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Has anybody else thought about how strange some phrases are?"Winging it", and late, as in the late Dale Earnhart, are the ones I wonder upon most.My father and I looked up late in the dictionary, and decided definition 3(recently) explained it, although late can be used in the same context as former. Strange. I still haven't found out where winging it comes from. jimthedog
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Carpal Tunnel
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There was in the 30's a type of dancing waving both elbows as though they were wings flapping, and by extension "winging it" meant dancing that way.I think the phrase "buck and wing" was used even in the 20's.
Several languages have respectful ways of making it clear that the person mentioned is no longer living. "The late..." is the most common English one.
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Oh dear, I AM posting a lot tonight. I shall cease and desist after this one, I promise. I heard an expression many moons ago which I loved and use constantly (probably to the annoyance of all my acquaintance). If I'm referring to someone who's died, I usually say "so-and-so, who's dead at the moment". Watching the facial microexpressions of my interlocutors as they work that one through is priceless! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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"dead at the moment"
I like that one, CapK. Expresses a beautiful, almost surreal faith in future technologies...!
And the base expression, jimthedog, gives rise to that lovely saying in England that "Fred'll even be late for his own funeral!"
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and then there's the other old favourite...
'he'd forget his head if it wasn't screwed on'
and my personal favourite, 'running around like a headless chicken'
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Carpal Tunnel
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But it is extremely unlikely that any young person today has ever seen a hen have its head cut off, or had to do the very disagreeable job of plucking off ALL the feathers to get it ready for cooking.
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But it is extremely unlikely that any young person today has ever seen a hen have its head cut offThat depends on your definition of "young". This 33 year old remembers having to the legs of poultry while his older stepbrother decapitated them, and remembers being hugely entertained by watching them even manage to fly for up to 90 seconds or so afterwards. I suspect that the hateful job of plucking was karmic revenge for having laughed at the headless birds. 
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old hand
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Well, I'm 21 and I once helped my mother and grandparents pluck chickens. I agree, wwh--it is quite disagreeable. I can't claim to have seen a hen have its head cut off, however. I just don't think I could handle the trauma. 
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Could turn you into a vegetarian!
wow
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