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Do You Know Where The Phrase "Buy The Farm" Comes ...
Contributed by Curt Cizek on Jul 22, 2008 (message contributor)
Do you know where the phrase “buy the farm” comes from? It is actually rather recent in its usage. It started perhaps during WWI but certainly by WWII, having been recorded only in the 1950’s. Professor Jonathan Lighter has compiled the origin in the Random House Dictionary of American Slang. It actually is an Air Force term based on some older Royal Air Force phrases, “Buy the plot” or simply “Buy it”. Obviously, it refers to a pilot whose plane crashes.
Generally, when a plane goes down the pilot tries to maneuver it away from urban areas in order to minimize collateral damage. Normally, the plane will go down in a rural area and hit someone’s farmland. Ordinarily, the farmer whose land was effected by the crash sues the government for damages, claiming that it was his most productive land that was damaged. Because of the jet fuel, the land is now permanently fallow. Therefore, the farmer sues the government for a sum far greater than the remaining mortgage so that, one could say the pilot pays for the farm with his life.
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The Simple Fool Tends To Go With The Flow. He ...
Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Jun 14, 2004
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In His Book The Spiritual Life Of Children, The ...
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Feb 4, 2007
In his book The Spiritual Life of Children, the famous Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles, tells the story of Alice, a ten-year-old girl who came from a family that did not believe in God. She expressed her doubts to him with these words: “I remember... I saw the people next door coming home from ...read more
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I Remember Reading About An Obituary That Is ... PRO
Contributed by K. Edward Skidmore on Sep 15, 2004
I remember reading about an Obituary that is meant to make you stop and think: · He brushed his teeth twice a day · The doctors examined him twice a year · He ate low-carb, low-fat every day · He gave up his tonsils, his adenoids, his gall bladder … and traded in a few worn-out glands · He ...read more
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When A Train Goes Through The Tunnel And It ... PRO
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"When a train goes through the tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still ...read more
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