Day 223: The songs of birds

This morning I hear the birds chirping and singing their songs. I smiled. And I felt grateful for their songs, the lightness of their chirps and the trill of their songs introduces lightness to my own heart. They signify that perhaps the season is changing (despite the many inches of snow we got a few days ago) and new growth is on its way. Something about the songs of birds speaks of hope to me. And anytime hope presents itself I feel grateful. How about you? Does the chirping of birds annoy you or make you smile? What speaks of hope to you?

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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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