This Article Is The Bee’s Knees

Ever wondered what something meant if it was considered the 'Bee's Knees'? In the 1920s there was a great craze for crazy animal body part construction such as  elephant’s wrist, eel’s ankles, bullfrog’s beard and bee’s knees. I'm kind of let down by this explanation but the ones below are more interesting.

Armed to the Teeth- Medieval warriors took so many weapons into battle, they sometimes carried them in their teeth.

Cold Shoulder- ‘Made feel unwelcome’. Back in the day, unwanted visitors would be given a cold shoulder of mutton by their host which was considered the cheapest cut of meat.

Flash In The Pan- ‘disappointingly short-lived’. An older type of gun had a pan on which a trail of powder led from the charge to the flint. Sometimes the powder ignited but the gun didn’t go off. Hence, it was merely a flash in the pan.

Get One’s Goat - ‘irritate’ -a horse racing term. nervous horses could be calmed by putting a goat in the stall with them. Sometimes, conniving competitors would get the goats to upset their opponents horse making them likely to lose the race.

Letting the Cat Out of The Bag-‘divulge a secret’. In old days, farmers would go to market and sell pigs which were transported in bags. More unscrupulous farmers would actually put cats in the bags which wouldn’t be discovered until after the sale.

Over A Barrel- “to be under someone’s control”- During the Spanish Inquisition, a form of torture was used where individuals were suspended over a barrel of boiling oil. If you didn’t agree to the demands, you’d be dropped in.

Pull Out All The Stops - ‘Achieve the Maximum”-The ‘stops’ are knobs on an organ console. If the organist pulled them all out, he would be squeezing the most volume out of the instrument possible.

Steal One’s Thunder- ‘to take attention away from someone else’. The 18th century playwright John Dennis claimed to have invented a machine that could mimic the sound of thunder in the theater. When rivals used the same trick, he complained they’d ‘stolen his thunder’.

Balls To The Wall - ‘pushed to the limit’. This is an aviation term.  The ‘balls’ sitting on top of the levers controlling the throttle and fuel would make the plane go faster when they were pushed toward the front wall of the cockpit.

Above Board- ‘legitimate’. Cardsharps who placed their hands above the table are presumed to be performing without trickery.