To Cut a Dido
(to perform a prank, trick or con someone) (two are correct, pick either one and you win)
1. Based on the story of Dido, the legendary queen of Carthage and heroine in Virgil's Latin epic, Aeneid. The cunning Dido told the natives of Africa that she would occupy only that land that could be covered by the hide of a bull. She then cut the hide into a continuous hair-line thread that enclosed area that became the city of Carthage.
2. This nautical expression, first recorded in the early 19th century, was based on the sailing prowess of the HMS Dido, who was able to perform adroit and imaginative sailing moves, such that few ships could overtake her.
3. In the narcotics underworld, a dido is another term for the dime bags of heroin that are sold in the street. To cut a dido is to further dilute the heroin with cornstarch.
4. This is a piece of Hollywood jargon, referring to the tempermental star of the early talkies, Diana Domingo, also known as Dido. In the movie Death Becomes a Ghost, Charlie Chaplin, the director, was cleverly able to maintain her screen time (as dictated by her contract) but simultaneously cut her lines by turning her into a corpse.
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Cloud Nine
1. Based on the mythological belief that Zeus' mountain was surrounded by the nine "mood" clouds. For example, the first cloud represented sorrow, the second, fear. The ninth cloud represented ecstasy.
2. From the Cole Porter song, "I Me Mine," whose lyrics included:
"I'm in love, and she's all mine
I'm in heaven, my address is Cloud Nine."
In the 1960s, the Beatles also titled one of their songs I Me Mine.
3. Meteorologists classify clouds according to their height. Number high is the highest cloud, a cumulonimbus. The idiom is somewhat perplexing. If you are on cloud nine, you are very high indeed, but on the other hand a cumulonimbus cloud is usually a storm cloud.
4. Nine has been a mystical number for centuries, probably because three represents the trinity, and nine is a trinity of trinities. The cloud represents a high mood.
(Two are correct, pick either one and you win)
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Mad as a Hatter
1. Hat makers frequently used mercury in the felting process of wool. Mercury is a toxic substance to the nervous system, and thus with long term exposures hat makers developed tremors followed by psychosis.
2. From Lewis Carroll's tale of "Alice in Wonderland," in which the title character meets both the "Mad Hatter," and "Mad March Hare," both of whom have become mad by staring into the sun too long as part of a bet to see who could count the suns' rays.
3. The Hatters were a famous wealthy aristocratic English family of the 1700's who were afflicted a genetic disease now known to be Tourette's syndrome. When speaking in the House of Lords, Nicholas Hatter was known to lace his otherwise eloquent speech with expletives and facial tics.
4. From the Charles Dickens' book, the Pickwick Papers, in which the shop owners, Charles and Mabel Hatter, developed their own mumbling language which was totally incomprehensible to shop patrons.
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Feeling Your Oats
1. A randy expression from Cambridge college, referring to college students who were enjoying the pleasures of female company. First recorded in 1876, OATS is an acronym standing for Over At Throckton Street, a street where one could easily find prostitutes.
2. Oats are considered a high energy food for horses and are the typical pre race feed for thoroughbreds. It was hoped that a horse who was "feeling his oats," had additional pep in his step.
3. The original advertising slogan of Quaker Oats was:
"Quaker Oats will make you strong, there's no doubt
You'll feel our oats working from the inside out."
4. Cowboys used to carry a small bag of oats which, when not used to feed the horse, was used to create a comfortable wedge between the horn of the saddle and the rider's genitalia. "Feeling your oats" then evolved to campfire expression for masturbation.
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The Real McCoy
1. During the 1900s home made elixirs were sold throughout the West with extravagant health claims. The Real McCoy was an herbal prepartion that tried to cut through the hype by claiming that is was "Real Deal, Real Heal McCoy."
2. Based on a famous Irish murder case, in which one Angus McCoy, convicted of killing his wife, insisted that his identical twin brother, Seamus McCoy was the murderer. His brother claimed the opposite. The Irish newspapers publicized the case with the headline, "Who is the real McCoy?" The case was never solved.
3. "Kid McCoy" was a famous welterweight champion, who sandbagged unsuspecting opponents in bar fights by appearing to be entirely drunk and incapable of fighting. His opponents unfortunately found out the ruse too late when the "Real McCoy" promptly flattenen them and collected the money. In Scotland, the expression is the "Real McKay."
4. Frederick McCoy was the secretary of the treasury in 1858 when the economy was threatened by a rash of counterfeit $5 bills. The frauds could be distinguished from legitimate money be examining the signature of McCoy on the bills; the counterfeit bills were signed by a Fredereck (with an e) McCoy.
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Mad as a Hatter
1. Hat makers frequently used mercury in the felting process of wool. Mercury is a toxic substance to the nervous system, and thus with long term exposures hat makers developed tremors followed by psychosis.
2. From Lewis Carroll's tale of "Alice in Wonderland," in which the title character meets both the "Mad Hatter," and "Mad March Hare," both of whom have become mad by staring into the sun too long as part of a bet to see who could count the suns' rays.
3. The Hatters were a famous wealthy aristocratic English family of the 1700's who were afflicted a genetic disease now known to be Tourette's syndrome. When speaking in the House of Lords, Nicholas Hatter was known to lace his otherwise eloquent speech with expletives and facial tics.
4. From the Charles Dickens' book, the Pickwick Papers, in which the shop owners, Charles and Mabel Hatter, developed their own mumbling language which was totally incomprehensible to shop patrons.
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Feet of Clay
(i.e. one's point of vulnerability)
1. An ancient Saxon tale, whose similarities to the legend of Achilles suggest a common origin. The supreme god Aten created his son in his own image out of clay, then gave him life by dipping him into the sacred Lake Oslard. However, feet were a source of vulnerability, still made of clay where his father had held him over the water.
2. A Biblical metaphor from the Book of Daniel, in which King Nebuchanezzer had dreamed of a mighty statue of gold, silver and bronze, although the feet were made of clay. A great sonte "smote the image on his feet," so that the entire statue came crashing down.
3. From a translation of Leonardo Da Vinci's writing where he laments that his ability to sculpt feet and hands are inferior. Leonardo spent countless hours practicing by sculpting his own feet of clay. On such pair of Leonardo's feet can be found in the Uffizzi gallery.
4. Based on a WWI army phrase, "feet of clay," referred to a variant of trench foot, characterized by a wet, gray appearance of the feet. Foot infections were considered a particular vulnerability of the infantry; more soliders succumbed to trench foot than to artillery fire.
