Lexical Compendium

Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.

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"...and she stepped on the ball."

My favorite line in the movie "Trading Places" is a reference to a joke in another movie called "Aunti Mame." In that movie, a rich and condescending woman tells a story about a ping pong game in which she "stepped on the ball."

In "Trading Places," this exchange takes place as Louis Winthorpe III, now disgraced, jobless and homeless, enters his tennis club in in hopes of getting help from his rich friends. As Louis enters the scene, we hear the end of a story being told by one of these friends to the rest of the gang, "...and she stepped on the ball." Louis, of course, discovers that his friends and even his fiancée want nothing to do with him.


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Tags: quote, trading_places, movie

Date Added: Unknown

down to raisins

An expression coined by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It means something similar as "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel." In other words, a task or period is reaching its end.

When Lincoln was asked where this phrase came from, he told the story of a little girl who ate too much and then followed that up with a dessert of raisins. She became sick and, eventually, was throwing up only the raisins. Thus, she knew that she was nearly done.

I came upon this phase while watching Manhunt, S1E6.


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Tags: civil war, expression, lincoln

Date Added: 05 Jun 2024

trial balloon

A trial balloon is a metaphorical term describing a tentative action or statement meant to test reactions or explore possibilities before committing to a course of action. It's often used in diplomacy, politics, and awkward social situations, where one wants to gauge sentiment or diffuse tension without directly confronting the issue.

The phrase originates from the early days of hot-air ballooning in the late 18th century. British aeronauts would send up small, unmanned balloons as trial balloons to assess weather conditions, wind direction, and other factors before launching a manned flight. By the mid-19th century, the term was being used figuratively, particularly in politics, where governments or individuals would "float" proposals through unofficial channels to gauge public opinion before formally committing. Over time, it came to describe any cautious, preliminary step taken to assess outcomes.

I first heard this term in an interview with Bill Hader on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) podcast. Hader shared a story about embarrassing himself by badmouthing a movie to someone who starred in it. To mend the social faux pas, he waited an hour and floated a trial balloon by saying, "Um, hey, they’re grilling some chicken over there."

He shared this awkward story with Larry David, who, of course, loved it -- particularly the hilariously ineffectual nature of the "trial balloon" attempt -- and encouraged him to repeat it often.


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Tags: vocabulary, metaphor

Date Added: 10 Dec 2024

"...an effective plot must be 'unexpected but inevitable'..."

I came across this quote in the television series Mythic Quest. In that show, it was attributed to Aristotle, but I haven't been able to confirm this.


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Tags: writing, plot, quotes, story

Date Added: Unknown