Clean as a Whistle

Does this look clean to you?

There are certain phrases we all use from time to time in our daily lives.  Some of the phrases are good and relevant, and some are not, even though we continue to use them.  Some phrases have lost their meaning over time, yet we still use them to describe things, and we all know what you mean.

The one phrase I can think of came up in convorsation with my lovely wife the other day.  I said something, and I don't remember what it was now, but something was "clean as a whistle."  Now, I'm not sure I know anyone who is in the buisness of cleaning whistles, but I'm sure somewhere there is someone who specialized in this practice.  I don't own any whistles, but I would imagine that they would work better if it was clean, don't you think?  I said, "clean as a whistle" and my wife said, "how clean is that?  Are whistles clean?"  I had never thought of it.  I just said the phrase because that's what you say when things are clean, right?

There are a number of sayings like that that the origins of said phrases are long forgotten, but I don't know of any others off the top of my head.

And if you have a whistle, and you use one, like a referee, I'm sure it's not that clean, unless you take steps to actively clean your whistle.  You put that thing in your mouth, and last I checked, your mouth has germs.  I wouldn't use someone elses used whistle, because I doubt it would actually be clean.  So the phrase "clean as a whistle" is probably the dumbest phrase of all time.

It just doesn't make any sense.