Silk Purses
Zaslow Crane
We’ve all heard the expression: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.
It’s a folksy saying that means that you can’t expect something grand from very humble beginnings.
But there’s a lot to “unpack” in this phrase: Someone has a lot of sow’s ears and is looking for a buyer …someone has a lot of pigs, someone else needs a silk purse. That would factor into this. I doubt it’d be a “one-off”.
First, I’ve gotta think that someone has tried this. Making a purse, I mean. And maybe it was finished in such a fine fashion that it actually felt like it was silk.
Also, I know a little about purses and a little about pigs’ ears (which technically makes make me dangerous to myself and others but I will persist in making this thought), and the biggest pig’s ear would most likely need to be folded over in order to assume a purse like shape, so I’m guessing that I’d be a “clutch” and not a big “over-the-shoulder” model.
A larger purse would necessitate a swine so large it might not willingly go along with our needs for it to become bacon. Which would present much more problems down the road, so let’s opt “no” for a larger pig. Also, I don’t think the world yet needs a sow’s ear large purse. And for that matter, is a sow’s ear softer, more pliable that is a boar’s. I’ve never A-B’d them, but I really have to wonder about the sow ear “preference” in that statement. Also this phrase specifies a sow’s ear as opposed to a pig’s ear so one might think that the original speaker had some passing familiarity and specified it because he or she knew that the lady pig would have a softer ear.
Okay, so we have the clutch purse, and as we know, a clutch is a very small purse suitable for only lipstick, car keys and a very small can of Pringles. Why does it need to feel like silk? Obviously it shouldn’t feel like buckskin. Who’d want a buckskin purse? Annie Oakley?
And, a clutch purse has another duty: to be so small as to be functionally useless, so it must be grand and special- as an “accessory”. So, here is where it at least feeling as though it were made from silk would be a plus.
This is presupposing that a craftsman could get a good enough deal on used pig’s ears that he could turn a profit making something elegant and useless.
And, all this leads me to think that whoever did this first should have been crowned mayor, or celebrated in some way. I mean…have you ever really looked at a pig’s ear?
I mean really looked?
Yikes!
