origin of ‘all right, you heard a seal bark’

9th Aug 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

refers to “All right, have it your own way—you heard a seal bark”, the caption to a drawing by James Thurber, originally published in The New Yorker of 30th January 1932

‘thrown out of better places than this’: meaning and early occurrences

8th Aug 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

USA, 1909—a derogatory description of a specific place or occupation, typically used by somebody who is getting expelled from this specific place or occupation

origin of ‘I’ve got the time if you’ve got the inclination’

7th Aug 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

Seems to have originated in a joke, first recorded in 1955, in which the Tower of London says to the Leaning Tower of Pisa: “I’ve got the time and you’ve got the inclination.”

‘if you want to get ahead, get a hat’: meaning and origin

6th Aug 2020.Reading time 12 minutes.

one must wear a hat in order to become successful in one’s life or career—originally the slogan for an advertising campaign organised in 1948 by the British hat-manufacturers when hat-wearing began to decline

‘(as) dim as a Toc H lamp’: meaning and origin

5th Aug 2020.Reading time 14 minutes.

dim-witted—UK, 1955—refers to the oil lamp that is symbolically lit at the beginning of the meetings of each section of the international movement Toc H

‘one from column A (and) one from column B’

4th Aug 2020.Reading time 6 minutes.

alludes to the menus in Chinese restaurants, which list the dishes in two columns, column A and column B—USA, 1956—first in reference to comedian Buddy Hackett’s routine on a Chinese waiter taking an order

‘good field, no hit’: meaning and purported origin

3rd Aug 2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

(baseball) a good fielder, but a poor hitter, i.e., batter—USA, 1925—purportedly coined in 1924 by Miguel Gonzales to describe Moe Berg in a telegram to Mike Kelley