Have you ever heard the phrase “happy as a cow in clover?” Simply put, a cow with lots of clover to eat is a happy cow, so the simile is an obvious one. In time, the idea was shortened to the phrase “in clover,” as in, “You’re in clover here,” or “If we win the lottery, we’ll be in clover,” making it a metaphor instead of a simile (like The Dude in The Big Lebowski, The English Teacher abides).
I can still remember the first time I read the phrase “in clover,” including the book it was in, and though I had no awareness of that old happy cow connection, I knew at the very least, it meant lucky. This could have been because as a child, I was encouraged to look for “lucky” four-leaf clovers. Or it could have been because a 1927 song, “I’m Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover,” was often sung on variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s (Mitch Miller, Lawrence Welk, Donny and Marie), plus both Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird sang variations of the song in cartoons. As recently as 2013, actress/singer Emmy Rossum included it on her album Sentimental Journey.
Clover continues to be a plant I think of as happy, and it’s one of the few things that survives in our yard, even during drought years. Fun fact: shamrocks never have a four-leaf clover, so if you find one, you’re either looking through white clover or a similar ground cover.
The photo at the top of this post shows some of the clover in our yard. It’ll happily jump right into our pots to keep plants company, too. Like its theme song and use as an idiom, The Clover abides.
I never knew about a cow in clover. Chocolate and milk, yes. Cereal, clover and milk, yes, but no cow in clover, except buttercup, so maybe, doh!
They love their clover.
Copyright – emholk
The cow says, “Ahhhhhh, mmmmoooOoOoOoOoOo!” 🙂
Did you have a See ‘N Say when you were a child? My nephews did. After my time.
Once upon a tv program, there was an ident for Mad Cow Productions
https://www.avid.wiki/Mad_Cow_Productions
I spent a few days trying to remember what the show was that ended with such an ident, but, alas, found it, I have not.
(You may have to scroll a bit to find the youtube tiny video box that plays “… and he said, the cow says mmmmmooooooooo!”)
Did you watch Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show?” From 1996 to 2002, Mad Cow Productions was their production company.
It was so long ago, that all I can remember is what the cow says. Priorities, channel surfing, the cumulation of all human knowledge, the cow says moo.
I know what the phrase, usually abbreviated to simply “In clover” here, means. More often, however, we say “Happy as a pig in shit.”
Yes, in that first book I mentioned, heavily influenced by its British characters (and the writer was an American married to an Englishman), it was simply, “You’re in clover, and don’t you forget it,” though the character speaking was from Virginia.