5 ms·
In German, there’s an old phrase: “Appointing the goat as gardener”. You use it when somebody is being made responsible for task for which he is not just incomp
by leobg 4y ago
In German, there’s an old phrase: “Appointing the goat as gardener”. You use it when somebody is being made responsible for task for which he is not just incompetent, but where he will actually cause damage - for instance because he has ulterior motives.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rkagerer 4y agoIs the emphasis of what will cause the damage more about the incompetence, or about more purposeful nefarity from the eg. ulterior motives?
- leaflets2 4y agoI think most goats don't have sinister ulterior motives! Except for one goat but probably that's not the one in your garden Meaning, I'm guessing it's about happy incompetence and thoughtlessness?
- tlavoie 4y agoGoats' motivations are mostly to eat tasty tree bark and (some) other plants. Hardly incompetent or thoughtless, they're relentless if not contained. I have three, and the only incompetence at play is when I accidentally don't contain them well enough. From my last event: https://fractaldragon.net/posts/2022-05-09_bloody_goats.html https://fractaldragon.net/posts/2022-05-09_bloody_goats.html
- leaflets2 4y agoInteresting read :-) With cats, apparently one can spray water on them when they're at the border to ones garden, and eventually, also when you aren't there, they still think they'll get water on themselves if they go outside the garden. So they don't -- a border has been created in their mind. I wonder if that works with goats, instead of the gate? I guess not. Maybe also doesn't work with smarter cats, hmm. (I suppose it's not your boy in the video?) > the stripped area can be bridged with thin shoots embedded into the bark on each end of the open wound Didn't know, I was surprised to read that it actually worked :-)
- tlavoie 4y agoI don't know if it would work on goats., They aren't fond of being rained on though, so maybe? They are really motivated however, and smart enough to figure it out. The bridge grafting worked great! The tree never lost any leaves or flowers, now has plums on it. For what it's worth, the shoots I spliced are now brown on the outside like the regular bark. And no, not my kid, but made me laugh.
- leobg 4y agoI’m not sure. I’d say it’s mostly on hire unwise the choice is, and how predictable the results. Kinda like the fable The Scorpion and the Frog.
- Biologist123 4y ago> ulterior motives. LOLLLLLL.
- throwawaylinux 4y agoFox guarding the hen house seems like the English equivalent to that.
- cmarschner 4y agoThat seems to imply maliciousness on the fox‘ side. The goat is merely ignorant.
- drjasonharrison 4y agoOr the goat is contained in too small of an area for too long. Much like an inexperienced person without supervision...
- lostlogin 4y agoSome goats are extremely malicious.
- mechanical_bear 4y agoYeah, you ever look at their evil little eyes. If that isn’t maliciousness distilled…
- atoav 4y agoGoats are fundamental anarchists. They are not evil, they just have a chaotic energy beyond comprehension.
- alex_duf 4y agolove that, thanks!
- e12e 4y agoFantastic. I think most of the "equivalents" miss a lot of the nuance. We don't expect the fox to be any good at guarding the chickens, but the goat could plausibly start out as a good gardener ("mowing" the grass and eating the weeds). But then through enthusiasm and love of the work end up ruining the garden...
- throwaway2037 4y agoCan you share the German language phrase? I tried to Google for it, but I cannot find anything.