I've got a collection of random information in my brain that makes me an awesome Trivial Pursuit partner, but is completely useless when it comes to real world application. Like say, job applications. I thought I'd share some of this random crap with you in the form of another acronym-ific series. I give you - Word Origins from Left Field - that's right, the WOLF. Er... ignore the fact that the "from" doesn't fit.

Everybody likes a little privacy sometimes, right? People figured out a long time ago that putting high posts on each end of your bed and hanging curtains from them served as a protection from draft, and also kept the overly-inquisitive at bay. A lot of the conversations that went on behind these sheets were of a private nature- be they emotional exchanges, family secrets, or just good old gossip. If you wanted to keep something on the down low, you told you listener it was between you, me, and the bedpost.

But that one's kinda obvious isn't it? You want something a little less so? OK, I can do that.

A long while ago it was fashionable for men to wear removable shirt cuffs. Barkeeps used to keep a patron's running tab written on their cuff for safekeeping, then erase it when the drinker paid up for the evening, taking it off the cuff. Interesting, but what the hell does that have to do with anything? Well, when you're speaking off the cuff, it means that you're not referencing any written material.