Mindy McGinnis

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Wednesday WOLF - Pulling Out All the Stops

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.

If you've ever pulled out all the stops, you know that it means to give everything you've got. Whether it's throwing money at a problem, working yourself to exhaustion, or pushing on when you've got no more push left, pulling out all the stops can be applied just about anywhere.

But where did it originally come from?

Pipe organs.

Pipe organs have stops that control air flow through them. When every single stop is pulled, it means that the organ is utilizing every sound it's capable of, and making the maximum amount of noise.