response 50 of 57:

Aug 23 13:43 UTC 1994

Re 48: The house next door is in Michigan, the dad in Illinois.  No plausible
close connection.

response 52 of 57:

Sep 20 04:06 UTC 1995

If it came from musicians, then it's obvious:  the way you hold your mouth
can have a dramatic effect on the sound you make, or even CAN make.

Frankly, it sounds to me like something made up on the spot by someone who
was trying to come up with something that could have NO perceivable effect
on the action at hand.  It also has the feel of an inside joke, perhaps from
a situation where it made sense (or almost did, or made sense to a small
child), and somehow spread from there.

response 54 of 57:

Oct 29 18:48 UTC 1997

well, since this item is dead, i thought i'd throw a little slang at you.

All of her cups ain't in the cupboard.
Her driveway doesn't go all the way to the road.
He's a little left of center.
She knits with one needle.
He's a sandwich short of a picnic.
She's not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Ain't got the sense that god gave a goose.
Dumber than a bag of hammers.
Dumber than a coal bucket from southeastern KY.
Doesn't have the brains to pour piss out of a boot.
Sharp as a bag of wet mice.

He's crookeder than a barrel of fish hooks.
She could sell a drowning man a glass of water.
He could talk the dogs off a meat truck.
She could talk the legs off an iron pot.
He would steal the s**tball from a blind tumblebug, give him a marble, and
        put him on the wrong road home.
He'd want a new rope to be hung in.
He's as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
He's buiser than a one legged man at an ass kicking contest.
Slicker than snot on a glass doorknob.

Older than the hills and twice as dusty.
Older than dirt.
Older than footprints.

Buiser than a one eyed cat watching nine rat holes.
He couldn't hit the side of a barn from the inside with all the doors shut.
He fell flatter than a duck's footprint.
He was so short, he had to stand on a brick to kick a duck in the ass.
I'm off like a herd of turtles.
It's as plain as a pig on a sofa.

Happy as a clam sucking sand.
That's as exciting as watchin' the grass grow.
That's enough to gag a maggot.

Darker than God's pockets.
Hotter than a two dollar pistol.
It's raining pitchforks and plowhandles.
It's colder than a pocket full of penguin s**t.
There's not enough blue shy to knit a kitten a pair o' britches.

more to come........

response 56 of 57:

Oct 30 14:23 UTC 1997

No etymology on "cold shoulder" in my quick web-dictionary lookups.  One dated
the origin of the term to 1816, FWIW.