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At the drop of a fly or a hat or a goose — 8 Comments

  1. Just a guess, but perhaps “dropping like flies” has to do with the first frosts of autumn/winter.

    If your place isn’t heated, or if only some room are, when temperatures plummet, flies go dormant and collect all over the place, particular on window sills.

    Once you start heating the place up, though, the flies (or at least some of them) will perk up and return to their pesky selves.

    Just an idea….

  2. Samuel Johnson said that an essay is a loose sally of the mind. As much as I like Sally, I like sally even more.

  3. The Scorpion and the Frog story has similarly vague origins. That’s the one where a frog ferries a scorpion to the other side of the river but the scorpion stings the frog anyway, then explains, “It’s my nature to do so.” They both drown.

    I thought the story was an Aesop Fable or something from the Arabian Nights, but not really. Similar stories do exist from different traditions, but the earliest version with all specifics intact is from Orson Welles’s “Mr. Arkadin.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPDgGxLb2OM

  4. Perhaps the origin of “dropping like flies” is of more recent origin. It sounds like something a state trooper in the security detail for Gov BJ Clinton might have coined.

  5. Reminds me of the story of the Brave Little Tailor striking down flies “Seven in one blow!”

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