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A Mickey Finn
This phrase is not often heard nowadays, which is quite surprising in some ways, given how often you hear reports of people being afflicted by the effects of what it means, which is a sedative (or sometimes in the US a purgative) drug surreptitiously slipped into someone’s drink. It has very likely been supplanted by the more modern words ‘spiked’ or ‘roofied’, but it is a shame that the practice continues, even if the original phrase does not.
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English Corner Archive
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Names Of Elements
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Clutching At Straws
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Mind your P’s and Q’s
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Clutching At Straws
Read more: Clutching At StrawsIt is only since the mid-19th century that we have been clutching at straws. Even more recently, the ‘grasp at straws’ version has become commonplace, especially in the USA. Prior to that, desperate people would ‘catch at a straw’. That usage of ‘catch’ was commonly used in medieval England, by which was meant ‘obtain/achieve’; for…
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Mind your P’s and Q’s
Read more: Mind your P’s and Q’sThis was the very first “English Corner” that appeared in the 3rd October 2008 issue of AWOL, and is republished here as both a nod to the past and part of our pre-launch testing. The image is a new addition. An expression with several origin stories, but its meaning is to pay attention to details.…
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AWOL
Read more: AWOLAs this is the first English Corner to appear in the Hua Hin Citizen Journal, we thought it quite appropriate to give a brief history and etymology of the phrase that was the name of our printed predecessor, along with the thought process and the other possibility that was considered back in the heady days…
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Mind your P’s and Q’s
Read more: Mind your P’s and Q’sThis was the very first “English Corner” that appeared in the 3rd October 2008 issue of AWOL, and is republished here as both a nod to the past and part of our pre-launch testing. The image is a new addition. An expression with several origin stories, but its meaning is to pay attention to details.…
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AWOL
Read more: AWOLAs this is the first English Corner to appear in the Hua Hin Citizen Journal, we thought it quite appropriate to give a brief history and etymology of the phrase that was the name of our printed predecessor, along with the thought process and the other possibility that was considered back in the heady days…
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It’s a Gas
Try not to laugh but scientists at the University of Maryland have developed a device that they hope will clear the air on a delicate topic – flatulence. Previous research has more often than not fallen a bit flat because of relying on self reporting by volunteers of their flatus (the scientific name for passing wind, farts or one of the many other names used for this expelling of intestinal gas), but the creation of “Smart Underwear” looks to have allowed the researchers to let rip in this field of study.
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Weird News Archive
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Striped Cows, Drunk Bats and Smelly Shoes
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“I am the Ambassador of Westarctica”
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Danish Zoo causes outrage among small pet owners
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“I am the Ambassador of Westarctica”
Read more: “I am the Ambassador of Westarctica”An Indian man has been arrested by police in New Delhi after he had been found to be running a fake “embassy” from a rented residential building near the capital. The cops also recovered cars with fake diplomatic plates. Harshvardhan Jain, 47, had apparently duped people for money by promising overseas employment, said senior police…
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Danish Zoo causes outrage among small pet owners
Read more: Danish Zoo causes outrage among small pet ownersWhen it’s time for your beloved pet bunny, Fluffy, to end their time on this mortal coil, most pet owners will, with slightly moist eyes, likely bury them and plant something above them to remember them by. But Aalborg Zoo has their eyes on your soon to be departed pet, and their Facebook post (above)…
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When is a bone not a bone?
Read more: When is a bone not a bone?Apparently, in Ohio, when it is in a “boneless chicken wing”, according to the state’s Supreme Court. They recently ruled in a case where a diner sued a restaurant, Wings on Brookwood, after ordering boneless wings with parmesan garlic sauce, which then led to serious medical complications, and doctors found a long, thin bone had…
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Danish Zoo causes outrage among small pet owners
Read more: Danish Zoo causes outrage among small pet ownersWhen it’s time for your beloved pet bunny, Fluffy, to end their time on this mortal coil, most pet owners will, with slightly moist eyes, likely bury them and plant something above them to remember them by. But Aalborg Zoo has their eyes on your soon to be departed pet, and their Facebook post (above)…
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When is a bone not a bone?
Read more: When is a bone not a bone?Apparently, in Ohio, when it is in a “boneless chicken wing”, according to the state’s Supreme Court. They recently ruled in a case where a diner sued a restaurant, Wings on Brookwood, after ordering boneless wings with parmesan garlic sauce, which then led to serious medical complications, and doctors found a long, thin bone had…