Outside of a Dog: Clancy, Tom: (09) Rainbow Six

Skwid

Skwid wrote on October 10, 2005 at 12:29 PM:

I have never read a Clancy book, but I find the Splinter Cell series of games vastly entertaining, and hear good things about the Rainbow Six games, too.

Marina

Marina wrote on October 28, 2005 at 8:42 AM:

I am wondering the mean of the quotation"outside of the dog",especially the second sentence--"inside of the dog".Does the quotaion just mean "a book is a man 's best friend "?I want to know your understand about this quotation. thanks to .

Kate

Kate wrote on October 28, 2005 at 10:00 AM:

Marina, it's a joke that depends on fluency in English. When you read the first sentence, you think "outside" has the meaning "other than": "other than a dog, a book is a man's best friend," meaning that a dog is a man's best friend and then a book is his second best friend.

The next sentence changes the meaning of "outside" to the spatial sense: "inside of a dog's body, it's too dark to read," meaning that if you were somehow in a dog's stomach, for example, there wouldn't be any light from outside.

It's the unexpected switch from one meaning of "outside" to another that is the joke.

I hope that helps.

Marina

Marina wrote on October 28, 2005 at 11:35 PM:

Oh...Thank you,dear kate.I have discussed this quotation with my friends sevral times,but I have not get the right meaning .Now ,i got it,so luckly. ^_^

Kate

Kate wrote on October 29, 2005 at 7:34 AM:

Marina, glad to be of help.