Idioms (Part 2)

Since I'm really bad at thinking of things to write on my blog and feel bad if I ignore it even though not many people read it, I'll continue my idioms post. By the way, most of the posts in the middle between the phrase and my thoughts are copied from a website and kudos to them for doing all that research about these phrases so I can make sarcastic remarks about them (which is what everything is made for, yes?).

Phrase: "Raining Cats and Dogs"
One possible origin is that the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated them with rain. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this idea. It has also been suggested that cats and dogs were washed from roofs during heavy weather; which obviously doesn't make sense. Another suggestion is that 'raining cats and dogs' comes from a version of the French word 'catadoupe', meaning waterfall but there's no evidence for this either.
Thoughts: I always had the inane hope that there was a case where it actually rained literal cats and dogs. Then I'd get to go swimming in a sea of (hopefully) cute and fluffy animals and that's one of my life goals (obviously).

Phrase: "Take the Cake"
It is widely supposed that this phrase originated with cake-walk strutting competitions, which were commonplace in the black community of the southern USA in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In those, couples would be judged on their style in the 'cake-walk'. The winners were said to have 'taken the cake', which was often the prize. As early as the 5th century BC the Greeks used 'take the cake' as symbolic of a prize for a victory.
Thoughts: This is disappointing. I was hoping for a story about how someone literally stole a cake and ate it or something. Is the 'cake-walk' like the 'cat-walk'? 'Cake' and 'cat' do both start with the same two letters.

Phrase: "Make A Bee-Line For"
The phrase derives from the behavior of bees. When a forager bee finds a source of nectar it returns to the hive and communicates its location to the other bees, using a display called the Waggle Dance. The other bees are then able to fly directly to the source of the nectar, i.e. 'make a beeline' for it.
Thoughts: I cracked up when I read the 'Waggle Dance' part. Did you? If you didn't, try saying it aloud and not laughing. If you still don't laugh you have issues and should be committed to a mental institution (just kidding but seriously it's funny).

Phrase: "Saved By the Bell"
This is boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round. There is a widespread notion that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached. The idea being that, if they were buried but later revived, they could ring the bell and be saved from an unpleasant death. The idea is certainly plausible as the fear of burial alive was and is real.
Thoughts: Kinda makes me feel bad for saying I was saved by the bell because I got to leave school/class. Apparently the bell saved some people from impending death. Gotta hand it to that bell; it's a lifesaver. Should get some sort of award or something awesome like that.

Phrase: "Son of a Gun"
There are a few theories about this one. (1) The phrase originated as 'son of a military man' (i.e. a gun). The most commonly repeated version in this strand is that the British Navy used to allow women to live on naval ships. Any child born on board who had uncertain paternity would be listed in the ship's log as 'son of a gun'. (2) The term is euphemistic and derived as a conveniently rhyming alternative to 'son of a bitch/whore'.
Thoughts: How does 'gun' rhyme with 'bitch' or 'whore'? Am I missing something here? The first explanation seems to make more sense to me. Although now I'm picturing a baby gun with a little wig on it's head...

Phrase: "Peeping Tom"
The name comes from the legend of Lady Godiva's naked ride through the streets of Coventry, in order to persuade her husband to alleviate the harsh taxes on the town's poor. The story goes that the townsfolk agreed not to observe Godiva as she passed by, but that Peeping Tom broke that trust and spied on her.
Thoughts: Bad Tom! No watching a naked woman ride through the streets on a horse! How do they even know 'Tom' saw her? What if someone named 'Yuggle' (yeah whatever weird name I'm horrible at naming stuff don't hate) had seen her? Would we have the phrase 'Peeping Yuggle'?

Phrase: "Going to Hell in a Handbasket"
It isn't at all obvious why 'handbasket' was chosen as the preferred vehicle to convey people to hell. One theory on the origin of the phrase is that derives from the use of handbaskets in the guillotining method of capital punishment. 'Going to hell in a handbasket' seems to be just a colorful version of 'going to hell', in the same sense as 'going to the dogs'. 'In a handbasket' is an alliterative intensifier which gives the expression a catchy ring. There doesn't appear to be any particular significance to 'handbasket' apart from the alliteration.
Thoughts: What exactly is a handbasket? A basket for your hand? Great now I have an image of someone's hand being a basket. That would be pretty obnoxious, although, it would be pretty easy to carry a lot of stuff that way.

Okay so another long post here, but oh well. These idioms are fun although it's kind of hard to find good ones I can make comments on. I probably could do at least one more post of a few more eventually when I feel like my blog needs some attention. It's so demanding. If you have any recommendations as to what I should blog about, I need them; apparently I'm very unimaginative when it comes to these things. Anyways, thanks so much for reading I appreciate it! :]