[78-L] Dept of meaningless lyrics?

[Bill McClung]

But in the song it may be saying a couple of different things.

The lyric is "Remember that rainy evening I threw you out with nothing but a
fine tooth comb."

One is that he got thrown out with nothing but the comb in his pocket.

Another is that he was a dandy that liked expensive things.  A fine tooth
comb costs more than a regular comb and he had it because he liked to keep
himself groomed.



On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 10:55 AM, Geoffrey Wheeler <dialjazz at verizon.net>wrote:

> Ron is perfectly correct about one of the uses of a fine tooth comb.
> Here is what one website has to say on the matter:“The expression of
> “going over things with a fine toothed comb” was first used in the late
> 19th century. It was often linked to detection or police work. Just as
> a person would use a fine tooth comb to examine minute sections of
> hair, investigatory proceedings began to go over the minutia of each
> crime scene. Today the expression can apply not just to criminal
> investigation, but also to a very detailed approach to anything. An
> editor might go over a book or article with a fine tooth comb to check
> for any tiny mistakes, as might a teacher use a fine tooth comb
> approach when he/she is examining a student’s work. Computer
> programmers also focus on tiny mistakes that might occur in data entry
> and programming, and referencing the comb as used for lice, check for
> any “bugs” in their programs.”
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