Sarah Jane in Tucson, Arizona, recalls hearing the phrase out where God lost his galoshes for any far-flung, hard-to-reach place. Similar phrases include where God left his overshoes, where Jesus lost his sandals, where Jesus lost his cap, where...
The phrase salt of the earth describes someone who is essential and pure of heart, a reference to the biblical Sermon on the Mount. To salt the earth usually means to render the ground useless, whether metaphorically or literally. This is part of a...
Does the expression petered out have to do with the Apostle Peter denying he knew Jesus? No, “petered out” may derive from the French peter, meaning to “pass gas.” Another theory is that the expression originated in mining and the use of saltpeter...
If someone is “poor as Joe’s turkey,” he’s impoverished. A caller raised in the South has heard that expression all his life, but wonders: Who was Joe, and what did his turkey have to do with anything? Things get clearer when Martha explains the...
Joshua generation n.— «Obama continued his address in Selma, calling his current era the Joshua generation, in line with Biblical account, standing on the shoulders of their predecessors.» —“Obama makes his case for being ‘Black enough’” by Gordon...