Cap'n Bob,
(Good to have you around again, by the way)
I guess I took it for granted that you would understand that this is a
hunting term, especially coon hunting. The hound plants his front feet
partway up the tree trunk and barks up the tree. The question as to whether
he is actually barking *at* something is somewhat academic at that point,
because although he is firmly convinced that he is indeed barking at
something, it could readily be proven otherwise by ensuing events intended
to be detrimental to the health of the varmint. What can be counted on,
however, is that he certainly IS barking up that there tree. We like to come
down heavily on the side of verifiable truth, so we wouldn't like to commit
to the concept that the hound is barking at a coon, since we cannot see the
coon yet; we know the tree is there, so we are willing to admit that he is
barking up a tree. We are relatively sure that the hound in question has
graduated from the ranks of the amateurs and that there is, therefore a
"right" tree that could be barked up, just not that he has not been fooled
into mis-identifying which one it is.
David Lieb
1972 RWA Midget
2002 GTI for Trish to beat me at autocross with
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