Status Updates From A Hog on Ice

Almost done with this book. I'm sure I won't remember all of the expressions. But it sure is good to learn how they came about.

So many expressions that we use are in this book. Surprisingly, some of these go back centuries that they have been used.

My favorite expression, so far, is "straight from the horse's mouth". A horse's permanent teeth, in the lower jaw come in a specific pattern: 2 1/2 years, the first pair; a year later, the 2nd pair; the 3rd pair in 4-5 years.
So an experienced person can know how old the horse is, no matter what the owner may say about the horse's age. This was true in race horse world.

More of the same....curious expressions. Most of the expressions I know about, I have heard them in one way or another. What I like about this book is the revelation of how they came about.

I have never heard the expression 'a hog on ice', thus I am very interested in reading this book. It should be a quick, interesting read of expressions in our everyday language.

"Another, of the same category, is that it was a warning to young apprentice printers who might be readily confused in picking out type, because the face of a type letter is just the reverse of the printed character. But here, again, the explanation is weak because the reverse of p is d, not q" (199). I paused a good 10 min trying to figure out how p could be the reverse of d, not q. It's...not.

"...just as we use tilde, a corrupted form of tittle, for the wavy line over an nin some Spanish words, like cañon" (193). Had never considered that canyon has an eñe in it, but of course it would.

"In rehearsal, [the director of a radio program to be broadcast] noted the exact intervals for each bit of the performance" (187). I never thought about the fact that this must have happened, but of course with live foley you'd have to

"to take French leave
... But, despite the fact that the French counterpart of the expression is, 'to withdraw as the English (filer à l'anglaise), the origin of the expression is attributed to a custom that originated in France in the eighteenth century" (185).