Big As A Skint Mule...

Man, if you have google you should know, correct?? Well maybe not know what is correct or right but I did google the southern phrase big as a skint mule and got exactly one hit. 

Big as a skint mule, I can't recall where I heard it but it is a phrase that in this family we use to refer to when a sleeping child is on the couch or has maybe slipped off to dream land in the comfortable place that they have come to rest in and they seem to look, all stretched out vs. curled in a bed and seem bigger than they are.  I have never skint a mule. I can only imagine that once the job of work of getting the hide off was complete that the skint mule would look bigger than it really is.

 I don't know if people really skin mules. There is a job called muleskinner but it refers to the occupation of wagon driver which given the debate over fossil fuels might see some room for growth in the coming decades. If there is a job of skinning mules I doubt that it pays what it's worth or that any pay increases keep up with the cost of living. 

In addition to when they are napping a child can also look as big as a skint mule when he throws himself on the ground in a I am not even to the terrible twos yet tantrum because his brother touched the cat toy Pop Pop made from a broken fishing rod, a string and a strip of fabric.   

Maybe the tears here were not over the toy. It's possible he found out that there are not any fine liberal arts colleges offering degrees in  mule skinning or skinning mules. I think both those jobs would just be the kind of thing you just roll up your sleeves and get on with best you can. 

There, now when you google big as a skint mule you will get two hits and one of them will be this blog.