Why You Say It

There is a very picturesque little town in central Oregon called Sisters. It derives it's name from some mountains nearby and any new buildings that go up have to keep to the old west type of look. It's home to a wonderful outdoor quilt show each July and lots of wonderful little shops. In a shop called The Hen's Tooth, I picked up a fun book called Why You Say It. The subtitle is The Fascinating Stories Behind Over 600 Everyday Words and Phrases and the author is Webb Garrison. There are so many words and phrases that we use everyday and don't really think about where they came from. It can sometimes be pretty interesting or funny when you find out how the word or phrase originated. For instance -

Get the Sack
These days, an assembly line worker or an executive who gets the sack may receive severance pay plus a printed explanation.
As early as the 17th century, cloth bags were in literal rather than figurative use. Craftsmen and artisans provided their own tools as a rule, storing them in a sturdy sack.
When an employer was ready to dismiss a worker, it was common to hand him his tool sack. No explanation was necessary; the gesture meant "Put your tools in the sack, and get going."
As a result of this practice, a person who wouldn't know a drill from a tailor's needle is said to "get the sack" when fired from a job.

While some of the entries are from centuries past and may surprise us, others are more recent and make sense to us because we are aware of it's origin or the event that inspired the phrase.

Now, of what use this information will be to me I have no idea, but it's fun to pick up once in awhile and read a few.