Pedantry Update

Every now and then I tell people that when they say they have “the mother of all hangovers”, they’re paraphrasing Saddam Hussein. They never believe me. Not because they know better or anything; they just refuse to countenance the possibility that the phrase didn’t exist before the 1991 Gulf War. I suppose this is an illustration of how it’s entered our everyday language.

Anyway, it happened again over lunch last week, and I’ve had enough of people telling me I’m making things up. Here‘s an expert from Random House publishers. Hah! How d’ya like them apples, doubters?

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