This saying was conceived by
Bob and his buddy Mel while on a cycle ride to Portsmouth Dock Yard via Gosport in the
Summer of 1963. They passed by a naval shipyard and noticed a beached and apparently discarded mini (aka: one-person) submarine in the assembly yard. The yard gate was open, so the guys checked out the sub and noticed that it had an open hatch upon which had been placed a fly screen (of the household variety), beggaring the question: "what is as useful as a fly screen on a submarine"??? Ironically, someone had punched a hole through the screen through which a horde of wasps had flown in through the hatch and nested. The thought came to mind of how
annoying it would be - after closing up the submarine - to have the wasps buzzing around inside the sub...
Following immigration to
Canada in 1975, one of the guys adjusted the saying to: "as useful as a screen door on a submarine" to accommodate Vancouver Island / BC /
Canada / North
America vernacular (which didn'
t recognize the term "fly screen").
the
act of a Central Bank 'printing' fiat money, ie: quantitative easing, in an attempt to
curb inflation is "as useful as a fly screen on a
submarine"