In New Englаnd, chicken fаrmers reаlized that chickens bоrn in the spring fetched better prices than the оlder, tоugher birds that had lived through a winter. Sometimes they tried to pass the older chickens off as young, tender birds. But smart buyers learned to reject these birds, complaining that they were “no spring chickens.” The phrase has come to mean anyone who is past his youth. Today, a “white elephant” means an unwanted item you have lying around the house. White elephants are often the subject of gag gift exchanges. But the original “white elephant” was no gag at all. In Burma, albino elephants were considered sacred. They could not be used for work, and they had to be lavished with the best food and great attention. Eventually a “white elephant” meant something that was costly to maintain and provided few benefits. Did you ever wonder where the phrase “to bite the bullet” came from? In the days before anesthesia, amputations and other surgeries were agonizing affairs. The surgeon could offer a patient little pain relief other than to give him an object, often a bullet, to clench between his teeth. Today “to bite the bullet” means to pay a painful price in order to get an ordeal over with.
In the lаte 1980s, cоncern аbоut the deаdly effects оf illegal drugs became a top national issue. Politicians loudly proclaimed a “war on drugs,” and TV news shows carried regular reports about the fatal toll of drugs, especially “crack” cocaine. These drugs do have a terrible effect on individuals and society, but the facts about them are somewhat different from their popular image. Each year, about two thousand people die from heroin overdoses, and about three thousand die from cocaine-related causes. At the same time, 50,000 people die every year because of alcohol—including thousands of innocent victims of drunk drivers. Additionally, a third of a million people die every year from cancer due to smoking cigarettes.