Cats Out of Bags

[paul at fatmans.demon.co.uk]

> Interestingly, the saying, "to let the cat out of the bag" is
> related to the saying, "to buy a pig in a poke."  A poke is a
> sack or bag.  In times past, street peddlers would sell a mark a 
> young pig.  The pig was supposedly put into a poke, but in fact,
> a bag with a cat in it was substituted.  By the time the mark
> figured out his mistake by "letting the cat out of the bag," the
> peddler was long gone.  The lesson the mark learned was "Don't
> buy a pig in a poke."

Thankyou Sandy for this highly crypto-relevant commentary presumably 
posted to the censored list so anyone with an interest in 
cryptography, cats and pigs can be suitably enlightened. Even if it 
wasn`t this would still be unworthy of the flames list.



 

  Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security
       Paul Bradley, Paul at fatmans.demon.co.uk
  Paul at crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul at cryptography.uk.eu.org    
       Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/
      Email for PGP public key, ID: 5BBFAEB1
     "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"