Idioms

"Dog Days of Summer"

Dog Blog Post #105: One of the items on Zachary’s Canine Curriculum for the Photography Extracurricular Activity is to “Take pictures for a 12 month themed calendar”.

And while it sounded good at the time I wrote it, I have thus far drawn a complete blank as to what “theme” I could possibly use for a dozen pictures that wouldn’t become boring, redundant, or be impossible to take.

Until now.

I finally hit on the theme of Idioms, and I have scoured my son’s Dictionary of Idioms to come up with ones that I can actually picture myself taking a picture of.

That first cut includes (in alphabetical order):

1. At the end of your rope - a dog or two and a tug rope
2. Bark up the wrong tree - stuffed toy in one tree, dog rearing up another
3. Bite off more than you can chew - large chewie?
4. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed - many options
5. Bring home the bacon - retrieving a stuffed pig
6. Egg on your face - balancing an Easter egg on nose
7. Let sleeping dogs lie - self explanatory
8. On the ball - balancing on a “ball”
9. On the rocks - standing on some rocks
10. One good turn deserves another - both dogs spinning
11. Pull a rabbit out of a hat - hat, dog, stuffed rabbit
12. Put all your eggs in one basket - more fun with Easter eggs

"Carry the Ball"

We are entering week 33 of 51 (I started a week late) leaving me about 19 weeks to take 12 pictures if I want to get it done by the end of 2010. This means that a good chunk of the Photo-of-the-Weeks will need to have something to do with an idiom.

To see if that’s even doable, I’ve made a first cut at difficulty:

Easy (requires no training and minimal staging): 1, 7, 9, 10
Medium (some training –or- some staging): 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8
Hard (requires training –and- staging): 11, 12

And since nothing ever works out as planned, here are a few alternates:

• Asleep at the switch - light switch?
• Back to square one - either hopscotch, or a large square ONE
• By the book - dog sitting by a book
• Dog-and-pony show - which dog gets to be the pony?
• Dog-eat-dog world - dog “eating” a Dog World magazine
• Get to the bottom of it - dog digging in a box labeled “It”?
• Out in left field - obvious
• Pull the wool over your eyes - two dogs and a lot of hard work
• Put your foot in your mouth - obvious
• Wolf in sheep’s clothing - a sheep costume?

… and there we have it. It’s quite a commitment, but I already try to take one staged picture once a week, and I’m always on the lookout for a good trick idea (like pulling a rabbit from a hat.) At least it seems like a good way to fill these Dog Days of Summer.

"Monkey on Your Back"