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Once in a blue moon, denoting an event that occurs only very rarely, derives from a specific atmospheric condition that causes the moon to appear literally blue. It doesn't happen very often.
I have heard of that, but have never seen it.
There was a hinny named "Blue Moon" because the birth of a hinny is so rare. In case you don't know what a hinny is, it is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey. The offspring of a female horse and a male donkey is a mule, but because of the larger size of a horse, the female donkey usually cannot carry the hybrid fetus, so such births are rare.
I'm a wealth of useless information. Can't remember where I set my pen down two minutes ago, but I remember stuff like that.
I'm a wealth of useless information. Can't remember where I set my pen down two minutes ago, but I remember stuff like that.
I've never seen it either. Allegedly, there's a similar phenomenon called the "green flash," a burst of green light just as the sun sets at the horizon. I've got a view of the western horizon from my window, and I've looked for this on many occasions. Nothing even remotely close. But people do insist that the green flash is for real.
As to being a wealth of useless information, believe me, you're not alone!
I've never seen it either. Allegedly, there's a similar phenomenon called the "green flash," a burst of green light just as the sun sets at the horizon. I've got a view of the western horizon from my window, and I've looked for this on many occasions. Nothing even remotely close. But people do insist that the green flash is for real.
As to being a wealth of useless information, believe me, you're not alone!
I think that's why we all are here in this particular forum! Right back atcha!
I have heard of the green flash, too, but have never seen it. A couple of years ago I was down in Naples at a hotel where everyone gathers at an outdoor bar to watch the sun set over the Gulf, and I hoped I'd see the green flash, but no luck.
There are at least two other explanations of the phrase "the whole nine yards" in circulation. I don't think there is any particular reason to believe any of them, but they are:
==>Nine cubic yards is the volume of a standard cement mixer, so if you have a truckload delivered you are getting "the whole nine yards".
==>Belts of machine gun ammunition are twenty-seven feet long, so if a machine gunner exhausts an entire belt he has shot "the whole nine yards".
I haven't heard anything about a football reference; it wouldn't make sense, since I am not aware of any nine-yard increments in either football or soccer.
The belts of ammunition was the source of the phrase according to something I read a long time back. It originated in WWII as I recall, when machine guns used belt fed ammunition.
I agree that it doesn't make any sense as a football term, though most people I've encountered assume that's where it comes from. This is probably the result of football being the most commonly encountered situation in which distances are measured in yards.
Once in a blue moon, denoting an event that occurs only very rarely, derives from a specific atmospheric condition that causes the moon to appear literally blue. It doesn't happen very often.
As I understand it, the "blue moon" is simply the second full moon in a calendar month. The most recent was this past December, when we had full moons on the 1st and 31st of the month.
You can measure a horse's age by how much tooth shows and that's how you decide how much money it's worth. So when you get a gift, you shouldn't try to measure it's value. Just be grateful.
The gums recede with age. So if you're growing old, you're getting "long in the tooth".
"Riding Shotgun" refers to back when horses or oxen pulled wagons with something of value, there would be one person steering, and one defending the wagon, if needed. (using mostly a shotgun) sitting next to the driver. It also became a popular term in policing, when in a police car and something is going down that needs weaponry the officer in the passenger seat was the one to grab that shotgun. It's also a term that "gangsters" and hoodlums use when doing a drive by.
Wow, and here I always assumed "The whole nine yards" was a reference to football (which I hate).
"Scraping the bottom of the barrel" was a reference to the day when people would cure meat, particularly salt pork, in barrels to use for the winter months. When it was almost gone and there wasn't much left to eat, the person would literally be scraping the bottom of the barrel to get what he could.
My grandmother also said it referred to butter in barrels (she was born around 1880 -- so this would be in the cities in about 1880 to 1900); she said it was terrible around Lent so she always gave up butter ( my Mom passed that one on).
Somewhere in the 1800's is when this phrase emerged in relation to a woodcutter doing a good job and not bothering where the wood chips fall (as long as it was the best job).
My grandmother also said it referred to butter in barrels (she was born around 1880 -- so this would be in the cities in about 1880 to 1900); she said it was terrible around Lent so she always gave up butter ( my Mom passed that one on).
That would make sense, too.
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