Baby Please Don't Go

A little Blues for this Wednesday! :) Muddy Waters does the Blues like nobody else. He died in 1983 but not after providing amazing entertainment to thousands over the course of his years. He released his first recorded song in 1948 and from that moment people were taken with his Blues. He played a Delta Bottleneck Guitar and made those strings sing his backup. He was quietly popular and throughout the trials of this nation kept playing his music and singing his songs. He was, quite simply, one of the best.
My first memory of Blues (of any kind) is...Adventures in Babysitting (the movie). I know. So sad. But in one scene Elizabeth what's-her-name is dragging the kids with her and trying to escape the bad guys. They run into a Blues club and end up on stage (because in movies it always works that way) and have to sing their way off the stage. But before she sings they had shown some of the real Blues and that's what I remember. And I remember being so taken with the sound and style of the genre. Still am to this day. So thanks to Adventures in Babysitting, again so sad I know, I developed a taste and love for the Blues.
It's Wednesday! Halfway through the week, celebrate by listening in on Muddy Waters working his magic! :)

Baby Please Don't Go
Bonus song! Got My Mojo Working

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

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