In English, you might describe something easy to do as a cinch or a piece of cake. Several other languages employ tasty metaphors to convey a similar idea. In Brazilian Portuguese, you something easy can be described with an idiom that translates as “a papaya with sugar.” A Dutch idiom literally translates as “a little egg,” and in Polish, you can say something’s easy with a phrase that translates as “a roll with butter.” Writer Adam Sharp has gathered these and other idioms in a book called The Wheel is Spinning But the Hamster is Dead: A Journey Around the World in Idioms, Proverbs and General Nonsense. (Amazon) This is part of a complete episode.
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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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