There's more than one way to slit a cat's throat

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Comment by LoL on May 15, 2012 at 15:56

So, the cat is hiding?

Comment by LoL on May 15, 2012 at 13:43

Heh ... I know someone else who'll like those, Kim - Thanks : )

Comment by LoL on May 15, 2012 at 12:43

Yes, it's funny how the cat's out of the bag expression has come to mean something altogether different in it's original form - I suspect that it is a corruption of the idea, mixed up with a pig in a poke

Apparently, Schrödinger posited his thought experiment to illustrate that QM was nonsense ... but it too seems to have been misappropriated to tell a different story

I can see at least ten human faces, but no cat : (

Comment by LoL on May 15, 2012 at 1:38

It's an idiomatic expression, meaning "There's more than one way to achieve one's ends" - An alternative expression is "There's more than one way to skin a cat"

Why the expression is as it is, I don't know - That's just the way it is

It's possible that it didn't mean the animal, but an item or tool

The expression "There's not enough room to swing a cat" is a description of there not being enough room to swing a cat o' nine tails (a naval military whip)

The expression "The cat's out of the bag" originally meant that a particular sequence of events was inevitable - Originally it stemmed from the cat o' nine tails being kept in a sack (or bag) and any punishment meted out with it was irreversible once it was removed from the bag [1]

So, perhaps, to 'skin' a 'cat' means something entirely different to literally skinning a feline
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[1] Not even an admiral could countermand its use once it was out of the bag and it would not be returned to the bag until the punishment had been completed in its entirety

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