> "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" (by the way, isn't that meant to be an ironic paradox?). Cracks me up every time. It most certainly is. The few

> "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" (by the way, isn't that meant to be an ironic paradox?). Cracks me up every time. It most certainly is. The few people who I know have "pulled themselves up by the bootstraps" in the proverbial sense, almost never use such dismissive terminology.