For Saturday, January 19: Happiness is...

Happiness is a fresh baked cookie. Otis Spunkmeyer

If you are familiar with Otis Spunkmeyer cookies then you know that happiness, for him, is indeed a fresh baked cookie and he shares that happiness with others. I happen to agree with him because I am a "cookie monster" but it got me to thinking. How would I finish the statement "Happiness is..."? What's happiness for me? What's happiness for you? And once you know what it is, do you share it with others?
There's actually quite a few things that make me happy. (Different than joy btw, and that's a different blog) Baking makes me very happy. And part of the happiness I get from it is sharing it with others. (This is how Otis and relate.) Reading makes me happy. I don't share it with others by reading to them but I do share books I love with others and share what I think of the books I read with others. (Check out my Bookworm blog here.) Giving gifts of all shapes and sizes makes me happy and while I don't get to do it as often as I would like or want to when I do I am wildly happy to put a smile, hopefully, on another person's face and in their heart.
So I guess I can't finish off the statement "Happiness is..." with just one thing but I do know I can share what makes me happy with others. How about you?

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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