Explanation for the meaning of 八竿子打不着?
well, what I heard is another story, but I cannot confirm or verify it. “八(ba1)竿子打不着” MAYBE came from "爬(pa2)竿子打不着“，here 竿子 means ladder, and ”爬竿子打不着“ means "it's too high, you cannot hit it even with a ladder (when you climbed a ladder)". And since "pa" and "ba" sounds similar, it became "ba" in current version.