Reader Opinions
Glenn – (coin a phrase) February 15, 2021
I think it comes from printing. A letterpress coin (although it is spelled quoin) is a wedge thingy that holds the letters in place on a printing press. So to quoin a phrase would be to set a phrase or sentence into print.
Michael – (a bed of roses) February 14, 2021
Academic excellence is not a bed of roses, you’ve got to born candles.
Stuart Curmudgeon – (bits and pieces) February 13, 2021
Perhaps the origin lies far back with Spanish silver dollars. Also termed “pieces of eight”. These dollars were frequently sliced into 8 equal wedges called “bits” to get a smaller denomination “coin”. Spanish silver dollars were the international currency for centuries.
Ivan Stefanovic – (fingers crossed) February 12, 2021
“Knock on the wood” is a synonym.
Dave – (Punctuation) February 11, 2021
I hate semi-colon. I don’t who invented it. It is plain ugly. I avoid it as much as possible. I use it only when it is not possible to avoid it.
Anonymous – (all is fair in love and war) February 11, 2021
If someone says nothing is fair.
James Wehner – (start from scratch) February 10, 2021
I have understood that bare knuckle prizefights used to have the fighters both toeing a scratch line. If one stepped out of bounds during the fight, they would once again “start from scratch.”
Marc Costello – (all is fair in love and war) February 10, 2021
All is fair in love and war meaning: This is a reference the to elimination of the general boundaries that normally exist between two people when love is established. As we are all aware that War will brutally remove all boundaries and guidelines; the irony that love can bring us this close to every end of emotional perceptions, and cause us to make irrational decisions that exceed our normal self expected definition. The force that changes everything we understand, as war also could.
George Dettenwanger – (time and again) February 10, 2021
I was told years ago that “time and again” was a way of saying “time and a half” and that double time could be said as “time and again and again” by a man who had once worked in industry.
Steven Trevail – (never look a gift horse in the mouth) February 9, 2021
Always look a gift horse in the mouth, as it may hold Greeks.
