On Fri, 21 Mar 2003, Mark Tiller wrote: @> I -KNOW- that this IS off topic, but does anybody know why the phrase @> "Your mother wears army boots" is supposed to be so insulting? :) Or @> for that matter, "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of @> elderberries" Insulting someone's ancestry is a pretty tried-and-true method of insulting that person, which is why Monty Python used it. Specifically, saying "your mother is an X" is a shorthand way of saying "you have the characteristics of an X", with the added benefit of insulting the parent that most people are closer to. Which, when you think about it, is very on-topic indeed. "Your mother was a Tiassa!" "Well, yes, she was. We're still using her skin as a rug. You're standing on it right now, in fact."