word histories

‘as scarce as pork chops in a Jewish boarding house’ | ‘like a pork chop in a synagogue’

4th Dec 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

with reference to the Jewish prohibition of the eating of pork—‘as scarce as pork chops in a Jewish boarding house’ (USA, 1907) means ‘extremely rare’—‘like a pork chop in a synagogue’ (USA, 1915) means ‘out of place’; also ‘unwelcome’ or ‘unpopular’

‘pennies from heaven’ and its predecessor

29th Jan 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

Bing Crosby popularised ‘pennies from heaven’ in the 1936 film and song of the same name, but the phrase already existed; and Abraham Burstein, rabbi and author, had used ‘pennies falling from heaven’ in The Ghetto Messenger in 1928.