A listener remembers her grandmother’s colorful comment when someone arrived late after getting lost: You went around your elbow to get to your thumb. Lots of similar sayings in English suggest roundabout routes or overcomplicated tasks, including...
You walk into a used bookstore, or pull down an old volume at the library, and there it is: The smell of old books. If you detect notes of vanilla in that intoxicating scent, there’s a reason. Also, why some people think the word awesome is...
Ruth, a minister in Pennsylvania, grew up hearing by way of Robin Hood’s barn and around Robin Hood’s barn for taking a long, scenic, or indirect route. The image likely draws on the ficitonal Robin Hood’s life in Sherwood Forest, with his “barn”...
