Housing bill
A hair of the dog
Jul 31st 2008
From The Economist print edition
Congress has been too lenient on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Illustration by David Simonds
IT IS hard to deal with an alcoholic. But most experts would agree that the answer is not to leave your credit card behind the bar, persuade the pub landlord to stay open till dawn and leave the inebriate to get on with it. Sadly that is how the American Congress, in its new housing bill, is treating those troubled mortgage groups, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
of the dog that bit you
Whatever made you ill used as a remedy, especially alcohol as a hangover cure. For example, A little hair of the dog will cure that hangover in no time.
This expression, already a proverb in John Heywood's 1546 compendium, is based on the ancient folk treatment for dogbite of putting a burnt hair of the dog on the wound. It is often shortened, as in the example.
Housing bill
From The Economist print edition
Housing bill
A hair of the dog
for a song
hair of the dog
verb [T; L] proved, proved, ESP. US proven
1 to show a particular result after a period of time:
The operation proved a complete success.
The dispute over the song rights proved impossible to resolve.
[L (+ to be)] The new treatment has proved to be a disaster.
2 prove yourself to show that you are good at something:
I wish he'd stop trying to prove himself all the time.
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