Almost everyone is familiar with the phrase “V for Victory” and the two-fingered V-for-victory hand gesture popularized by Winston Churchill during World War II. But few people today are aware of…
Category: World War II
The 1941 New Yorker cartoon that created the expression “Back to the old drawing board!”
Drawing boards have been used by engineers and architects for more than two centuries. But the saying “back to the old drawing board” is more recent and can actually be…
The story behind “Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer”
The idiomatic expression “on a wing and a prayer” is a now widely used to describe doing something under extremely difficult or disadvantageous circumstances and hoping that sheer luck, determination and/or…
Blood, sweat and tears — and toil…
Almost everything most people know about the origin of the phrase “blood, sweat and tears” is wrong. Some people think Winston Churchill coined it in the famous speech he gave…
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!”
On December 7, 1941 — which President Franklin D. Roosevelt would memorably name “a date which will live in infamy” on the following day — hundreds of Japanese warplanes made a…
“Business as usual”
It’s not uncommon to see credible sources claim that the phrase “business as usual” was coined by Winston Churchill. For example, a glossary of World War I words and phrases…
“The Final Solution of the Jewish Problem” (“Endlösung der Judenfrage”)
“The Final Solution” is one of the most chilling phrases associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. It’s a euphemism for genocide. “The Final Solution” was immortalized by a memo…
The American Christmas classic by a Russian-born Jewish songwriter that ended the Vietnam War…
I like odd facts and there are a number of them about the song “White Christmas.” First off, this American Christmas classic was written by the Russian-born Jewish songwriter Irving…