Hello listers,

>Kazumasa-san, I am not sure exactly what >your question is.

 Thank you very much Mr.Medley and Mr.Carmichael for your prompt replies.
And I am sorry that my query was unclear. I'm going to make myself clearer
now.
 Are the two idioms("grin like a Cheshire cat" and "fight like Kilkenny
cats" ) used in speech or in writing frequently? Or are they heading toward
extinction as the case of "carry coals to New Castle"? (Since New Castle is
no longer a prosperous mining town, and few homes use coal for heating
nowadays, this idiomatic expression is on the verge of extinction) I
resorted to many dictionaries and even did a research on AltaVista, but I
found no evidence that shows that these two idioms are being used by English
native speakers now.(AltaVista gave me wonderful anecdotes about their
origins, though)
 In the movie "Batman Returns", the idom "Curiosity killed the cat" was used
in an altered form(What did curiosity did to the cat?) and the Cat Woman
says "A cat has nine lives, you know." while fighting with a cold-blooded
entrepreneur. I think this means that the two idioms are in wide use among
English natives. However, I haven't seen any movie in which these are
actually used.
  So, my question is, do you use "grin like a Cheshire cat" and "fight like
Kilkenny cats" often? I would appreciate it if you would provide me any
feedback on this query.
Thank you very much in advance.

Kazumasa Ito
Sapporo, Japan
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