A Conversation for Ask h2g2

What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 1

swl

...and can I get it on Amazon? smiley - huh


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 2

pedro

Who was it Anna Nicole Smith married?smiley - doh


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 3

Xanatic

I´d say the cup and ball trick.


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 4

Alec Trician. (is keeping perfectly still)

"OK...now YOU go and hide...and i'll come and find you "smiley - evilgrin

alec.smiley - clown


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 5

Ferrettbadger. The Renegade Master

"Ugh ugh ugh ugh, ugh ugh ugh ugh, ugh"

Roughly translated...

"Honestly it is your baby, now go find us a bigger cave"

smiley - evilgrin

smiley - run


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 6

kea ~ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded but very well read blue and white website

I was thinking getting the baby out in the first place would be the oldest trick, but of course that predates books by several hundred thousand millennia.


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 7

kea ~ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded but very well read blue and white website

And we all know how books written long after the fact tend to distort history smiley - winkeye


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 8

Icy North

I reckon it derives from another phrase "up to his old tricks". This goes back to Old English, and The OED lists a pre-Conquest phrase "his ealdan wrenceas" dated 1003 - in those days we used the word 'wrence' (wrench) for 'trick'.

The trick might well have been robbery or theft, as we say "turn a trick" today. This usage precedes the same phrase used for prostitution.


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 9

Orcus

>by several hundred thousand millennia.>

Of course you know that 1 hundred thousand millenia is 100 million years. You're referring to the old dinosaur trick, picked up by the shrews and passed down all those generations of mammals until homo sapiens walked the earth I guess smiley - winkeye


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 10

Christopher

My guess is the first organism that developed the ability either to deter predators or catch prey by means of camouflage.


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 11

BouncyBitInTheMiddle

Is it the same as the first trick in the oldest book with a trick in it?

Or the oldest trick that has since been written down somewhere?


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 12

Taff Agent of kaos

go on darling one little bite of the apple won't hurt....i do love you, you know......

smiley - bat


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 13

Orcus

Let there be light...


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 14

Taff Agent of kaos

universe, time.....time, universe

haa aaa aa aa fankewverymutch haa aaa aa aa just like that

smiley - bat


What's the oldest trick in the book?

Post 15

Pink Paisley

Without a doubt, the oldest trick in the book would be one turned by an exponent of the oldest profession.

PP


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