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Old 02-13-2018, 10:26 AM   #15
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
Default Re: How Do You Imprison TFT Wizards?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jackson View Post
Maybe this is a digression and maybe not. Why do we always say COLD iron? Is that just an epithet for iron, or does the iron really have to be cold?
I'd always heard it as "cold steel" and usually as a euphemism for a bayonet -

"Rangers of Connaught! It is not my intention to expend any powder this evening. We'll do this business with Cold Steel." -- General Sir Thomas Picton, 6 April 1812 to the 88th Foot before the assault on Badajoz.

"I beg leave to remind the Cavalry Board that very few people have ever been killed with the bayonet or sabre, but the fear of having their guts explored with Cold Steel in the hands of battle maddened men has won many a fight." -Gen. George Patton

And of course, the Poet Laureate of the British Empire:

Gold is for the mistress - silver for the maid
Copper for the craftsman cunning in his trade.
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall
But steel - cold steel is master of them all.

I think that the adjective "cold" connotes a lack of pity and harshness - appropriate for bayonets.
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