Day 323: Clock Strikes and Chimes

I was sitting downtown tonight when a local church tower clock struck half past the hour. I love listening to a clock strike and chime. It reminds me of my maternal grandparents and summers spent at their home. They have a grandfather clock that my Grandpa put together and I grew up hearing the clock strike the hour. Sometimes I would sleep in the living room where it was and stir at its chiming. Every time I hear a clock chime now I am pulled back to memories of my grandparents and growing up with them around. I'm grateful for so many memories of that time of my life. It's comforting, it makes me feel safe, it quiets me.

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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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