they are the most important work."
I got a new nephew this week; here he is coming home from the hospital, looking a little like Winston Churchill. Just kidding... he's really cute, and this means the nephews are currently outnumbering the nieces 15 to 10. Congrats to my sister and her husband: this is their fourth- all boys- and their household is a busy one, especially since she's homeschooling the two who are school aged. With that in mind, here's an appropriate quotation from C.S. Lewis: "Children are not a distraction from more important work,
they are the most important work."
Comments
Where Did It Come From? On Labour Day weekend, a lot of my family descended on my parents' place, set up tents and spent three days camping there. The kids- all 21 who were there- ran wild, and when not chasing them, the adults spent their time talking, laughing, and just catching up on each others' lives. One afternoon while chatting, one of my sisters mentioned that, the previous week, after a long and strenuous day she had flopped on the couch and said, "Whew- I've had the biscuit!" Now, anyone in our family- actually, anyone from the Maritimes- would know right away what she meant. Her husband however, who was raised in Ontario, stared at her like she had suddenly started speaking a foreign language. He had no idea what the idiom meant, and actually didn't believe it was one until she googled "had the biscuit" and proved it. Although I've heard- and used- this expression all my life, I really didn't know where it came from... never even thought about it, until my sister brought it up. I also didn't realize that it's a Canadian expression largely unknown outside the country... and apparently in Ontario (sniff... Upper Canadians). So for the uninformed, here's a definition of the idiom: first, it's not literal (see picture to left). It's also not the same as the British expression "that takes the biscuit" which is the equivalent of "that takes the cake". Rather, if something has "had the biscuit" it is on it's way out. For example, if your car has had the biscuit, it's beyond repair, fit only to be hauled away as scrap metal. Basically, if something has had the biscuit, it's done for. The origin of this phrase is rooted in the Roman Catholic sacrament of Extreme Unction, also known as last rites. This is when a dying person is anointed by a priest, and given a final communion service. Apparently, this practice was referred to by irreverent Protestants as "having the biscuit," alluding of course to the wafer used during the sacrament. Thus, anyone or anything which has had the biscuit isn't going to last much longer. Speaking as one of those irreverent Protestants, it's a very descriptive and useful phrase. As to it being a uniquely Canadian expression, well as I said, I hadn't realized that, but every site online I checked said the same thing- that the idiom originated in Canada and was pretty much limited to here. Who knew? Since this seems to be a Canadian thing, there aren't any examples I can cite of this idiom being used in literature at any time... I'm not sure that I've ever seen it written down at all, actually. But it's such a pithy phrase that it certainly could have been used... Hamlet, for instance, could have dispensed with the dying speech he gave and summed up everything briskly and concisely: "O, I've had the biscuit, Horatio!" In any case, that is the origin of the idiom "had the biscuit" and if you'd never heard it before, well, feel free to use it. I see no reason for such a great phrase to be limited solely to Canadian use.
|
About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
Fun SitesOdds & Ends |