Phrases

Do you ever think about strange phrases your parents used when you were a child?  All my life when I said I might do something, my mother always said, "There are a lot of mites in a pound of cheese"  I always thought she was just a little strange and when I asked her what it meant she said, "I don't know, grandma always said it."  I asked grandma and she didn't know what it meant either, probably just something she had heard also.

All my life I have commented about this and finally one day I looked it up on the   Internet.    Guess what, my mother wasn't as odd as I thought she was.  The phrase referred to the fact that,  "the mites excrete an enzyme that ripens the cheese."  So somebody down the line knew what they were talking about.

I found this information on The Phrase Finder which is a fantastic source to find anything you want to know about American ,  Shakespeare,   Nautical, Biblical and Latin phrases.  It also has a Discussion forum.  This info. is free.  They also have a Phrase Thesaurus which has a fee.  You can sign up for their mailing list where they send a phrase a week.If this subject interests you I would highly recommend it.

A friend of mine made the comment on her blog that she was doing something "by the seat of her pants."  She said some time she would have to check it out.  I couldn't stand not knowing myself, so back to the Phrase Finder.  I found that the term emerged in 1930's and was widely used in reports of Douglas Corrigins flight from USA to Ireland.  The old flying expression of "flies by the seat of his trousers," was explained by Larry Conner who said it means going aloft without instruments, radios or other such luxuries."

Hope you enjoy phrases, until next time,
Be kind to one another