Counting Chickens

Words written about words. I was so captivated by this concept, I stood and perused the New Non-Fiction section at the library for half an hour. And now Christine Ammer's The Facts of File Dictionary of Cliches has enriched my knowledge of tired English phrases.

For instance, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" is from an Aesop fable I never read about a milkmaid who, as she carries a full pail of milk on her head, starts dreaming of selling the milk for eggs that would hatch into chickens and make her rich, so that she tosses her head at imagined offers of marriage. And "Crying over spilled milk" says about what you'd imagine.

The expression "To aT," which always made me think of crumpets and little pink cups, is believed by some writers to date back to the late seventeenth century and allude to the T-square, used by draftsmen for accurate drawings. Other's think the idea comes from shortening the dot-your-i's-and-cross-your-t's expression.

And "More than one way to skin a cat" turned out much more animal-friendly in it's origin that I thought. Several writers claim the expression instead discribes a child's maneauver in getting into sitting position on a tree branch. But does it have something with being frustrated with the cat being up the tree again?

Mark my words, you'll be glad you got off your duff and picked it up. And you're sure to knock the socks off your friends in high places with your fresh-as-a-daisy knowledge of all things cliche and passe. Or simply by asking the question: Do chickens count skinny cats at tea time?