Is Trent Lott a Big Bird?

Fox News: The Beltway Boys | Dec. 14, 2002 | Fox News Channel

[wai-ming]

Today on Fox's "The Beltway Boys" Senator Trent Lott was referred to as an "albatross around the Republican's neck."

I have heard this expression before but don't understand what it means. When I looked albatross up in the dictionary, all I got was "a large seabird."

Perhaps some of you Freeper linguists could help out. Where does the expression "an albatross around's one's neck" come from and what does it mean?

[wai-ming]

Thanks

[per loin]

Read the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"

[MadIvan]

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Regards, Ivan

[martin_fierro]

From Dictionary.com:

al·ba·tross    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (lb-trôs, -trs)
n. pl. albatross or al·ba·tross·es

1. Any of several large web-footed birds constituting the family Diomedeidae, chiefly of the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, and having a hooked beak and long narrow wings.
2. 1. A constant, worrisome burden.
   2. An obstacle to success.

[Larry Lucido]

Albatross

[Larry Lucido]

Big Bird

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

An albatross was considered a sign of bad luck to old sailors of many years ago. To have an albatross around one's neck was to be cursed.

[Bluntpoint]

That is a mighty big chicken Dave seems to be choking.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Excellent work by Ivan in answering your questian. Of course, casting politicians into the role of birds has, for whatever reason, been done a lot (or a Lott, if you prefer).

Here, for instance, is Senator Hollings with a picture of Senator Landrieu:

[Bluntpoint]

In all fairness, Hollings is a capon.

[Pushi]

On Midway Island we called them goony birds.

Laysan Albatross

The island truly belongs to the Laysan Albatross from early October until August when the last juvenile leaves for the open sea. Residents from the cable company, navy, and today's service providers learn to live with them in the front yard, the back yard and even along the runway.

The landscaping first introduced by the cable company and maintained today by Phoenix Midway seems to suit the Laysan Albatross.This is a view of the military housing section of the island and as you can see it serves as a nursery for the immature birds (all brown) here shown huddled in the rain. The nursery is also a grand singles bar. The adults you see in this picture and all over the island are unmated adults searching for a mate.

Some estimates place the Midway population at 90% of the surviving population of Laysan Albatross. The Laysan is the most abundant species of Albatross. Midway Refuge is crucial to its survival. The Singles Bar

[OldFriend]

Just love all these feckless talking heads trying to prove how not racist they are!

[SES1066]

Where does the expression "an albatross around's one's neck" come from and what does it mean?

Ah, the lack of a classical education, this is from another of dem dead whities... Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner which contains the following stanza;

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

On a sea voyage, the Ancient Mariner kills an Albatross that had lead his ship to safe waters and is punished by his crewmates and fate. Incidentally, this is also the poem where you find that famous phrase;

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

[southernnorthcarolina]

In all fairness, Hollings is a capon.

Well, I didn't look at the drawing that closely.

You think this could pass for Dick Gephardt?

[Bluntpoint]

Lose the eyebrows. Add sound: Some Streisand tune.

[SES1066]

In all fairness, Hollings is a capon.

"The capon is a cockerel made as it were female by carving away of his gendering stones." Bartholomeus (1398)

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

yup.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Yeah, the eyebrows definitely gotta go for Gephardt.

How about this for Hillary?

Or would a buzzard be better than a pterydactyl?

[Bluntpoint]

Excuse me govenuh? Are these your gendering stones?

[Bluntpoint]

Add some heavy duty drumsticks to match her thunder thighs. Then have her flopping on the ground because her lardass impedes takeoff.