Reader Opinions
NMW – (a shot in the dark) November 21, 2023
I enjoy reading your posts a lot!
Regarding “a shot in the dark”, I feel that a quite significant part of its meaning is that there is an element of risk and / or danger involved. This is, of course the risk / danger of accidentally shooting (and hitting) the wrong target. Ironically, it seems to have no *intended* target at all. It is merely a matter of shooting for the sake of hitting *something* … virtually regardless of what is actually hit / shot.
Carol Amrhein – (hot air) November 17, 2023
In the book of Job, chapter 15 there’s a reference to empty arguments. This thought is connected to the east wind, which was the wind that caused devastation.
Andre – (hot air) November 13, 2023
Could it’s origin be Job 15:2:Will a wise person answer with empty arguments, Or will he fill his belly with the east wind?
John Kravitztsky – (as mad as a hatter) November 8, 2023
I always believed this phrase to have had come from the Alice in Wonderland series.
Anonymous – (take with a grain of salt) November 7, 2023
If one’s fingers are tiny enough then a grain of salt can be exactly the same thing as a pinch of salt.
Ivan 5 Law – (24/7 (twenty-four-seven)) November 7, 2023
I ask a Librarian, does Jerry Reynold’s article from 1983 say 24/7. The Librarian said that when Jerry Reynolds said that he makes his shot 24 hours a day seven days a week, 356 days a year. That Jerry Reynold did not say 24/7 nor is there any reference to 24/7. The 24/7 is acutely a lyric written by Ivan Law in 1986 , the Music is now available in its original form, The 1985 demo Of Ivan law contains the first use of the phrase 24/7. It would remain hidden in Ivan Law’s work until after the Birth of the internet. The first place Ivan law released his music was on Mp3.com, the phrase and escalation of the uses of the phrase 24/7 coincides with the birth of the internet music site.
In the song, drop the Beat 24/7 was not the only phrase that was coined, drop the Beat was coined also.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/drop-the-beat/825146000?i=825146077
Robert – (rake over the coals) November 7, 2023
Parents are sometimes curious. They teach you to walk and speak for later tell you “shut your mouth and sit down”.
Bob W – (call a spade a spade) November 3, 2023
Robert Burton, an English writer, used the phrase “I call a spade a spade” in his book “The Anatomy of Melancholy” (1621) to describe his plain and unadorned writing style. The phrase means to tell the truth about something, to be brutally honest, and even to go beyond honesty—not exaggerating or minimizing something; not hiding anything; putting it absolutely starkly—to tell it as it is.
The phrase has been used in various forms in literature for hundreds of years. It refers to calling a noun by its name, as in “Call a spade a spade, not a shovel.” It has no racial connotation. That is a complete falsehood; it exists only in narrow, ignorant minds. The ultimate source of this idiom is a phrase in Plutarch’s Apophthegmata Laconica: ‘τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγοντας (tēn skaphēn skaphēn legontas). The word σκαφη (skaphe) means “basin, or trough.” Lucian De Hist. Conscr. has τὰ σύκα σύκα, τὴν σκάφην δὲ σκάφην ὀνομάσων (ta suka suka, tēn skaphēn de skaphēn onomasōn), “calling a fig a fig, and a trough a trough”.
Jay Spence – (wrap in cotton wool) October 29, 2023
My Dad was born premature (weighed 3lb) in 1932. Back then and probably for a long time before that, they didn’t have incubators or other modern methods for keeping a prem baby alive and simply wrapped him up in cotton wool.
I believe this is where the saying comes from. An old fashioned way to treat a premature or poorly baby.
Lee Whittington – (fair and square) October 25, 2023
I believe it stems from ancient Egyptians and the concept that if the perimeter of two sets of land was, for example, 400 steps, then the land would yield the same crops. However, if one strip of land were 150×50 steps, the area would be 750. However, if your land was an equal square of 100 steps, then the area would be 1000 but same perimeter. Proclus 450c suggested that some land owners would use this strategy to make it look as though they were being generous to their neighbours by giving them land with what seemed like a longer perimeter, which gave them a reputation of being fair. When in fact, the opposite is true.
