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Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Rule The Roost

     If you know anything about Role Island Reds or Plymouth Rocks, you have noticed that a flock---or roost--of chickens seldom includes more than one male. That's because a rooster comes out of the egg jealous and mean-spirited. He wants all of the hens and spring chickens for himself.
     Bigger, stronger, and louder than females, who make up his harem, Chanticleer literally rules every member of his roost--effectively that his conduct gave rise to the phrase that conveys the idea of unchallenged control.

Saturday, June 6, 2020

OK

     This one actually blew my mind. O.K is actually a nickname from our eighth president Martin Van Buren which is a short version of "Old Kinderhook"
     It was his second campaign that popularized the phrase.

Monday, June 1, 2020

Two To Tango

     No one is sure how a Latin American dance first zoomed to popularity in America. Probably adapted from the beat of tribal drums in Africa, the tango in 2/4 or 4/4 time was found to be especially exhilarating by some who experimented with it.
     Many dance lend themselves to solo exhibitions. Not so the tango. This aspect of what was once a novel form of entertainment was emphasized in a popular song of the 1930s that stressed: "it takes two to tango"
     That made a vivid and emphatic way of saying that some activities require two participants. So the dance-floor expression originally came into wide use as a response to accusations of sexual misconduct. Today it has become a defense for any situation in which no one assumes full blame. 

(This is from a book called "Why We Say It")