Mark Landin <[log in to unmask]> wrote, in part:


> Well I've seen some possible solutions to your problem ... but I'd
> like to ask something nobody else has ... "why"? There may be more
> than one way to skin this particular cat (apologies to any SPCA
> members offended by this cliche) ... perhaps there are alternatives to
> sorting the actual dataset that are less painful or more efficient.

The phrase "There is more than one way to skin a cat" was first used by
Charles Kingsley in the older British form in Westward Ho! in 1855: "there
are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream", meaning that
there are good ways of doing something, and then there are foolish ways, one
of the latter being to give a cat cream in the hope of killing it. Mark
Twain used the American version in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's
Court in 1889: "she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a
cat", that is, more than one way to get what she wanted. The latter version
seems to have nothing to do with the American English term to skin a cat,
which is to perform a type of gymnastic exercise.

Doing my best Wirt imitation (which is none too good!),

Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]     Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231