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Senior Times - May 2026 Page 9395 S. Shore Drive, Suite 205Battle Creek, MI 49014 (269) 963-3900Probate %u2022 Elder LawEstate PlanningErin L. Majka Phillip E. Harterwww.mielderlaw.comPeter Phelps, Special to Senior TimesSENIOR TIMES In Ourroots date from the 18th and 19th centuries in France. There was a fair amount of poisoning occurring among hat makers who used mercury for their felt chapeaus causing Mad Hatter disease. The illness was marked by shyness, irritability, and tremors that would make the person appear %u2018mad,%u2019 and no doubt angry too.%u2018Cat got your tongue%u2019 is %u2018a-mew-sing%u2019 phrase, but not what you think. The English Navy used to use a whip called %u2018cat-o%u2019-nine-tails%u2019 for flogging. The pain was so severe that it caused the victim to stay quiet for prolonged periods of time. Yet another source of this saying could be from ancient Egypt, where liars%u2019 and blasphemers%u2019 tongues were cut out and fed to the cats. I doubt they were %u2018feline%u2019 fine. Enough said.%u2018Giving the cold shoulder%u2019 is not necessarily caused by non marital bliss. The first recorded use of this phrase dates to the early 1800s. It refers to a custom of giving unwelcome guests a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of mutton, pork, or beef chop; welcome guests received a warm shoulder. I imagine this was a polite way of saying, %u201cYou may leave, now,%u201d which was followed by %u201cDon%u2019t let the door hit you %u2026%u201d well, you know the rest.I%u2019ll try not to miss this last one. If you attend a carnival, you will find that the %u2018carnies%u2019 give out stuffed animals as prizes, but in the late 1800s, the games of chance targeted adults, not youngsters. Instead of getting a giant teddy bear, winners might get a cigar. If they %u2018almost won%u2019 but didn%u2019t earn that prize, they%u2019d be %u2018close, but no cigar.%u2019 By the 1930s, the phrase extended beyond fairgrounds to everyday-closeshots for %u2018misters and misses.%u2019I hope this column brought you some good Senior Times this month. Good bye until the next time or when the cows come home.%u2026UNTIL THE COWS COME HOMEI hear a phrase often that has become a bit tiresome. Every news outlet is reading from the same songbook when they say that the %u201cwriting is on the wall%u201d for someone. Though I get the gist of the words, they got me to speculate where they came from.This phrase occurs in the biblical story of King Belshazzar's feast in the Book of Daniel. In it a mysterious hand appeared, writing on a palace wall a message %u2013 Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin %u2013 meaning the king's downfall was imminent. This dictum became common when the Oxford English Dictionary cited its use in 1704. In today%u2019s lingo, it means that obvious signs showing a negative outcome are inevitable.With that in mind, I began to wonder about other often-used sayings that don%u2019t make a lot of literal sense. Though I can guess, some expressions are so unusual that it is impossible to solve where they originated unless you know the history.Here then are some interesting idioms and their origins. In the olden days, when doctors were short on anesthesia during a battle, they would ask the patient to bite on a bullet to blur them from the pain. The first recorded use of %u2018bite the bullet%u2019 was in 1891 in Rudyard Kipling%u2019s The Light that Failed. I imagine patients tried their darnedest to not %u2018shoot their mouths off %u2019 in discomfort.How about %u2018buttering someone up?%u2019 This was a customary religious act in ancient India not Turkey. The devout would hurl butter balls at the statues of their gods to seek favor and forgiveness. Did they want to %u2018spread%u2019 their love? While I am on the %u2018roll,%u2019 how about this one? Nope, it didn%u2019t originate in Lewis Caroll%u2019s Alice in Wonderland. 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