Off topic: Mare's nests

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:
>>Has anybody actually said "mare's nest" in the last 250 years?
Horses sometimes *do* hide their young in tall grass FWIW (cows always
do), so it isn't entirely fabulous.<<
Yes, I got that deliberately mixed metaphor about the mare's nest and
the red herring from C. S. Lewis, and I think he was quoting Chesterton.
The last quote in the OED (from _The Times_) is from 1892.
But the fact that it "isn't entirely fabulous" is somewhat puzzling. The
expression was always meant, like /Greek Calends, punica fides, hens'
teeth,/ and /the snakes of Iceland,/ to denote something nonexistent
("made of unobtainium" in the modern physicists' joke). Cf. the OED
definition. And in the days when the phrase was coined (first citation
is from Fletcher), most people were well acquainted with the habits of
horses. I suppose they just didn't consider the somewhat ad hoc
concealment worthy of being called a nest.
Not surprising that horses would hide their young. I know rabbits do it,
and have it on good authority that deer do. And the original Equus
caballus (we won't get into the controversies over Merychippus,
Eohippus, and other early equids) was a lot smaller than Robert's
magnificent-sounding Belgians. Not to mention having to share an
environment with dire wolves, saber-tooths, and cave bears.
Will tackle the real issues, including redlining, with which I have some
familiarity, tomorrow or Saturday. Insane week here.

Patricia M. Godfrey