WR Prompt #4: Milk it, Baby!

Yes, yes I DO want you to get the most out of this class, out of college, out of life in general... BUT... That's not what this post is about.

This week's prompt is a little different. Consider the common expression "milk (something) for what it's worth"/ "She's milking this situation"/ "Go for it baby, milk it!"

Our contemporary speech is littered with verbal phrases/ metaphors/ parables etc. whose roots are agrarian and yet we use them in non-farm-related contexts.

Your assignment is:

1. Find 2 idiomatic expressions whose origin is in agriculture ("don't count your chickens til they're hatched") OR that has a relationship to the environment (to "turn over a new leaf"). My hope is that you will come upon these in your everyday life. You'll find that to find TWO is actually a piece of cake. The trick is in #2:

2. You are not allowed to repeat someone else's phrases. Check the blog before you post. I'll be making a list so that we can all "reap the benefits" of a concerted effort. This is both to see what you are able to come up with as well as an incentive not to procrastinate; the "early bird" will have it easy.

3. Once you have your two expressions, restate in your OWN WORDS what you think they meant when they came about (imagine in what context they were used- Ask yourself Who, What, When, Where, Why and How).

4. Do some research (wikapedia is fine) to verify your speculation (#3). You might be surprised at the origin of certain sayings. For ex."Come Hell or high water" comes from cattle ranching, in particular "the driving of cattle to railheads in the mid West in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1939 Paul Wellman published a book with the title Trampling Herd: the Story of the Cattle Range in America in which he wrote: “ ‘In spite of hell and high water’ is a legacy of the cattle trail when the cowboys drove their horn-spiked masses of longhorns through high water at every river and continuous hell between.” (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-com1.htm)

4. Put them in the context of today's use. Discuss how it differs (if at all) from its source. Give your reasons for why you think the expression caught on in vernacular setting and why/ how the meaning evolved.

These instructions may seem long, but the ultimate result will be fairly quick compared to other weeks. As you all have already started seeing differently (i.e. thinking about your role in relationship to global systems, noticing what you previously overlooked, etc.), now I'm asking you to listen carefully to what you and others say. Our cultural heritage is rich in remnants of our past and they are not only important to informing our future choices but in teaching us to pay attention to our roots.

ps. (as if this wasn't long enough) I just wanted to mention that I'll add bonus points to anyone who surpasses the minimum requirement of coming up with 2 idioms or who comes up with idiomatic expressions from other languages (with the corresponding translation and cultural explanation, of course) -Reed