Loose Cannons, Red Herrings, and Other Lost Metaphors

Rating:
Summary: More lite! Less Filling!
Review: For all of its snide tone and shortish explanations, "Loose Cannons, Red Herrings and and other Lost Metaphors" is enjoyable enough. The book relates the history of familiar phrases whose origins, due to changes in habits and technology, are lost to most English speakers. Expressions like "it's raining cats and dogs," "taken aback," "minding one's Ps and Qs" (not to mention the expression about the brass monkey) are all included, along with short entries about their origins and sometimes original meanings. Who knew that a "rake" was short for "rakehell" -- a person so depraved that one would have to "rake through the coals of hell" to find his like?

Entertaining as it is, the book has drawbacks. First, some of its entries are not terribly convincing. Claiborne sometimes spends more time taking potshots at explanations he disagrees with than in advancing his own. Also, Claiborne's tongue is sometimes planted so firmly in his cheek, and his style is so snide and acerbic, that his point is obscured. Claiborne's politics and religious prefrences (or lack thereof) also come out from time to time, with no benefit to the reader.

As an entertaining (if not always elucidatatory) work, "Loose Cannons" probably beats a dry, scholarly work on the origin of phrases, but reading it leaves me hungry for meatier fare.

Rating:
Summary: "Oh, so that's where it came from!"
Review: When I was a boy, I was told things like "don't hem and haw," "get off your high horse," "this is straight from the horse's mouth," "he's a bigwig" "take it with a grain of salt" and, often a favorite of elders, to "mind my P's and Q's." I learned to use such phrases and knew what I thought was the proper usage, but never fully understood what they meant...if you know what I mean. So, here is an amusing little book filled with all sorts of phrases and words we have heard for years but may have wondered about. The author explains in the Introduction that the most plausible etymology is not always easy to come up with, and in some cases, he simply picks the most colorful one. The book is far from complete, but Claiborne does include many common single words like "career," "cynic," "dunce," "keister," "shyster" and "tulip." Many of the origins are humorous, but some might raise an eyebrow. I don't think that I'm satisfied with his explanations of "paint the town red" and "once in a blue moon." "The real McCoy" is a real disappointment, but "pie in the sky" is particularly amusing.

A book of similar scope and price, COMMON PHRASES AND WHERE THEY COME FROM by Myron Korach, invites direct comparison. While the Claiborne is alphabetical, like a dictionary, with no index, the Korach is arranged in general groupings and includes an index. Much in these two books overlaps, but the Korach book includes many expressions, like "in the pink," "dark horse," "eat humble pie," "deadhead" and "make no bones of it," that the Claiborne does not, and vise versa. Four more books in this price range could be considered: A HOG ON ICE, HEAVENS TO BETSY!, HORSEFEATHERS and THEREBY HANGS A TALE, all by Charles Earle Funk. There is enough individual perspective in each of these six books to justify owning them all--if you are, or become, an addict.

Further comparisons to other, higher-priced books of this nature will surely open a Pandora's box (sorry), so I will just make tracks (sorry, again), and recommend this enjoyable book for what it is: informative and entertaining, but not exhaustive.

Rating:
Summary: "Oh, so that's where it came from!"
Review: When I was a boy, I was told things like "don't hem and haw," "get off your high horse," "this is straight from the horse's mouth," "he's a bigwig" "take it with a grain of salt" and, often a favorite of elders, to "mind my P's and Q's." I learned to use such phrases and knew what I thought was the proper usage, but never fully understood what they meant...if you know what I mean. So, here is an amusing little book filled with all sorts of phrases and words we have heard for years but may have wondered about. The author explains in the Introduction that the most plausible etymology is not always easy to come up with, and in some cases, he simply picks the most colorful one. The book is far from complete, but Claiborne does include many common single words like "career," "cynic," "dunce," "keister," "shyster" and "tulip." Many of the origins are humorous, but some might raise an eyebrow. I don't think that I'm satisfied with his explanations of "paint the town red" and "once in a blue moon." "The real McCoy" is a real disappointment, but "pie in the sky" is particularly amusing.

A book of similar scope and price, COMMON PHRASES AND WHERE THEY COME FROM by Myron Korach, invites direct comparison. While the Claiborne is alphabetical, like a dictionary, with no index, the Korach is arranged in general groupings and includes an index. Much in these two books overlaps, but the Korach book includes many expressions, like "in the pink," "dark horse," "eat humble pie," "deadhead" and "make no bones of it," that the Claiborne does not, and vise versa. Four more books in this price range could be considered: A HOG ON ICE, HEAVENS TO BETSY!, HORSEFEATHERS and THEREBY HANGS A TALE, all by Charles Earle Funk. There is enough individual perspective in each of these six books to justify owning them all--if you are, or become, an addict.

Further comparisons to other, higher-priced books of this nature will surely open a Pandora's box (sorry), so I will just make tracks (sorry, again), and recommend this enjoyable book for what it is: informative and entertaining, but not exhaustive.