Red Herrings

Have you heard of the term Red Herrings? It is a common phrase in Canada. I always need explanation. Now there is a book to explain what Red Herrings mean. White Elephants is more common as we had an "incident" in Buangkok MRT station where lots of white elephants cutouts appears just before MIBs do their walk about.

Once in the factory, my boss show me a machine that descibing it expensive will be an understand and told me it is a "white elephant". He then start to explain to me that white elephant is a term use in America to describes.... and I interrupted him and told him "hey, wait a minute. We are in Thailand. This is the place the term white elephant originates!" I am not a sensitive guy or politically savy as you can see. Then I explains to him the King of Thailand would sent a white elephant to his subjects who have incurs his wrath. Since the elephant is white, it is not allow to work. Since it is a gift from the King, the receiver must take good care of it. As it is very expensive to maintain an elephant, the receiver will be ruin financially over a period of time after receiving a white elephant.

Red Herrings and White Elephants, the origins of the phrases we use every day explains them all by Albert Jack.