Reader Opinions
Mike – (on the line) April 3, 2024
O don’t see any rational argument that would be more convincing or intuitive than this being a gambling term. Blackjack or Craps, for instance, where you put the money you are gambling literally in the line drawn on the table to show that it is in play.
JJ – (fight like cat and dog) April 2, 2024
No one says, “like cat and dog,” even if the idiom is being applied to individuals. People say, “The married couple fought like cats and dogs the entire time they were together.” That’s just how it is.
Anthony – (not at all) March 29, 2024
Great learning from British way of saying thanks you.
John U. – (that’s the way the cookie crumbles) March 27, 2024
I have always assumed “That’s the way the cookie crumbles” refers to accepting with a shrug whatever is written on the little note inside a fortune cookie.
Patrick Mitchell – (scared to death) March 27, 2024
I once saw an old piece of film in which a parachute didn’t open, and the commentator said that the man knew that he was going to die, so his brain shut off, and the man was meant to have died of cardiac arrest, but I think that he was still alive because he was kicking his legs all the way down, so I believe he just used the footage as an example to describe the situation that he was scared to death. It was on a video called Faces of Death. So yeah, I do believe that it could happen that way.
George Burrell – (kick the can down the road) March 17, 2024
The expression is in the Randy Newman song, “I think it’s going to rain today.” In the song, we could interpret it as a metaphor for futility, a disassociation with the way the world is working.
Kim Wei – (nightmare dressed like a daydream) March 16, 2024
Chinese version: 披着羊皮的狼
Flavio – (pros and cons) March 11, 2024
When you wrote the sentence “It comes from the Latin phrase ‘pros and contras'”, I suppose that you really intended ‘pros et contras’.
Anon – (throw under the bus) March 6, 2024
I cannot remember the exact source, but it essentially comes from the behaviour of some people, such as opportunists, in a hypothetical situation.
As an example, you and your colleague are on your way to the bus stop to go to work. You’re slightly late. As you approach the bus stop, the bus is pulling away. It’s approaching you, but you know the driver will not stop for you. You don’t want to be late for work.
In that split second, there are those people who are “friends” but won’t hesitate to betray someone in order to avoid being in trouble or get some personal gain out of it. The phrase is usually applied when people immediately shift the blame on to others (supposedly friends) without a moment’s hesitation.
So, in that split second, the person makes the decision to throw their colleague under the bus. The bus then has to stop, the friend gets the blame (and the full brunt of it), and you get the benefit (you are able to get on the bus and not be late for work).
The original study, analysis, hypothesis, or whatever it was, was essentially centred around the question: what would people do to get ahead? (For example, would you throw someone under the bus to get the bus to stop for you?)
Ted Miller – (set in ways) March 5, 2024
I am in complete agreement with you, Ron. The original “set in her ways” has been corrupted with “his ways”, “their ways”, etc.
Ted Miller, an old seadog
