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SA not in a good moody – despite new year joy
As South Africans settle into the swing of 2020 economic uncertainty still dogs day to day discussions. So despite the freshness of a new year, you might be feeling a little grey and this is the perfect time to flex your marketing muscle. Take all the grey and apply it to some cerebral activity. Consider…
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Best thing since sliced bread: how idioms are formed
Last week, I decided I was tired of egg and toast for breakfast, so I ate muesli for five days. This week I ran out of bread and it would be a while until I could get to the shops. By the end of the week I was really missing my bread. It got me…
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Waiting for the cows to come home: Origin of idioms
It seems that I have to wait for the cows to come home to get paid by some of my clients. In one instance, I have been waiting for more than four months for an invoice to be paid. Each time I phone to enquire about the status of the payment I am fobbed off…
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Black Friday and bargain idioms
When Game of Thrones captured the imagination of millions of fans to an obsessive degree, I used to say, “You get two kinds of people – those who watch Game of Thrones and those who do not.” I was in the ‘do not’ camp. Similarly, today, as Black Friday hits South African shoppers the support…
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You’re never too young to write a book
There’s a book in everyone, so the saying goes. And in some there are more than one – think of all the Jodi Picoult and Nora Roberts, John Grisham and Cathy Kelly novels out there, for example. Whether you have one or many, the point here is that you’re never too young to write a…
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Wise up to words on your web in 2020
It’s often said that owning a website is like having your own piece of online real estate. Who wouldn’t want that? A no-brainer. But statistics show that many small business owners are not there yet or have little or no intention of getting there. And that’s not wise. If you’re in business at all you…
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Take the log out of your eye and other idioms
Last night while watching Come Dine With Me, I latched on to satirist David Lamb’s shortening of an idiom. He simply used the two words of comparison and said, pot/ kettle Terence, to suggest he had a blind spot. Then it occurred to me that there are other idioms which could be referred to in…
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Three sheets to the wind: How idioms originate
Last week I had mentioned to my sister that I saw my aunt at a function and she was three sheets to the wind. This meant I could not give her the important message. My sister looked at me in despair and said she did not know what that meant. So, knowing my aunt and…
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Let them eat cake: How idioms originate
At a United Nations gender equality conference last week, one of the speakers who was trying to break through the gender disparity in our society used the phrase “bread and circuses” quite a lot. I’m not sure if her usage was correct, but there it was. As the phrase was new to me I had…
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How to tackle intelligence: word meanings
At university our syndicate was referred to as ‘The Brains Trust’ and in other groups I was touted as ‘Brainiac’. Thus, I thought I had intelligence – quite a bit of it if you don’t mind my arrogance for a moment. I thought it meant the ability to learn, acquire information, store knowledge and so on.…
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