Cut to the chase,
There’s gold in them thar hills!
Feed a cold, starve a fever.
Think you know what these things mean? Miss Understanding bets you don’t.
Cut to the chase.
Most people today think it means “Let’s get to the substance of the matter.” But originally it meant the opposite.
It was a film director’s edit: End a “boring” scene — usually a conversation — and move to a more exciting crowd pleaser, like a car chase. In other words, let’s get as far away from substance as we can.
There’s gold in them thar hills!
Promoting the Gold Rush, right? Wrong. This statement was intended to undermine the gold rush. (No pun intended.)
The Rush in question was California’s, begun in 1848. A year later, as would-be miners hastened west, an official of a U.S. Mint in Georgia told them they didn’t have to travel 3000 miles to find the precious metal. He stood on Dahlonega square, pointed at the nearby mountains, and said . . . you know.
Feed a cold, starve a fever.
This misinterpreted prescription has wasted a lot of chicken soup. Hippocrates said it, but he meant it like this: “If you eat when you have a cold, you’ll catch a fever, and then you’ll have to fast.”
Like “Drive fast, get a ticket.” Or “Skip class, serve detention.” These are not encouragements to speeding or truancy, but warnings against such behaviors, and their consequences.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Dickens meant it sarcastically. Like saying “One day carbs are good, the next day they’re bad. Who knows what to think anymore?”
Skeptical? Read the first page of A Tale of Two Cities.
