I just finished writing a column that will appear in the December issue of a magazine. It made me stop and think about Christmas. I can still remember the excitement of waiting for Christmas - sitting on pins and needles - as the idiom goes.
When learning a foreign language idioms are those things you just have to memorize, and when you come across them unawares, they can throw you for a loop. (Where does that idiom come from, I wonder?)
Consider "pins and needles." Is it referring to sewing? Or does it relate to some medical procedure?
What about some of the other idioms we use on a regular basis. Why is something that is easy a "piece of cake?" Is cake easy? Or why do we say something is "easy as pie?" Pie isn't all that easy to make.
Well, hold your horses, because when it gets down to brass tacks, I may have hit the nail on the head. If I just run to the store, I guess things could be as easy as pie. After all, stores these days offer everything but the kitchen sink. Now I know this came out of the blue and maybe it's just a bit over the top, but if I cut to the chase curiosity killed the cat. What do I mean by that? That I just better stop while I'm ahead because trying to understand all of these idioms might just drive us all batty!
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