Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: What's this simile in Italian?

Kong Fu Zi said, or rather is said to have said: When you throw a stone
into a pack of dogs it is the one who gets hit that will yelp.
I once heard an Italian simile with the same meaning, but I cannot
rember what it was.
Can anyone help me?
The meaning is roughly, for example, that when a story about a person's
improper behaviour is published, without naming names, the person
concerned will immediatly come forth with a protest of denial.
--
Xakero
Sapere aude!
 (Horace, Epistulae)
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/

concerned will immediatly come forth with a protest of denial.
Ci provo.
"(La prima) Gallina che canta ha fatto l'uovo"
Ciao,		beatrice
-- 
Per rispondermi in email rimuovi .bea
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the 
people he gave it to. -Dorothy Parker

concerned will immediatly come forth with a protest of denial.
<<La prima gallina che canta ha fatto l'uovo>>, might that be it?
-- 
Isa
Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching
http://web.tiscalinet.it/alfabeto_auschwitz/

 I once heard an Italian simile with the same meaning, but I cannot
"Non dire Xakero che subito spuntano fuori le corna."
o anche:
"Ti xe proprio un kankaro!" (improperio veneziano)

 <<La prima gallina che canta ha fatto l'uovo>>, might that be it?
Thank you, dear Beatrice, thank you, Your Royal Highness Isa, that's
what I was trying to remember.
You have both been most kind.


 concerned will immediatly come forth with a protest of denial.
Apart from the hen's stuff given below, and that was what you were looking
for, let me add that there is another 'saying' in Italian that meets the
description given above.
And that is "avere la coda di paglia".
But I am the one who has already mistaken "to set the cat among the pigeons"
with "menare il can per l'aia". So, don't tell I did not warn you. : )
saluti,
Peltio
Memento audere semper
(o no?)

 Memento audere semper
Memento gaudere semper!

 And that is "avere la coda di paglia".
It doesn't exactly render the same meaning, but thank you just the same. You
had me spend a few suspenseful moments looking up your "coda di paglia"
first in the Garzanti and then, for a dictionary translation, in the Hazon
Garzanti.
An interesting thing with idioms is that I never quite know under what word
to look it up in a dictionary. With the example in question, it was a
fifty-fifty chance to find it under either coda or paglia and, taking pot
luck, I found it at the first attempt under paglia in in Garzanti and coda
in Hazon Garzanti. For all I know, it would also have been listed under the
other word but to find that out I lacked time as my electronic agenda
reminded me to proceed with an execution (of payment orders)

 wrote in message
news:96b3ja$mg3$1...@pollux.ip-plus.net...
??? What? No signature?
Still grappling with Microsoft Outlook Newsreader's signature feature, and
now that I think I've figured it out the silly program wants to add the
reply *before* the original message. Here goes copying and pasting!


 reply *before* the original message. Here goes copying and pasting!
Dear Xakero,
and you call yourself a Russian hacker... :-)))
Ciao
Giorgio (that calls himself Buono, just for a reminder nowadays)

 Xakero
<> Sapere aude!
<>  (Horace, Epistulae)
<>
<>
<> Sent via Deja.com
<<> 
http://www.deja.com/
It's "avere la coda di paglia", which is "to have a straw tail": Don't ask
what's the origin of this saying, I don't know. It might have something to
do
with hunting.
Bye  GattaNera

 with hunting.
La locuzione nasce da una favola di Esopo dal titolo "La volpe senza
coda"...  La favola è per quelli che danno consigli al prossimo non per
benevolenza, ma per l'utile proprio.

 with hunting.
Maybe with a straw tail catching fire rather easily, but quite why
setting fire to tails ever started... ;-)
cheers,
Loki
--