We were out with friends last night, and we believe we’ve come up with a new addition to American idiom.
“Taunting the tiger” == “playing with fire” == “f*cking about with that with which man is not meant to meddle”.
E.g., the following:
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A survivor of last month’s tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo told the father of a teen-ager killed in the incident that they waved and yelled at the animal just before it struck, a newspaper reported on Friday.
Paul Dhaliwal, 19, said he, his brother Kulbir, 23, and friend Carlos Sousa, 17, stood atop a railing in front of the tiger exhibit while taunting the animal, the San Francisco Chronicle said, citing a police document filed in court.
Not funny for them, of course. But perhaps they’ll get a Darwin Award out of it.
Maybe I’m just taunting the tiger myself. But I am making it a new category here.
I like it! I may have to start using this new idiom.
Yeah, I can just hear my old man saying it:
“Careful, boy. You’re taunting the tiger.”
🙂