Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: love that carrot on a string stuff.

Ho trovato questa frase "you have  to love that carrot on a string stuff",
in una discussione su pregi e difetti dei sistemi operativi Windows.
Chi l'ha scritta era scettico sull'entusiasmo dell'interlocutore.

 Chi l'ha scritta era scettico sull'entusiasmo dell'interlocutore.
He probably meant to refer to a carrot on a stick. The stick is held in 
front of an ass, with the carrot hanging down from a string in front of its 
face, just out of reach, to keep the ass moving forward. 

 He probably meant to refer to a carrot on a stick.
Probabile. Ma mi aveva incuriosito l'espressione "string stuff" e l'uso
della preposizione "on". In effetti, vedo su Google che si dice proprio
"carrot *on* a string". :)
-- 
"And the whole Earth was of one language, and of one speech". 
(Genesis 11,1)

 "carrot *on* a string". :)
Carrot [hanging] on a string.
Not "on top of" a string.
I know you know this. (And I know you know I know you know this.)
(Does a similar word game occur in Italian:
So che sai che so che sai... ?)
But I just wanted to point out the illusion.
-- 
Joey DoWop Dee
Remember: It is To Laugh.

 "carrot *on* a string". :)
The carrot is tied onto the stick by a string. The more common usage is to
say 'carrot and stick' or 'carrot on a stick'. The use of 'stuff' is a slang
interjection used to generalize the comment. The best way, at the moment, I
can think of to explain it would be to say 'una cosa come', or 'roba come'.


There is a phrase "carrot and stick" which normally refers to the two ways a
person can make a donkey move - either by enticing him with a carrot in
front of his nose, or by beating him in the rear with a stick. This may be a
corruption of the phrase.
Joe from Massachusetts
my newsgroup server is down :>(
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/

 a corruption of the phrase.
It's correct that 'carrot and stick' refers to punishment and reward. I was
mistaken when I implied in an earlier post that 'carrot on a stick' was the
same as 'carrot and stick'. They are actually two different sayings with two
different meanings. They may have similar origins, given the fact that they
both include an ass, a carrot, and a stick, but 'carrot on a stick' means to
entice someone/thing to a certain behavior by presenting something
attractive before them.

 So che sai che so che sai... ?)
C'e' un film di Alberto Sordi (conosci?) che si intitola: Io so che tu sai
che io so.
Ciao
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 wrote in message
news:134k5dp...@corp.supernews.com...
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I would say that the "carrot on the stick" is a misrepresentation of the
original phrase, "carrot and stick" or "the carrot or the stick".
«Oxford:
carrot
• noun
1 the tapering orange root of a plant of the parsley family, eaten as a
vegetable.
2 something enticing offered as a means of persuasion: training that relies
more on the carrot than on the stick. »
«“Carrot on a stick” vs. “the carrot or the stick.”
The Usenet Newsgroup alt.usage.english has debated this expression several
times, most recently in spring 1998. No one there presented definitive
evidence, but dictionaries agree that the proper expression is “the carrot
or the stick”.»
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/carrot.html
Joe from Massachusetts

 
Grazie.


 original phrase, "carrot and stick" or "the carrot or the stick".
I wouldn't venture to say which came first or how they are related, but
apparently people have been arguing unrestrained about the etymology for 
some time:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/6/messages/733.html
Whether it's a derivation or an origin, the term 'carrot on a stick' is
fairly common and refers to a carrot being held out on a stick in front of
an ass to motivate it. We've all seen it in cartoons or other mass public
media, and I suppose the original poster can check the context of the remark
to see which meaning was intended.

 wrote in message
news:134ke82...@corp.supernews.com...

I like the quote from Winston Churchill:
'We shall continue to operate on the Italian donkey at both ends, with a
carrot and with a stick.".   :>)
Joe from Massachusetts

 to see which meaning was intended.
Hmmm... What if the carrot doesn't work? Are they going to use the same
stick (the carrot is on) to beat the ass? Or do they carry another stick,
bigger and knottier? Are asses really that fond of carrots? :-)))

 bigger and knottier? Are asses really that fond of carrots? :-)))
I wouldn't touch those questions with a ten-foot pole. 

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LOL!
Thank you. I was about to answer the questions, then I read your post and 
thought better of it.


 Chi l'ha scritta era scettico sull'entusiasmo dell'interlocutore.
Here are several more interesting uses of "carrot" and "stick"..
«Apple's carrot is Mac OS X's powerful Unix core and "lickable" Aqua
interface, but Mac OS X simply isn't ready for Apple to start brandishing
the stick of restricting new hardware to Mac OS X...»
http://db.tidbits.com/article/06514
Joe from Massachusetts