Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
бешеной собаке(корове) семь верст не крюк -- usually, крюк means "a hook", but here I think it means "a hook-shaped path", in other words, a "detour". So the whole thing means "Seven versts (~7 km) is not enough of a detour to go around a dog/cow with rabies (бешенство)". I would guess that this is roughly equivalent to the English "I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole"?
Actually I would say it roughly means: A mad dog doesn't consider a seven mile extra path to be even a minor difficulty (impediment).

Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
пуд соли съесть -- This is quite simple to translate: "To completely eat up a pood (~16 kg) of salt." But what the heck does it really mean?? From Googling, I find that it's actually a shortened form of a longer expression: "You don't really know someone until you've lived with him long enough to finish a pood of salt between the two of you" (presumably, this would take several years).
"To completely eat up a pood (~16 kg) of salt." when used as a stand alone phrase it means "to became very experienced in something".