Clean up or fly right.
• Clean up your own can of worms!
• Come down off your charlie horse.
• Conceptual things are in the eye of the beholder.
• Dig yourself a hole and bury it.
• Do it now; don't dingle-dally over it.
• Do not fumble with a woman's logic.
• Does it joggle any bells?
• Don't bite the hand that stabs you in the back.
• Don't burn your bridges until you come to them.
• Don't cash in your chips until the shill is down.
• Don't cast a gander upon the water.
• Don't cast any dispersions.
• Don't cast doubts on troubled waters.
• Don't count your chickens until the barn door is closed.
• Don't criticize him for lack of inexperience.
• Don't cut off the limb you've got your neck strung out on.
• Don't do anything I wouldn't do standing up in a hammock.
• Don't eat with your mouth full.
• Don't get your eye out of joint.
• Don't jump off the gun.
• Don't jump off the handle.
• Don't jump on a ship that's going down in flames.
• Don't just stand there like a sitting duck.
• Don't lead them down the garden path and cut them off at the knees.
• Don't leave the nest that feeds you.
• Don't let the camels get their feet in the door.
• Don't look a gift horse in the face.
• Don't look a mixed bag in the mouth.
• Don't look at me in that tone of voice.
• Don't look for a gift in the horse's mouth.
• Don't make a molehill out of a can of beans.
• Don't make a tempest out of a teapot.
• Don't muddle the waters.
• Don't pull a panic button.
• Don't pull an enigma on me.
• Don't put all you irons on the fire in one pot.
• Don't rattle the boat.
• Don't rock the boat that feeds you.
• Don't roll up your nostrils at me.
• Don't strike any bells while the fire is hot.
• Don't talk to me with your clothes on.
• Don't talk with your mouth open.
• Don't throw the baby out with the dishwasher.
• Don't throw the dog's blanket over the horse's nose.
• Don't twiddle your knee-caps at me!
• Don't upset the apple pie.
• Dot your t's and cross your i's.
• Drop the other foot, for Christ's sake!
• Each of us sleazes by at our own pace.
• Erase that indelibly from your memory.
• Every cloud has a blue horizon.
• Every rainbow has a silver lining.
• Everything is going all bananas.
• Everything is ipso facto.
• Everything is mutually intertangled.
• Everything's all ruffled over.
• Fade out in a blaze of glory.
• Feather your den with somebody else's nest.
• Fellow alumni run thicker than water.
• Fish or get off the pot!
• Float off into several individual conferees.
• For all intents and purposes, the act is over.
• From here on up, it's down hill all the way.
• Gander your eye at that!
• Gee, it must have fallen into one of my cracks.
• Get off the stick and do something.
• Getting him to do anything is like pulling hen's teeth.
• Give him a project to get his teeth wet on.
• Give him a square shake.
• Give him an inch and he'll screw you.
• Give him enough rope and he will run away with it.
• Go fly your little red wagon somewhere else.
• Good grace is in the eye of the beholder.
• Good riddance aforethought.
• Half a worm is better than none.
• Hands were made before feet.
• Have it prepared under my signature.
• Have more discretion in the face of valor.
• Have the seeds we've sown fallen on deaf ears?
• Have we been cast a strange eye at?
• Have we gone too fast too far?
• He and his group are two different people.
• He came in on my own volition.
• He can't hack the other can of worms.
• He choked on his own craw.
• He deserves a well-rounded hand of applause.
• He disappeared from nowhere.
• He doesn't have the brain to rub two nickels together.
• He doesn't know which side his head is buttered on.
• He drinks like a sieve.
• He flipped his cork.
• He gave me a blanket check.
• He got taken right through the nose.
• He got up on his high heels.
• He grates me the wrong way.
• He has a dire need, actually it's half-dire, but he thinks it's double-dire.
• He has a marvelous way of extruding you.
• He has a very weak indigestion.
• He has a wool of steel.
• He has feet of molasses.
• He has his ass on the wrong end of his head.
• He has his crutches around her throat.
• He has his foot in the pie.
• He has his neck out on a limb.
• He has his pot in too many pies.
• He has the character of navel lint.
• He has the courage of a second-story man.
• He hit the nose right on the head.
• He is as dishonest as the day is long.
• He just sat there like a bump on a wart.
• He knows which side his pocketbook is buttered on.
• He knows which side of his bread his goose is buttered on.
• He may be the greatest piece of cheese that ever walked down the plank.
• He needs to get blown out of his water.
• He popped out of nowhere like a jack-in-the-bean-box.
• He pulled himself up on top of his own bootstraps.
• He rammed it down their ears.
• He reads memos with a fine tooth comb.
• He rules with an iron thumb.
• He said it thumb in cheek.
• He should be gracious for small favors.
• He smokes like a fish.
• He wants to get his nose wet in several areas.
• He was hoisted by a skyhook on his own petard!
• He was hoisted by his own canard.
• He was hung by his own bootstraps.
• He was left out on the lurch.
• He was putrefied with fright.
• He wears his finger on his sleeve.
• He would forget his head if it weren't screwed up.
• He'll get his neck in hot water.
• He'll grease any palm that will pat his ass.
• He's a bulldog in a china shop.
• He's a child progeny.
• He's a lion in a den of Daniels.
• He's a little clog in a big wheel.
• He's a shirking violet.
• He's a wolf in sheep's underwear.
• He's a young peeksqueek.
• He's as crazy as a bloody loon!
• He's as crazy as a fruitcake.
• He's as happy as a pig at high tide.
• He's as quick as an eyelash.
• He's bailing him out of the woods.
• He's been living off his laurels for years.
• He's being pruned for the job.
• He's being shifted from shuttle to cock.
• He's biting the shaft and getting the short end of the problem.
• He's breathing down my throat.
• He's casting a red herring on the face of the water.
• He's clam bait.
• He's cornered on all sides.
• He's faster than the naked eye.
• He's fuming at the seams.
• He's going to fall flat on his feet.
• He's got a rat's nest by the tail.
• He's got a tough axe to hoe.
• He's got four sheets in the wind.
• He's got his intentions crossed.
• He's got so much zap he can barely twitch.
• He's king bee.
• He's letting ground grow under his feet.
• He's like a wine glass in a storm.
• He's like sheep in a bullpen.
• He's lying through his britches.
• He's not breathing a muscle.
• He's off in a cloud of ``hearty heigh-ho Silver''.
• He's on the back of the pecking order.
• He's one of the world's greatest flamingo dancers.
• He's paying through the neck.
• He's procrastinating like a bandit.
• He's reached the crescent of his success.
• He's restoring order to chaos.
• He's running around like a bull with his head cut off.
• He's running around like a chicken with his ass cut off.
• He's running around with his chicken cut off.
• He's running from gamut to gamut.
• He's running off at the seams.
• He's salivating at the chops.
• He's seething at the teeth.
• He's sharp as a whip.
• He's singing a little off-keel.
• He's so far above me I can't reach his bootstraps.
• He's so mad he is spitting wooden nickels.
• He's somewhere down wind of the innuendo.
• He's spending a lot of brunt on the task.
• He's splitting up at the seams.
• He's the best programmer east of the Mason-Dixon line.
• He's the king of queens.
• He's the last straw on the camel's back to be called.
• He's too smart for his own bootstraps.
• He's tossing symbols around like a percussionist in a John Philip Sousa band.
• He's up a creek with his paddles leaking.
• He's within eyeshot of shore.
• Heads are rolling in the aisles.
• His eyeballs perked up.
• His position is not commiserate with his abilities.
• His feet have come home to roost.
• His foot is in his mouth up to his ear.
• His head's too big for his britches.
• History is just a repetition of the past.
• Hold your cool!
• I accept it with both barrels.
• I apologize on cringed knees.
• I came within a hair's breathe of it.
• I can do it with one eye tied behind me.
• I can remember everything -- I have a pornographic mind.
• I can't hum a straight tune.
• I case my ground very well before I jump into it.
• I come to you on bended bootstrap.
• I contributed to the charity of my cause.
• I could count it on the fingers of one thumb.
• I could tell you stories that would curdle your hair.
• I did it sitting flat on my back.
• I don't always play with a full house of cards.
• I don't know which dagger to clothe it in.
• I don't like the feel of this ball of wax.
• I don't want to be the pie that upset the applecart.
• I don't want to cast a pall on the water.
• I don't want to start hurdling profanity.
• I don't want to stick my hand in the mouth that's feeding me.
• I don't want to throw a wrench in the ointment.
• I enjoy his smiling continence.
• I flew it by ear.
• I got you by the nap of your neck.
• I guess I'd better get my duff on the road.
• I guess I'm putting all my birds in one pie.
• I guess that muddled the waters.
• I had her by the nap of the neck.
• I had to make a split decision.
• I had to scratch in the back recesses of my memory.
• I had to throw in the white flag.
• I have a green thumb up to my elbow.
• I have a rot-gut feeling about that.
• I have feedback on both sides of the coin.
• I have my neck hung out on an open line.
• I have no personal bones to grind about it.
• I have people crawling out of my ears.
• I have post-naval drip.
• I have reasonably zero desire to do it.
• I have the self-discipline of a mouse.
• I have to get my guts up.
• I have too many cooks in the pot already.
• I haven't bitten off an easy nut.
• I haven't gotten the knack down yet.
• I hear the handwriting on the wall.
• I heard it out of the corner of my eyes.
• I just pulled those out of the seat of my pants.
• I keep stubbing my shins.
• I know what we have to do to get our feet off the ground.
• I listen with a very critical eye.
• I looked at it with some askance.
• I march to a different kettle of fish.
• I only hear half of what I believe.
• I only hope your every wish is desired.
• I only mentioned it to give you another side of the horse.
• I only read it in snips and snabs.
• I owe you a great gratitude of thanks.
• I pulled my feet out from under my rug.
• I put all my marbles in one basket.
• I read the sign, but it went in one ear and out the other.
• I resent the insinuendoes.
• I rushed around like a chicken out of my head.
• I said it beneath my breath.
• I see several little worms raising their heads around the corner.
• I speak only with olive branches dripping from the corners of my mouth.
• I think I've committed a fore paw.
• I think he's gone over the bend.
• I think that we are making an out-and-out molehill of this issue.
• I think the real crux is the matter.
• I thought I'd fall out of my gourd.
• I want half a cake and eat it too.
• I want to embark upon your qualms.
• I want to get more fire into the iron.
• I want to get to know them on a face-to-name basis.
• I want to go into that at short length.
• I want to see him get a good hands-on feel.
• I was working my balls to the bone.
• I wish somebody could drop the other foot.
• I won't hang my laurels on it.
• I won't kick a gift horse in the mouth.
• I worked my toes to the bonenail.
• I would imagine he chafes a bit.
• I wouldn't give it to a wet dog.
• I wouldn't marry her with a twenty-foot pole.
• I wouldn't take him on a ten foot pole.
• I wouldn't want to be sitting in his shoes.
• I'd better get my horse on it's ass.
• I'd better jack up my bootstraps and get going.
• I'd have been bent out of shape like spades.
• I'd kill a dog to bite that man.
• I'd like to intersperse a comment.
• I'd like to put another foot into the pot.
• I'd like to strike while the inclination is hot.
• I'd rather be tight than right.
• I'll be ready just in case a windfall comes down the pike.
• I'll be there in the next foreseeable future.
• I'll be there with spades one.
• I'll bet there's one guy out in the woodwork.
• I'll descend on them to the bone.
• I'll fight him hand and nail.
• I'll hit him right between the teeth.
• I'll procrastinate when I get around to it.
• I'll reek the benefits.
• I'll see it when I believe it.
• I'll stay away from that like a 10-foot pole.
• I'll take a few pegs out of his sails.
• I'll take any warm body in a storm.
• I'm a mere fragment of my imagination.
• I'm all ravelled up.
• I'm basking in his shadow.
• I'm burning my bridges out from under me!
• I'm casting the dye on the face of the water.
• I'm collapsing around the seams.
• I'm creaking at the seams.
• I'm creaming off the top of my head.
• I'm deathly curious.
• I'm flapping at the gills.
• I'm going off tangentially.
• I'm going right out of my bonker.
• I'm going right over the bend.
• I'm going to cast my rocks to the wind.
• I'm going to down-peddle that aspect.
• I'm going to feel it out by the ear.
• I'm going to litigate it to the eyeballs.
• I'm going to put a little variety in your spice of life.
• I'm going to put my horn in.
• I'm going to read between your lines.
• I'm going to resolve it by ear.
• I'm going to scatter them like chaff before the wind.
• I'm going to scream right out of my gourd.
• I'm going to take my vendetta out on them.
• I'm going to take my venom out on you.
• I'm going to throw myself into the teeth of the gamut.
• I'm ground up to a high pitch.
• I'm having a hard time getting my handles around that one.
• I'm having a hard time getting my handles around that one.
• I'm in my reclining years.
• I'm in transit on that point.
• I'm listening with baited ears.
• I'm looking at it with a jaundiced ear.
• I'm not going to bail him out of his own juice.
• I'm not going to beat a dead horse to death.
• I'm not going to get side tracked onto a tangent.
• I'm not sure it's my bag of tea.
• I'm not sure we're all speaking from the same sheet of music.
• I'm not trying to grind anybody's axes.
• I'm out of my bloomin' loon.
• I'm over the hilt.
• I'm parked somewhere in the boondoggles.
• I'm pulling something over on you.
• I'm ready to go when the bell opens.
• I'm running around like a one-armed paper bandit.
• I'm signing my own death knell.
• I'm sitting on the edge of my ice.
• I'm smarting at the seams.
• I'm soaked to the teeth.
• I'm standing over your shoulder.
• I'm sticking my neck out on a ledge.
• I'm stone cold sane.
• I'm talking up a dead alley.
• I'm throwing those ideas to you off the top of my hat.
• I'm too uptight for my own bootstraps.
• I'm up a wrong alley.
• I'm up against a blind wall.
• I'm up to my earballs in garbage.
• I'm walking on cloud nine.
• I'm walking on thin water.
• I'm weighted down with baited breath.
• I'm willing to throw my two cents into the fire.
• I'm working my blood up into a fervor.
• I'm wound up like a cork.
• I'm your frontface in this matter.
• I've been burning the midnight hours.
• I've built enough fudge into that factor.
• I've got applicants up to the ears.
• I've got to put my duff to the grindstone.
• I've had it up to the hilt.
• I've had more girls than you've got hair between your teeth.
• I've milked that dead end for all it's worth.
• I've worked my shins to the bone.
• If Calvin Coolidge were alive today, he'd turn over in his grave.
• If anything, I bend over on the backwards side.
• If the onus fits, wear it.
• If the shoe fits, put it in your mouth.
• If the shoe is on the other foot, wear it.
• If there's no fire, don't make waves.
• If they do it there won't be a living orgasm left.
• If they do that, they'll be committing suicide for the rest of their lives.
• If they had to stand on their own two feet, they would have gone down the drain a long time ago.
• If we keep going this way, somebody is going to be left standing at the church with his pants on.
• If you ask him he could wax very quickly on that subject.
• If you don't want words put in your mouth, don't leave it hanging open.
• If you listen in the right tone of voice, you'll hear what I mean.
• If you see loose strings that have to be tied down that are not nailed up, see me about it.
• If you want something bad enough, you have to pay the price.
• If you want to be heard, go directly to the horse's ear.
• If you want to get your jollies off, watch this!
• If you'd let me, I'd forget the shirt off my back.
• If you're going to break a chicken, you have to scramble a few eggs.
• In one mouth and out the other.
• In this period of time, its getting very short.
• In this vein I will throw out another item for Pandoras' box.
• Indiscretion is the better part of valor.
• Is he an Amazon!
• Is there any place we can pull a chink out of the log jam?
• It cuts like a hot knife through solid rock.
• It drove me to no wits end.
• It fills a well-needed gap.
• It floated right to the bottom.
• It flows like water over the stream.
• It gets grained into you.
• It goes from one gamut to another.
• It goes from tippy top to tippy bottom.
• It goes in one era and out the other.
• It goes out one ear and in the other.
• It got left out in the lurch.
• It has more punch to the unch.
• It hit me to the core.
• It hit the epitome of it.
• It is better to have tried and failed than never to have failed at all.
• It leaks like a fish.
• It looks like it's going to go on ad infinitum for a while.
• It looks real enough to be artificial.
• It may seem incredulous, but it's true.
• It might break the straw that holds the camel's back.
• It might have been a figment of my illusion.
• It rolls off her back like a duck.
• It runs the full width of the totem pole.
• It sounds like roses to my ears.
• It sure hits the people between the head.
• It was a heart-rendering decision.
• It was a maelstrom around his neck.
• It was deja vu all over again.
• It was oozing right out of the lurches.
• It was really amazing to see the spectra of people there.
• It went through the palm of my shoe.
• It will spurn a lot of furious action.
• It will take a while to ravel down.
• It' not an easy thing to get your teeth around.
• It's a Byzantine thicket of quicksand.
• It's a caterpillar in pig's clothing.
• It's a fiat accompli.
• It's a fool's paradise wrapped in sheep's clothing.
• It's a hairy banana.
• It's a hairy can of worms.
• It's a home of contention.
• It's a lot like recumbent DNA.
• It's a lot of passed water under the bridge.
• It's a mare's nest in sheep's clothing.
• It's a mecca of people.
• It's a monkey wrench in your ointment.
• It's a new high in lows.
• It's a road of hard knocks.
• It's a sight for sore ears.
• It's a slap in the chaps.
• It's a tempest in a teacup.
• It's a terrible crutch to bear.
• It's a tough nut to hoe.
• It's a tough road to haul.
• It's a travesty to the human spirit.
• It's a typical case of alligator mouth and hummingbird ass.
• It's a useful ace in the pocket.
• It's a white elephant around my neck.
• It's a white herring.
• It's about 15 feet as the eye flies.
• It's about as satisfactory as falling off a log.
• It's all above and beyond board.
• It's all in knowing when to let a dead horse die.
• It's all water under the dam.
• It's always better to be safe than have your neck out on a limb.
• It's an ill wind that doesn't blow somebody.
• It's another millstone in the millpond of life.
• It's as easy as falling off a piece of cake.
• It's as easy as falling off a piece of cake.
• It's as flat as a door knob.
• It's as predictable as cherry pie.
• It's bouncing like a greased pig.
• It's burned to shreds.
• It's crumbling at the seams.
• It's enough to make you want to rot your socks.
• It's going to bog everybody up.
• It's going to fall on its ass from within.
• It's got all the bugs and whistles.
• It's hanging out like a sore tongue.
• It's like a greased pig in a wet blanket.
• It's like a knife through hot butter.
• It's like a raft on roller skates.
• It's like asking a man to stop eating in the middle of a starvation diet.
• It's like harnessing a hare to a tortoise.
• It's like pulling hen's teeth.
• It's like talking to a needle in a haystack.
• It's like the flood of the Hesperis.
• It's like trying to light a fire under a lead camel.
• It's like trying to squeeze blood out of a stone.
• It's more than the mind can boggle.
• It's music to your eyes.
• It's no chip off my clock.
• It's no skin off my stiff upper lip.
• It's no sweat off my nose.
• It's not an easy thing to get your teeth wet on.
• It's not completely an unblessed advantage.
• It's not his bag of tea.
• It's not my Diet of Worms.
• It's not my cup of pie.
• It's not really hide nor hair.
• It's one more cog in the wheel.
• It's perfect, but it will have to do.
• It's raining like a bandit.
• It's right on the tip of my head.
• It's sloppy mismanagement.
• It's so clean, you could drop a pin. Not attributed to Farber, but I like it.
• It's so unbelievable you wouldn't believe it.
• It's something you're all dying to wait for.
• It's the blind leading the deaf.
• It's the greatest little seaport in town.
• It's the old Paul Revere bit . . . one if by two and two if by one.
• It's the old chicken-in-the-egg problem.
• It's the other end of the kettle of fish.
• It's the straw that broke the ice.
• It's the the highest of the lows.
• It's the vilest smell I ever heard.
• It's time to take off our gloves and talk from the heart.
• It's under closed doors.
• It's within the pall of reason.
• It's wrought with problems.
• It's your ball of wax, you unravel it.
• Its coming down like buckets outside.
• Judas Proust!
• Just because it's there, you don't have to mount it.
• Just cut a thin slither of it.
• Just remember that, and then forget it.
• Keep the water as firm as possible until a fellow has his feet on the ground.
• Keep this under your vest.
• Keep your ear peeled!
• Keep your eyes geared to the situation.
• Keep your nose to the mark.
• Keep your nose to the plow.
• Lay a bugaboo to rest.
• Let he who casts the first stone cast it in concrete.
• Let him be rent from limb to limb.
• Let him fry in his own juice.
• Let it slip between the cracks.
• Let me clarify my fumbling.
• Let me feast your ears.
• Let me flame your fan.
• Let me say a word before I throw in the reins.
• Let me take you under my thumb.
• Let me throw a monkey into the wrench.
• Let me throw a monkey wrench in the ointment.
• Let sleeping uncertainties lie.
• Let them fry in their socks.
• Let them hang in their own juice.
• Let's bend a few lapels.
• Let's get down to brass facts.
• Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.
• Let's grab the initiative by the horns.
• Let's kick the bucket with a certain amount of daintiness.
• Let's kill two dogs with one bone.
• Let's look at it from the other side of the view.
• Let's lurch into the next hour of the show.
• Let's not drag any more dead herrings across the garden path.
• Let's not get ahead of the bandwagon.
• Let's not hurdle into too many puddles at once.
• Let's not open the skeleton in that closet.
• Let's play the other side of the coin.
• Let's put out a smeller.
• Let's raise our horizons.
• Let's roll up our elbows and get to work.
• Let's set up a straw vote and knock it down.
• Let's shoot holes at it.
• Let's skin another can of worms.
• Let's solve two problems with one bird.
• Let's strike the fire before the iron gets hot.
• Let's talk to the horse's mouth.
• Let's wreck havoc!
• Like the shoemaker's children, we have computers running out of our ears.
• Look at the camera and say `bird'.
• Look before you turn the other cheek.
• Man cannot eat by bread alone.
• May I inveigle on you?
• Men, women, and children first!
• My antipathy runneth over.
• My chicken house has come home to roost.
• My dog was pent up all day.
• My ebb is running low.
• My foot is going out of its mind.
• My head is twice its size.
• My mind is a vacuum of information.
• My mind slipped into another cog.
• My mind went blank and I had to wait until the dust cleared.
• My off-the-head reaction is negative.
• My steam is wearing down.
• My stomach gets all knotted up in rocks.
• My train of thought went out to lunch.
• Necessity is the invention of strange bedfellows.
• Necessity is the mother of strange bedfellows.
• Never feed a hungry dog an empty loaf of bread.
• Never the twixt should change.
• No Californian will walk a mile if possible.
• No crumbs gather under his feet.
• No dust grows under her feet.
• No loaf is better than half a loaf at all.
• No moss grows on his stone.
• No one can predict the wheel of fortune as it falls.
• No problem is so formidable that you can't just walk away from it.
• No rocks grow on Charlie.
• No sooner said, the better.
• Nobody could fill his socks.
• Nobody is going to give you the world in a saucer.