Wordplay

I sat down to write my post tonight and came very close to kicking things off with a saying that proves an interesting reflection on the value society has for housekeeping. What I was about to say is, "First, a little housekeeping." A funny saying, isn't it? Something you hear a lot in meetings or classes or conference breakouts when the team leader/professor/speaker has some dull details to get out of the way before they launch their agenda/lecture/workshop. Maybe they need to announce something about the schedule. Maybe it's something about the date the next assignment is due or an announcement about a room change.

As those of you who keep house know, there's nothing "little" about it. It's the kind of work that breathes life into a house and makes it a home. Work that nourishes, clothes, and provides a clean roof for a family. Housekeeping is absolutely indispensable --- and yet people who work outside the home are constantly dumbing it down and diminishing its value in the very choice of words like the ones above.

So I take it back! What I'd planned on saying is that one of my readers, Wendy, asked me a while back to add a gadget to my blog which would allow her to read it through "My Yahoo." Wendy, if you're reading this, I haven't been able to find that gadget for the life of me. If you could point me in the right direction, it'd be much appreciated.

Can you think of any other phrases that started out as housekeeping lingo but morphed into something else? I can think of a few. When you "put something on the back burner," you're leaving it be for awhile. Today, "light a fire under" someone means something quite different than it did to housewives in the age of woodstoves. Let's not forget "airing the dirty laundry" and "clean sweep."