Beech Tree News Network

Once upon a time, I did a piece on origins of certain phrases people say all the time.  Most of the time they say these things without even realizing it.  I once asked my dad what that meant or where it came from.  He didn’t know.  That got me wondering what certain sayings mean.  

My favorite is “get off my lawn”.  It might’ve been popularized by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino but that’s not the origin.  In fact, it predates that movie by many years, decades even.  David Letterman used to use the line during his CBS run but also during his NBC run.  For those who don’t recall, David Letterman was on NBC late-night from 1982-1993.  As a faithful viewer of Letterman back in the day (well, only on Friday’s.  I was still in elementary school).  Too bad the DVR didn’t exist.  I suppose I could’ve taped them.  I didn’t have much free time to watch back then.  I digress.

“Make my day” is another iconic line.  I’m sure fans of the Dirty Harry franchise know that the line was made famous by Clint Eastwood’s character Inspector (Dirty) Harry Callahan in the 1983 film Sudden Impact.  This was the fourth film in the Dirty Harry series.  Callahan encouraged felons to commit crimes so that he would have an excuse to shoot them.  Well, that’s putting it bluntly but true.  That wasn’t the first time “go ahead, punk, make my day” was uttered.  It had been spoken earlier by the character Tom Walsh-played by Gary Swanson in the film Vice Squad in 1982.  In that film, the line was “go ahead, scumbag, make my day”.  The Eastwood tweak, of course, is the one that’s legendary.

In the USA,  fair to middlin' and 'fair to Midland' derived separately and later merged to have the same meaning and be effectively the same phrase. In the UK , 'fair to midland' derived as either an accidental or deliberate mispronunciation of 'fair to middling' and 'fair to midland' is seen as a mistake.  I should add that both of the above statements need to be preceded by the caveat 'probably' as the origin of this couplet of phrases is somewhat obscure.

I’ll be back soon with some more sayings and their origins.