M8192 KDJ11-A ZKDJB2 XXDP Test Failure

Mouse mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG
Mon Sep 14 14:20:49 CDT 2015


>> [...] a dose of the clue-by-four!
> Häh? What's that "clue-by-four!" ? :-)

The :-) makes it look as though you actually know what it is, but your
asking for native-anglophone help makes me think perhaps not.  So I'm
going to treat this as the request for idiom explanation it looks like
on the surface, with no insult intended if you did indeed already know
the idiom.  There may well be people here who don't but just haven't
spoken up.

It's an English computer-geek idiom.  It's playing on the common term
"two-by-four" for a size of wood such as is used in building houses
(which originally was two inches by four inches in cross-section but
these days is significantly smaller, more like 13/8 by 7/2).  Cross
"clue" (as in "get a clue") with the notion of thwacking someone with a
two-by-four to get an idea into an idea-resistant victim, and out comes
the "clue-by-four", the notional object with which one whacks someone
to impart a clue.

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