Regarding the saying that one is disadvantaged by getting "The short end of the stick." I have always thought that it is a result of a muddling of the phrases "the short straw or the short stick" with the phrase "the thick end of the stick". You see; when two men were carrying logs of timber picking up the thicker end was a great disadvantage so it became common to say "I got the thick end of the stick" then in any situation of disadvantage,one would say "I got the thick end of the stick". In time people with no knowledge of the origin mixed the words using "short" instead of "thick". Is that possible?