Warning: This post contains an obscene amount of cliches.  The majority of which I wouldn't be caught dead using in my writing. (Bwhahaha, #1)  Anyway, you've been warned.  Proceed with caution.

Yesterday my coworkers were talking about being down on your luck, and one lady said "When it rains, it pours."  Then the other said "All you can do is find a big bucket."  So in honor of that mediocre twist on an idiom, I am going to devote an entire post to taking a more real life approach to each and every one of the idioms we all know and love.  Also, I am going to interject as many cliches as possible.  The person to find them all and tell me how many there are gets a prize.  But let's be forthright, even though idioms are a dime a dozen, an original coherent thought in the hand is worth two in the proverbial bush, and any single written word is just a drop in the bucket when compared to the meaning words in groups can convey.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  So, back to square one.  It's no piece of cake trying to apply practicality to the sayings which make us want to pull our hair out.  Let's take the phrase "at the drop of a hat," to begin with.  When we say "He was ready to sell the house at the drop of a hat," we mean that he was eager to do it and did so immediately.  But in reality, what sort of hat dropping would make someone eager to do something?  If someone wanted a favor from me, and started dropping hats, I'm afraid they'd be barking up the wrong tree.  There's no point in beating around the bush.  If you want to motivate me, drop a twenty dollar bill, or you could even try dropping a hint.  A hat however, isn't going to get you anywhere in my book.

If you are still reading, I have to point out that curiosity kills the cat.  If you aren't already groaning, what is coming may drive you up the wall, or even push you over the edge.  At this point, the cliches are so terrible that my readers are probably dropping like flies, and the ones who are left are drinking like fish.  I've said about everything but the kitchen sink.  Bear with me though as I take on another one: flipping the bird.  If you mention those words to a small child, he might envision some circus parrot doing awesome trapeze work, which is a far cry from the reality of the situation.  It usually involves at least two very angry people who are at each others' throats, typically over a petty matter.  In fact, the situation may deteriorate so quickly that you could say they are going to hell in a handbasket.  A phrase that would hit the nail on the head might be "in your face."  No bones about it though, if you liquor someone up, he or she will be more likely to let bygones be bygones, and let sleeping dogs lie.  Unless, that is, the person is a loose cannon, in which case you will be walking on eggshells, especially if you got off on the wrong foot.

Before you pull the plug on my blog, I'll wrap it up and make a long story short.  It's almost time for me to hit the hay anyway.  After all, it does take two to tango in a reader/writer relationship.  This is where I'll wrap it up; I'm going for broke.  In fact, let's eighty six the idioms.  I just want to point out there are some people who seem to only speak in idioms.  Why is it that those people are always complaining while smiling and dropping cliches like it's 1999 (sorry, I couldn't help myself).  Maybe they think the smiling will make up for the lack of originality and general negativity they bring to the table (Okay, now it's getting out of control.  I wasn't even trying on that one).  The conversation goes something like this. 

"My friend is excited about her new job, but I told her not to count her chickens before they hatch."

"But that really is a lucky break.  She'll be making double what she did at her last job."

"You need to bite your tongue.  You know she'll never be able to cut the mustard."

Aggh!  The person who talks like this works down the hall from me!!!

Anyway, here's one more for the road.  Come hell or high water, the idioms will survive, even if we cannot survive them.