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 Phrase Craze!                                                              
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 * To have hold of the wrong end of the stick - the phrase means to have    
   the wrong slant on things.  In the sixteenth century the stick meant     
   a staff and the writer who wrote "the worse end of the staff," made it   
   clear that the wrong end of the staff meant you were the punished rather 
   than the punisher.  In the nineteenth century the phrase came to mean    
   being on the wrong end, not receiving what is fully deserved or getting  
   only the left-overs instead of the whole pie.                            
 * Lean over backward - In the eighteenth century the legal scales were     
   weighted heavily against the accused person.  Judges had the reputation  
   of administering high-handed justice that was unfair and prejudice.  But 
   when a new political wave swept through the land, judges began leaning   
   over backwards or became overly concerned with the civil rights of the   
   accused person. The phrase for such a judge came to be a lean over judge.
 * "Alea est jacta!" as Julius Caesar said - in English it means the die    
   is cast.  The meaning of which is the plan has been made and there is    
   no turning back.  The words were first stated, according to historians by
   Julius Caesar in 49 B.C.  Caesar uttered these words, it is believed,    
   when he decided to march to Rome to protect himself from the machinations
   of Pompey.                                                               
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