Baseball

Baseball is often referred to as America's favorite pastime.  A nine inning baseball game on average runs over 3 hours long, so a lot of time does pass during the game.  Many expressions from baseball have been transferred into common conversation.

To hit a Home Run, is to hit the ball over the outfield fence in fair play.  That would be to the right side of the third and left side of the first base line.  A home run scores one point for the team, if no one else in on base.  If the bases are loaded, with players on first, second and third base, that is a Grand Slam, scoring 4 runs.  So, if someone does well, and enjoys success, you might say, "He hit a home run."

On the other hand, a baseball player may fail completely to even hit the ball.  If a batter swings and misses 3 times, then he has struck out.  So, when somebody fails, you may say, "He struck out." 

There are other expressions connected to baseball, such as getting to first base, which means getting started with something, possibly a romantic relationship.

There are too many idioms derived from baseball to list here, and Wikipedia already has a good entry for it.

Low Hanging Fruit

Low hanging fruit is the expression often applied by marketing professionals for easy sales. Easy wins, gained without a great amount of effort.  In business planning it is a method of prioritizing tasks that may be addressed and solved quickly, to get them out of the way of greater progress to larger, more difficult goals.

Easy pickings is a related agricultural style idiom, as you may imagine.  In this case, easy pickings often refers to duping of innocent people, pick pocketing or a theft that was very easily executed.  I'd prefer to think of easy pickings as a successful yield and harvest in your garden.

The Last Straw

The straw that broke the camel's back is an idiom known to humanity worldwide.  Other languages often refer to a similar expression, "The drop that made the cup overflow."  The drop in a cup is a simpler experiment to reproduce, since very few of us have camels and large supplies of straw.  (Related, see also Half Empty or Half Full)

Shortened to, "That's the last straw!" the expression in American English usually refers to the final event that causes a failure, a breakdown.  Often it is thought of as the last of many events that build up and then breaks one's will or patience, causing an emotional reaction of anger or resignation.  At this point, the individual has "had enough" and is ready to give up on the problem.

Sailing Expressions

San Francisco has the America's Cup sailing races coming up soon, and local newspaper writer Al Saracevic came up with an article listing various expressions with their origins from the world of sailing and sea faring.  http://blog.sfgate.com/saracevic/2013/06/30/sailing-mother-of-cliches/

Al describes the origins of often used phrases such as

• know the ropes
• over a barrel
• three sheets to the wind

Others that come to mind would be, "you put the wind in my sails," meaning someone or something has given you energy, new enthusiasm.

Also related to whaling is the exclamation, "There she blows!" meaning the sight of a faraway whale spout.  The whalers then must hastily pursue the Leviathan.  "There she blows!" may be used whenever a signal of some significance is spotted.

Can of Worms

Sometimes when planning or discussing a project, someone may make a complicated suggestion, or have an idea that introduces many difficult problems.  "We don't want to open a can of worms," would be an appropriate response.

Opening a can of worms is a common idiom, similar to saying, "there will be too many factors to sort out in order to solve this problem.  It's not worth the effort to do it."

Imagine opening a can of worms and staring into it.  You cannot distinguish the start of one worm from its other end!  It's just a confusing jumble. 

Today's entrepreneurs look at a seemingly impossible problem, such as organizing a can of worms, and use the power of computers and software algorithms to sort out and solve difficult problems.  They might say, "Ah, it's only a can of worms!  What's so bad about that?"

Silver Lining

One of 2012's most popular movies in America was Silver Linings Playbook.  In this motion picture, the phrase "silver lining" is used frequently by Bradley Cooper's bipolar character, Pat, but it is never fully explained.  For those who may be unfamiliar with the phrase and its full meaning, it originates from a longer phrase, "Every cloud has a silver lining."

"Every cloud has a silver lining," is an optimistic expression.  It is used as a comforting tonic, when something bad happens, there may also be a good aspect to it.  So, for every negative occurrence, there is hope for a positive side to it.  Another similar phrase would be, "There are two sides to every coin," although this phrase does not automatically suggest hopefulness and positive encouragement in the way silver lining does.  It simply means there are two sides, or opposite meanings, to every story.

In the movie, Pats says to his doctor,

You have to do everything you can, you have to work your hardest, and if you do, if you stay positive, you have a shot at a silver lining.

In this case, the silver lining is not something magically granted from within a dark, rain cloud.  It is a goal and a reward to be earned by personal effort.

The origins of this idiom, according to my online research, is not American, it is by the English poet John Milton.  The poetic reference was reused in other writings and made its way across the Atlantic into the American consciousness.

Horse Sense

Many American Expressions originated on the ranches and farms across the country.

Don't beat a dead horse, is advice given for someone to stop arguing, because the decision has been made. If a deal has already been settled, it does not matter any more. So, why beat a dead horse?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. This expression means that you can provide an opportunity to somebody, but there is no guarantee that he or she will accept it.

Here is a web page with many more horse idioms, such as these:

• Don't put the cart before the horse.
• Don't change horses midstream.
• Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
• Horsing around

Carrot and Stick

In President Bush's December 4, 2007 press conference, he said, "that was the sticks-and-carrots approach." He later corrected this improper use of the phrase by saying, "One thing is for certain: The NIE talks about how a carrot-and-stick approach can work." (See full transcript of the press conference here.)

The idiom refers to the image of a horse or donkey being led in the master's desired direction, by dangling a carrot on a stick in front of the animal from the carriage seat.

The President is not known for his diplomacy, assumes a posture of a superior, paternalistic empire while insulting another country, in this case, Iran.

Another subtle insult was the use of the term regime for the Iranian government. No one refers to the U.S. regime. It is a term for a government, but often with a negative connotation, a government that is perhaps new, unstable, or criminal, such as a fascist regime.

In politics we see the subtle use of language and terminology making differences in perception and opinion, right on down to who is an "enemy combatant" or "terrorist". In the press conference Bush would say, "the most disappointing thing about Washington has been the name calling." Strange to hear from one whose buddies, the right wing talk show "pundits" such as Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus (see previous article) and Michael Savage revel in assigning negative labels such as "femi-Nazis" to those they have chosen to make their enemies.

Moving the Goalposts

Originally uploaded by Rebecca Key

Moving the goal posts is an expression meaning to change originally established rules or goals to benefit your or your team. This strategy is often taken by a person or party whose efforts have fallen short of making their goal. The easy solution is to move the goal posts, so that an errant attempt might make the goal, or not appear to be an extremely bad miss.

The phrase originates from football, and it's variations. How many sports contests would be altered if somehow the location of the goal posts were magically moved?

U.S. Government officials have spent two days reviewing reports and asking questions of Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and this phrase was invoked a number of times. Many U.S. representatives and the public are concerned that the war in Iraq has indefinite goals and timelines. The U.S. bombed Baghdad in March 2003 and since that time millions of Iraqis have fled their country, billions, perhaps trillions of U.S. dollars have been spent on the conflict - some of it unaccounted for, over 3,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed, and many more permanently wounded or crippled. Statistics of Iraqi civilian casualties are unclear. After all this, there is still great instability in Iraq and no end in sight.

Raising the bar is a similar expression to moving the goal posts, and originates from the high jump event in track and field competition. To raise the bar normally has a positive connotation; that a person is setting a higher goal to achieve. To match the metaphors, if one were to say, "Go ahead and move the goal posts 10 yards back, and I can still make the kick good," or "Raise the bar 10 centimeters higher, and I can jump over it."

In the case of the military and political goals in Iraq, moving the goal posts seems to have more to do with timelines than space. Yesterday's goal post may have been based upon a promise that the war can be finished by October 2008. Today's goal post is moved to 2009, or maybe further out. This fog of war happens when there is no clear, long term mission strategy at the beginning, so the rules are made up as they go along. There is an expression for this response to a lack of study and planning, and it may have originated in the days of wild west Texas: shooting from the hip.

False Alarm

false-alarm gps
Originally uploaded by jennybach

At the JFK airport baggage claim, a young man was speaking on his cell phone. With an Eastern European accent he shouted, "It was a false alarm! Don't you know what false alarm means?" I assume his friend thought there was trouble, and this guy was telling him that everything was really OK.

The term false alarm originates from a mistaken call to the fire department reporting a fire, when there really is no fire. Also called a nuisance alarm, it could be a deceitful prank, or just worry over something that did not actually happen. A similar instance is the classic anecdote of someone yelling out, "Fire!" in a crowded theater, causing a dangerous stampede by the panicked crowd.

Another example would be the Aesop fable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", but that's another story.