pig in a python
n.— «All very well for the bulge group, you may say. It will continue to dominate society as it passes through the decades like a pig through a python.» —“Pigs in a Python” by Russell Baker New York Times Magazine Apr. 21, 1974. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he might...
In Russian, an expression for something tantalizingly close but forever out of reach translates as “Your elbow is close, but you can’t bite it.” Much like the English phrase when pigs fly, it’s another colorful way of describing the impossible. This...