Episode #219: A Podcast In Time Saves Nine

English is a bizarre language; a savory stew of compound words, random spellings, garbled grammar and even terms borrowed from other tongues. But perhaps no aspect of English is odder than the idiom. In essence, an idiom is a universally understood phrase that refers to something else, often using language entirely unrelated to the thing itself. But once heard, it’s rarely forgotten. Think, “He’s holding all the cards,” “The cat got her tongue” or “By hook or by crook.” We all know what they mean. But WHY do they mean what they mean? On this episode, Saint and Jim look at the origins of these idiosyncratic idioms so that by and large, we can all go the whole nine yards and get our ducks in a row.