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.

You've probably heard the phrase everything but the kitchen sink, but did you ever wonder where it came from? Even though the phrase gained a lot of popularity post WWII, it was in use before that as a common enough idiom to be referenced in newspapers. That particular phrase originally referred to when people moved to a different household, often stripping down their current residence, taking any and everything with them they could carry. Doors and carpets often walked out the door, but kitchen sinks were made of porcelain then - heavy, awkward, and not to mention hooked up to the pipes. Therefore, the phrase came to be used as a reference to a very thorough, wall-to-wall, all-encompassing, no holds barred brand of everything.

So... because I'm a bit of a geek (OK, a huge bit of a geek), my geek-brain worked away at this and came out of it thinking thus -- plumbing is often called waterworks, so what if "the works" came about in connection with the kitchen sink reference to mean everything?

Eh? What say you?