Squirrel-ché # 4

“There’s more than one way to skin a squirrel.”

This phrase is just disturbing. What a rude and grotesque thing to say. We can be all too grateful that this expression changed before becoming popular. Mark Twain is actually attributed with coining this phrase in his novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Thankfully, as the story goes (although there is no historical proof), he was somehow persuaded to change “squirrel” to “cat” right before the first printing. This is most likely because a wise editor realized how troubling it would be to readers to think of one, let alone more ways to harm a defenseless and wonderful squirrel. Now to think about this with a cat, shoot that’s kind of funny. Finally, the cat takes the credit for something that it deserves.