January 15 (TJILC #3)

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by Kristina

Mudshark: 'Doing a poodle' probably originated with a Swedish politician three years ago. He is best known for withdrawing double salaries and replacing our murdered Minister of Foreign Affairs. He behaved much like a subdued poodle - sprawled on his back and admitted his wrongs.

Thanks, Kristina. I'd heard the phrase used before and had an idea what it meant, based on context, but I'd never seen it properly explained. Actually, I didn't have any idea its origin was so recent, and it never really occured to me that it was a specifically Swedish expression. Heh, you learn something new every day.

Nowadays, there are full and partial poodles. Don't ask me what the partial ones look like.

Could make an interesting topic for an essay, couldn't it?

Edit:

More on "poodles", for anyone else who wondered:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node...&lastnode_id=0