<p><i>Mad hatter . . . pie in the sky . . . egg on your face.</i> We use these phrases every day, yet how many of us know what they really mean or where they came from?</p> <p>From <i>bringing home the bacon to leaving no stone unturned</i>, the English language is peppered with hundreds of common idioms borrowed from ancient traditions and civilizations throughout the world. In <i>Red Herrings and White Elephants</i>, Albert Jack has uncovered the amazing and sometimes downright bizarre stories behind many of our most familiar and eccentric modes of expression:</p> <p>If you happen to be a <i>bootlegger</i>, your profession recalls the Wild West outlaws who sold illegal alcohol by concealing slender bottles of whiskey in their boots. If you're on <i>cloud nine</i>, you owe a nod to the American Weather Bureau's classification of clouds, the ninth topping out all others at a mountainous 40,000 feet. If you opt for the <i>hair of the dog</i> the morning after, you're following the advice of medieval English doctors, who recommended rubbing the hair of a dog into the wound left by the animal's bite.</p> <p>A delightful compendium of anecdotes on everything from <i>minding your p's and q's to pulling out all the stops</i>, <i>Red Herrings and White Elephants</i> is an essential handbook for language-lovers of all ages.</p>