meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to light the (blue) touchpaper’

9th Oct 2019.Reading time 18 minutes.

UK, mid-1950s—to set a course of exciting or dramatic events in motion—refers to firework instructions such as ‘light the blue touchpaper and retire immediately’

history of the phrase ‘(all) dressed (up) like a Christmas tree’

7th Oct 2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

Britain and USA, early 1900s: over-elaborately dressed—since the mid-19th century, ‘like a Christmas tree’: overelaborateness, heterogeneousness, artificiality

the birth of an American phrase: ‘Where’s the beef?’

6th Oct 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

January 1984—from a television advertisement for the hamburger chain Wendy’s, in which an elderly lady demands where the beef is in a huge hamburger bun

the birth of a British catchphrase: ‘mind my bike’

5th Oct 2019.Reading time 8 minutes.

February 1940—coined by the British actor Jack Warner in ‘Garrison Theatre’, a BBC radio comedy series devised to entertain World-War-II audiences

early occurrences of the phrase ‘a nail in the coffin’

4th Oct 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

something that hastens, or contributes to, the end of the person or thing referred to—USA, 1805 in an open letter by the English political writer Thomas Paine

early history of the phrase ‘the dog ate my homework’

2nd Oct 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

far-fetched excuse for failing to hand in school homework—1st recorded UK 1929 but had already long been in usage at that time—dog eating a sermon UK 1894

the phrase ‘like the man who fell out of the balloon, not in it’

30th Sep 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

refers to someone who stands no chance whatsoever in an undertaking—UK, 1880—perhaps originally a line in The World, a drama by Meritt, Pettitt and Harris

the origin and various meanings of ‘Macready pause’

29th Sep 2019.Reading time 14 minutes.

UK, 1842—theatre: a long pause during the delivery of a speech—refers to the English actor William Macready (1793-1873), who was given to making long pauses

‘wait and see’: from Prime Minister to friction-matches

28th Sep 2019.Reading time 14 minutes.

gained currency in 1910 from Prime Minister Asquith’s repeated use in reply to questions in Parliament—hence WWI slang for French matches difficult to ignite

a pessimistic phrase: ‘every silver lining has a cloud’

27th Sep 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

every comforting or hopeful situation has a sad or unpleasant side to it—pessimistic reversal of ‘every cloud has a silver lining’—1900 (already clichéd)