If you have enough for Coxey’s army, you have heaping helpings of it. The phrase goes back to the 1890s, when the United States was in the midst of an economic depression. Activist Jacob Coxey led a ragtag group of hungry protesters across the country with the intent to march on Washington, D.C. to demand government action. As they made their way toward the nation’s capital, they depended on the generosity of cities to feed them and offer temporary lodgings. To feed all these tired, ravenous marchers required copious amounts of food, hence the expression, sometimes later rendered as enough food to feed Cox’s army. This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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