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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2006-01-19 22:50:13

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

"school of hard knots" for "school of hard knocks"

About 200 ghits. The people at fly-fishing websites are all over this one, but most of the other examples appear to be unselfconscious reanalyses. “Going to the school of hard knocks” means something like “acquiring practical life experience by facing down difficulties.” Since knots are commonly used as metaphors for difficulties (“a knotty problem”), the substitution seems fairly natural. Examples:

Since he lived on the campus of the school of hard knots (the streets of
New York) where Mr. Taylor spent some of his adulthood, one may think that
Kabbah would have employed a tit for tat policy long before General Sessay lead
his troops to Makeni.
http://mailgate.supereva.com/soc/soc.cu … 00420.html

Maria will experience the “bought lessons” from the real world “school of hard knots” when reality hits her and she realizes “There No Place Like Home”
http://ancpr.com/blog/archives/116

My education has been in the field, better known as the school of hard knots, and the best education one could ever ask for if you are in an industry like ours.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ … _101943885

I learned everything I know the hardway, school of hard knots.
http://faithchildforum.com/forum/showth … rid&t=3822

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