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My first time using this site so not quite sure what goes where. BUT - my comment regards the expression "fish or cut bait". It is not simply a statment of "do one thing or another". It means to be in a qaandry, one where no matter your choice, you may end up losing.
At times when fishing, "the bite is on" and each time you put your bait in the water you have a fish. If you are fishing with cutbait, you only cut as much as you need. However, with the bite on, you might start to get low on bait. You need to cut more. Simple, except for the fact that by the time you get back to fishing the bite might be over and obviously you should have opted to keep fishing and finish out the bait. What to do?!
I always believed it mainly meant do something useful and, therefore, like this discussion on Wikipedia.
PTclone said:
My first time using this site so not quite sure what goes where. BUT - my comment regards the expression "fish or cut bait". It is not simply a statment of "do one thing or another". It means to be in a qaandry, one where no matter your choice, you may end up losing.
That jives with Gary Larson's Far Side cartoon captioned "How fishermen blow their own minds." (The only online reference I could find)
If used as a question, I could see it being a quandry. But if it's used as a command, like I see most of the time, I would take Emmett's interpretation.
EmmettRedd said:
I always believed it mainly meant do something useful and, therefore, like this discussion on Wikipedia.
Same as "either phone or get out of the booth." Oops, maybe younger people don't know what a phone booth is.
I think it can be commonly used like the phone booth expression or, the one I commonly hear, "Shit, or get off the pot," to encourage an idle person to action. But these to me imply there is only one needful activity, and that the person can, and should, opt out if not engaged. I think "fish or cut bait" can be used in this circumstance, with the implication that fishing is the activity. These effectively mean "help, or get out of the way."
However, I think "fish or cut bait" can also be used in other circumstances. I use it when someone is grumbling about some (needful) task they are performing, or being asked to do, when there are also many other needful tasks they can do. In both cases, it is encouraging someone to select a useful task to their liking, but it avoids the implication that they can opt out of contributing to the common goal. This one can mean, "help in the manner of your choosing. But help."
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