Books

Kick the Bucket and Swing the Cat: The complete Balderdash & Piffle collection of English Words, and Their Curious Origins

"Kick the Bucket and Swing the Cat" takes a humorous tour through the fascinating, sometimes tragic, and often surprising history of the English language and its etymology. Author, humorist and word-sleuth Alex Games uncovers the trends, innovations and scandals that have shaped the meanings of our most popular words and expressions, from Chaucer to Internet jargon and Ancient Greek to American slang. Who was the original Jack the Lad, Gordon Bennett or Bloody Mary? Where do dodgy geezers and hooligans come from? What are skeldering, dithering and sabre-rattling? This amusing but rigorously researched account of English words and their origins combines the findings of the major BBC TV series and the nationwide Wordhunt, and is an entertaining treasure trove for English-language lovers everywhere.

Author: Alex Games Publication Date: January 31, 2011 546 pages

To Beat a Dead Horse

Flogging a dead horse (alternatively beating a dead horse, or beating a dead dog in some

parts of the Anglophone world) is an idiom that means a particular request or line of conversation

is already foreclosed or otherwise resolved, and any attempt to continue it is futile; or that to

continue in any endeavour (physical, mental, etc.) is a waste of time as the outcome is already

decided.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary,[1] the first recorded use of the expression in its

modern sense was by the English politician and orator John Bright, referring to the Reform Act of

1867, which called for more democratic representation in Parliament. Trying to rouse Parliament

from its apathy on the issue, he said in a speech, would be like trying to flog a dead horse to

make it pull a load. The Oxford English Dictionary cites The Globe, 1872, as the earliest verifiable

use of flogging a dead horse, where someone is said to have "rehearsed that [. . .] lively

operation known as flogging a dead horse".[2]

However Jay Dillon[3] has discovered an earlier instance attributed to the same John Bright but

thirteen years earlier: Speaking in Commons 28 March 1859, Lord Elcho (Francis Charteris, 10th

Earl of Wemyss) remarked that Bright had not been "satisfied with the results of his winter

campaign" and that "a saying was attributed to him [Bright] that he [had] found he was 'flogging a

dead horse.'"

Author:  William Campbell

Publisher: Fine Tooth Press L.L.C. (October 26, 2004) Paperback: 148 pages

Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: A Corpus-Based Approach

By Rosamund Moon

356 pages

Contributors:

Rosamund Moon

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Place of publication: Oxford

Publication year: 1998

Synopsis

This is a text-based study of fixed expressions, or idioms. Rosamund Moon's central argument is that fixed expressions can only be fully understood if they are considered together with the texts in which they occur. She provides an overview of this area of lexis in current English. Writing from a lexicologicalrather than a computationalpoint of view, she gives a detailed, descriptivist account of the findings of research into several thousand fixed expressions and idioms, as evidenced in the corpus text, including information about frequencies, syntax, lexical forms and variations, and metaphoricality. The author argues that examination of corpus text raises questions about many received ideas on fixed expressions and idioms, and suggests that new or revised use-centred models are required. Later chapters of the book demonstrate the ideological and discoursal significance of idioms, paying particular attention to the ways in which they convey evaluations and have roles with respect to the information structure and cohesion of texts. Series information Series ISBN: 0-19-961811-9 Series Editors: Richard W. Bailey, Noel Osselton, and Gabriele Stein Oxford Studies in Lexicography and Lexicology provides a forum for the publication of substantial scholarly works on all issues of interest to lexicographers, lexicologists, and dictionary users. It is concerned with the theory and history of lexicography, lexicological theory, and related topics such as terminology, and computer applications in lexicography. It focuses attention too on the purposes for which dictionaries are compiled, on their uses, and on their reception and role in society today and in the past.

Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton Paperback

by John Lahr (Author)

Paperback: 320 pages

Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (October 30, 2000)

this article is about the film. For the episode of Family Guy, see Prick Up Your Ears (Family Guy). For the stage play, see Prick Up Your Ears (play).

Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr and Vanessa Redgrave as Margaret "Peggy" Ramsay.

Black sheep"The black sheep effect: Judgmental extremity towards ingroup members in inter-and intra-group situations"In the English language, black sheep is an idiom used to describe an odd or disreputable member of a group, especially within a family. The term stems from the genetic effect in sheep whereby a recessive gene occasionally manifests in the birth of a sheep with black rather than white coloring; these sheep stand out in the flock.The term has typically been given negative implications, implying waywardness.[1] It derived from the atypical and unwanted presence of other black individuals in flocks of white sheep.In psychology, the black sheep effect refers to the tendency of group members to judge likeable ingroup members more positively and deviant ingroup member more negatively than comparable outgroup members

Author: Marques, José M.; José M. Marques, Vincent Y. Yzerbyt.

Pages: Publication: 20 September 2013

Break a legAuthor: Cynthia Fitterer KlingelPublisherhild's World, Incorporated, 2009Length 24 pages

Break a leg" is a well-known idiom in theatre which means "good luck." It is typically said to actors and musicians before they go on stage to perform. The origin of the phrase is obscure.The expression reflects a theatrical superstition in which wishing a person "good luck" is considered bad luck. The expression is sometimes used outside the theatre as superstitions and customs travel through other professions and then into common use.

An eye for an eyeAuthorH. Jack GriswoldPublisher:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970Original from the University of MichiganDigitized24 Jan 2008Length 288 pagesStemming from biblical times -Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth- is still a popular phrase. Eye for an eye was defined by the idea that the punishment should fit the crime. This popular idiom is used in justice systems globally. Read on for more on an eye for an eye.Throughout the world, the idea of retributive justice, "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" has been used to keep societies in check and the justice system in balance. Stemming from the harsh concept of no forgiveness in Hammurabi's Code, King Hammurabi used this concept to maintain stability in his Babylonian kingdom during his reign in 1792 to 1750 B.C. This code is the oldest set of set of formal written laws known to exist. The code now turned popular idiom was meant to protect all levels of Babylonian society including women and slaves. Hammurabi sought protection of the weak from the powerful and the poor from the rich. This idea of retributive justice has since spread to other justice systems and cultures throughout the ages, which In this famous idiom, the definition is found by comparing an eye in exchange of its equal.

An eye for an eye supports the idea that punishment should fit the crime, and should be equal to the crime or of the same level of severity to the offense. The literal Latin to English translation of "an eye for an eye" is "The Law of Retribution." The popular saying also survived the existence of the Akkadian language, and can be found in the Kings James version of the Holy Bible in the book of Mathew 5:38: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." The phrase "eye for an eye" is also found in several instances in the Old Testament. While earlier legal codes required some sort of equivalent payment like a fine for a physical assault, Hammurabi's code was more literal. He demanded exact repercussions for the original crime. For example,

if you killed someone, you would be killed yourself. If you beat someone, you would also receive an equitable beating. Concepts like the death penalty and capital punishments are instances of Hammurabi's "eye for an eye" code still being used by modern day societies.

Magazine

Backwoods Barrister: He Was Known as the "Bard of Frenchman's Pond" and He Loved Trout Fishing, "Spinning a Yarn," Cribbage and Good Bourbon. to the People of Ishpeming and Marquette County, He Was One of Them-A Treasured Native Son-And One of Their Prized Natural Resources

By Shaul, Richard D.Magazine article from Michigan History Magazine, Vol. 85, No. 6

The last of six boys, John Donaldson Voelker was born on June 29, 1903. His father, a saloon owner, encouraged him as a young boy to fish the streams that meandered the woods and fields near their home in Ishpeming. His mother, a public school music teacher, read to him many exciting stories and instilled in him a great appreciation for words and writing.

When the time came, Voelker's mother expected him to attend college, while his father thought that his son could earn a respectable living in the family business. However, according to the Marquette Mining Journal, Voelker had no interest in becoming "a prosperous saloon-keeper." In 1922 he entered Northern Michigan Normal School (present-day Northern Michigan University) before transferring to the University of Michigan Law School in 1924. Because of poor grades, he received a letter in 1927 stating that "the faculty requests that you withdraw. Then, it asked him to "consider applying for admission to some other school." In the manner of a seasoned lawyer, Voelker cited the regulation that would permit him to be reexamined. In the time allowed, he raised his grades enough to graduate in 1928. He passed the Michigan bar exam that same year.

At the traditional Crease Dance during his senior year, the twenty-four-year-old Voelker met Grace Elizabeth Taylor, a nineteen-year-old beauty from Oak Park, Illinois. Almost immediately Voelker knew that "the jig was up for me when I saw this lovely lady. Voelker remembered that he followed her around the rest of the night "like a Doberman Pinscher." By the time he graduated in June they were engaged to be married.

Graduation brought happiness and despair. Voelker was happy to head north to the Upper Peninsula, but it meant being away from Grace. He held a job as assistant prosecutor for Marquette County for nearly two years before packing his belongings and traveling to Chicago. On August 2, 1930, they were married. Years later, in typical wry Voelker humor, he commented: "So, due to my vast talents and her father being a banker, I got a job with the law firm for the bank in Chicago." The three years he spent there were torturous. He hated the big city and the big law firm. Voelker said, years later, that he "never did get around to counting all the lawyers in that office, but I met at least forty of them." Perhaps the event that made his decision to return to the Upper Peninsula easier was seeing a frightened dog get knocked down three times while trying to cross a busy Chicago street.

The harsh economic reality of moving back to Ishpeming during the Depression was not long in coming. The few jobs Voelker held hardly kept the young couple financially solvent. Voelker took his eyes off the trout stream long enough to see that the county prosecutor's job, up for grabs in the 1934 election, would give them the financial security they left behind in Chicago.

In politics, John D. Voelker was an ardent Democrat, but he was no politician. He disdained backslapping and glad-handing for votes, although he managed to pass out a few campaign matchbooks and tack up some election posters. When the votes were counted, he became the first Democrat to win the office of prosecutor "since Noah's ark or the flood." Recalling his first term, Voelker remembered: "There were three grand larcenies, two auto thefts, three burglaries, a brace of bastard cases, one indecent exposure, one assault with intent to murder, two wife desertions, and one dog-tired prosecutor." He was reelected six more times before being defeated in the 1950 election by thirty-six votes. In 1954 Voelker ran for Congress, but lost in the primary. The freedom extended to him by the voters gave him several years of uninterrupted fly-fishing, cribbage at Polly's Rainbow Bar and time to write his stories.

Bite Your Tongue By Begley, Sharon

Magazine article from Newsweek, Vol. 150, No. 15Publication: Newsweek Date: October 8, 2007Beginning of articleByline: Sharon Begley

Whether it's a grandpa in the 1993 movie "Grumpy Old Men" calling someone "you dumb friggin' Swede" or your elderly neighbor referring to a black nurse as "a colored girl," the stereotype of un-P.C. old folks is borne out by research: studies show that seniors tend to be more racist than younger Americans. The standard explanation has long been that the elderly formed their social and political views when prejudice was more tolerated than it is today -- or, that once someone reaches her 80s, she is beyond social niceties. (As one Grumpy Old Lady we know put it, "I'm 91. What the hell do I care?") There is some truth to both explanations, but now a neurobiological one has emerged. The frontal lobes, responsible for inhibiting unwanted speech and behavior, shrink with age. The resulting loss of "inhibitory control," a new study shows, plays a central role in the politically incorrect speech that becomes more common with age.

Knock on WoodBy Ellis, AndyMagazine article from Guitar Player, Vol. 34, No. 5

Contributors:

Ellis, AndyPublication:

Guitar PlayerDate:

May 2000

Volume/issue:

Vol. 34, No. 5

Beginning of article

It's one of life's great pleasures: Knuckle tapping on wood in order to avoid some bad luck.

You sink deep into a pulsing groove, find a harmonic space to fill, and become one with the bass and drums. While other styles offer opportunities to surrender, to the beat, in Memphis soul that's all that matters. In this lesson, we'll dissect some classic soul grooves to see what makes them tick, and then try to grab some of that cosmic woo-woo for ourselves. * Of course, it's impossible to discuss soul guitar without acknowledging Steve Cropper. He has

played on hundreds of records and crafted the hooks for dozens of soul's biggest hits. His style defines the genre. While this lesson isn't about Cropper per se, his ideas are embodied in many of these examples. (For a private lesson with Cropper, see "Soul, Man," in the July '94 GP. * Before we start: Most soul hits were originally recorded in "horn" keys, such as A [flat], E [flat], and B [flat]. For convenience, I've notated many of these grooves in the guitar-centric keys of A, E, C, and G. Once you've mastered an example, do the right thing and practice it in flat keys, too. The next time you share the stage with horn players, you'll be glad you did the extra prep work.

Journal "Mum's the Word": The Trial of Genre in Dancer in the Dark

By Austin-Smith, BrendaAcademic journal article from Post Script, Vol. 26, No. 1Contributors: Austin-Smith, BrendaPublication:Post Script Date: Fall 2006 Volume/issue:Vol. 26, No. 1

As soon as the word genre is sounded, as soon as it is heard, as soon as one attempts to conceive it, a limit is drawn. And when a limit is established, norms and interdictions are not far behind....

--Jacques Derrida "The Law of Genre"

In a musical, nothing dreadful ever happens.

--Selma Jezkova

A woman with a dark past, once paired (for she has a child), but now alone, stands before a judge and jury. Accused of murder, she can only defend herself successfully by revealing secrets from that past. While the machinery of the Law threatens her very life, she still refuses to answer the prosecution's questions. This is the gist of the trial scene in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000) and of similar scenes in a host of older films, such as the 1937 feature Confession, and the various cinematic versions of Madame X. The similarities of these works in plot, character, and theme mark them all as maternal

melodramas, or what Mary Ann Doane terms "scenarios of separation" (73), wherein a mother sacrifices and suffers for the good of her child. A key difference between Dancer and these other films obviously lies in its mixture of genres as opposed to their relative generic purity. But in that mixture we can find both an explanation for the critical reaction to this film and an effective comment on the shifting nature of generic formulas in contemporary cinema.

Dancer in the Dark has confused many viewers, an effect chalked up to the film's audacious blending of the musical and the maternal melodrama. This is clear in reviews by Kenneth Turan, who labeled the film "that most morose of musicals ... exasperating in its contradictions," by J. Hoberman, who declared "the plot would shame D.W. Griffith," and by Roger Ebert, who called the work a "brave throwback to the fundamentals of cinema--to heroes and villains, noble sacrifices and dastardly betrayals." Both musicals and melodramas are staples of classical Hollywood production, but their apparently conflicting natures--one subscribing to the liberating capacities of music, the other to the limiting conditions of gender--make this film's unorthodox mixture of the two a provocative viewing experience.

This paper will focus on the contest between the musical and melodrama in Dancer, and on the resolution of that struggle in the film's trial scene, attending to the recurring trope of the trial in maternal melodrama. While Selma's moral character as fit mother is scrutinized in this scene, the musical trial is also the climax of the film's interrogation of its own identity as either musical or melodrama. Selma is punished not only for her stubbornness, her conviction that she is right to do what she does for her son, but also for the violations of the "law of genre" her voice and body insert into the maternal melodrama. The film indicts Selma for generic impropriety, trying her in a courtroom scene whose climax is the sentencing of the competing genre to death.

Back to Square OneBy Hampson, IanAcademic journal article from The Economic and Labour Relations Review : ELRR, Vol. 13, No. 1

Contributors: Hampson, Ian

Publication: The Economic and Labour Relations Review : ELRR

Date: June 2002

Volume/issue: Vol. 13, No. 1

Subjects: Occupational Training--ResearchReform--Research

Back to square one, you have to start working on a plan from the beginning because your

previous attempt failed and the progress you made is now wasted We thought everything was

settled, but now they say they're not happy with the deal, so we're back to square one again. If

this guy rejects our offer we'll have to go back to square one and start the whole recruitment

process again.

HOCUS POCUSBy: Favila, MarinaAcademic journal article from Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, Vol. 21

Article details

Contributors: Favila, Marina

Publication: Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England

Date: January 1, 2008

Volume/issue: Vol. 21

Hocus Pocus or hocus-pocus is a generic term that may be derived from an ancient language and is

currently used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of

change. It was once a common term for a magician, juggler, or other similar entertainer.

Overall, Magic on the Early English Stage reads much like a magician's how-to manual. A quick glance at Butterworth's chapter headings (for example, "Conveyance and Confederacy," "Appearances and Disappearances," "Magic through Sound: Illusion, Deception and Agreed Pretence," "Mechanical Images, Automata, Puppets and Motions," "Substitution," and "Stage Tricks") gives you some idea of the vast array of magic tricks and illusions to be spotlighted for the reader. Eyewitness accounts and secondhand anecdotes are particularly tantalizing. Be amazed at the story of Brandon, the King's Juggler, who drew a picture of a bird on the public square, and when he stabbed his drawing with a knife, a pigeon miraculously fell from the sky. (This performance proved so horrifying that Brandon was sworn never to repeat the trick again.) Wonder at the power of Feats, who could test the honor of a maid by commanding his knife to fly from a bucket of water into the rafters above: no flight, no virgin. Marvel at the multiple retellings of the famed Indian rope trick, where a boy, a man, a woman, a hare, a dog, a hog, a panther, a lion, and a tiger were all said (at one time or another) to ascend a rope leading nowhere to disappear before your very eyes.

News Paper

You Can't Judge a Book (or Its Reader) by the CoverNewspaper article from Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England)

Publication: Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England)

Date: August 30, 2011

Subjects: Books

Beginning of article

Byline: Dawn COLLINSON

DO you ever get the feeling you're being judged unfairly? And, worse still, by someone - or in this particular case, something - who doesn't even really know you.

Let me explain. I like to do a little online shopping every now and then, usually for videos and books and other things that will fit through the letterbox without me having to go to the Post Office collecting depot at the crack of dawn.

I've been doing this for several years now but despite our lengthy association I feel no personal connection to the faceless cyber-seller. We have a purely professional relationship.

However, it appears to feel differently. It seems to believe it has intimate knowledge of me and is therefore in a position to know what I like and don't like. Along the lines of a real friend, in fact.

Except it isn't a friend, and it is judging me (which I'm sure my real friends do too, but they have the politeness not to do it in front of me).

It has started to send me slightly pushy emails suggesting things it believes are perfect for me. Which wouldn't be so bad if they all weren't, well, so bad.

A Frog in His ThroatNewspaper article from Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England)

Publication: Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England)

Date: June 10, 2005

Subjects: Lee, Tommy

Beginning of article

Byline: By Mitya Underwood

Notorious rock group Motley Crue will soon be storming into Newcastle. Drummer Tommy Lee talks exclusively to Mitya Underwood

A very croaky Tommy Lee picks up the phone and politely apologises for sounding rough.

He explains he's still recovering from his night at China Whites, a favourite London nightspot for celebrities.

"I'm really enjoying being in England at the moment, I've never been here when it's been sunny, it's usually pouring it down," he says.

"I like this place more and more every time I come. The architecture is stunning and the people are great."

In his best British accent, with a slight LA twang, he adds: "All right mate, how you doing? That's what all the cab drivers say here, it's not like that at home, people are way less friendly.

"Except you do have a really irritating song in your charts at the moment, I heard it the other day, the Crazy Frog is shocking."

Apple of the Eye

Publication: Evening Gazette (Middlesbrough, England)

Date: February 8, 2011

To say that someone or something is "the apple of one's eye" is to say that he, she or it is the most cherished or valued among many, the favorite, the pet. The metaphor first appeared in English around A.D. 885 and has been in nearly constant use ever since; in modern usage the phrase is regarded as a hoary clich?. 

Although apples have long been used as symbols of health or good fortune, the origin of "apple of one's eye" reflected a remarkable misunderstanding of human anatomy. Before ocular structure was fully understood, the pupil of the eye (the small dark opening at the very center) was thought to be not a hole, but a solid, globular object. As apples were perhaps the most common spherical object in everyday life, this "tiny sphere" became known as "the apple of the eye." And, since vision is generally regarded as our most vital sense, it made sense to use the apparent core of vision, the "apple of the eye," as a metaphor for that which is most precious to us.