I found this at World Wide Words regarding the phrase, "Waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"Its source would seem to be the following story. A man comes in late at night to a lodging house, rather the worse for wear.* He sits on his bed, drags one shoe off and drops it on the floor. Guiltily remembering everyone around him trying to sleep, he takes the other one off much more carefully and quietly puts it on the floor. He then finishes undressing and gets into bed. Just as he is drifting off to sleep, a shout from the man in the room below: 'Well, drop the other one then! I can't sleep, waiting for you to drop the other shoe!' This may come from music hall or vaudeville, though it would seem that nobody has been able to tie it down more precisely."
*(Off topic, "worse for wear" reminds me of a great Rolling Stones song, "Girl with Far-Away Eyes." It's on the "Some Girls" album.)
Anyway, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop on a couple of things that are going on right now: unseasonably pleasant September weather in the Midwest and gasoline prices dropping as much as a dime a day.
There apparently is a joke going around that the President ordered the falling gas prices, but come the day after the election? $5 per gallon. That is NOT funny, and I'm 99% sure it's just a joke as the President can't control the price of gasoline ... right? I do know I would not want to know everything the US President knows (it clearly ages them in a short time as their before-and-after photos show) so I'll just tank up occasionally in my 35 mpg Chevrolet Aveo and motor on, blissfully unaware.
As for the weather? I'm about ready to get out my heat blanket. I bought it two years ago (I'd never had one before) and it is a thing of beauty! For me, it was better than discovering sliced bread ... which I have read was "invented" in Chillicothe, Mo. (Don't believe me? Google it.)
Speaking of "slice," there's a great movie to rent at the video store, "Breaker Morant." It's set in South Africa during the Boer Wars and I belive is about a series of true events involving some Australian soldiers. (No, Mel Gibson isn't in it.)
During a trial, one of the soldier defendants is asked his alibi, and he is forced to reveal he was having a dalliance with a married woman at the time. "Slice off a used loaf never missed," he tells the judicial panel off-handedly.
Amazing what the mind retains, isn't it? I may not remember the cool nights and pleasant days of the September of '06 ... may not remember the plumet at the pumps (although I remember 21-cent gas and not having $5 to fill the tank) ... but I remember that movie line, and the Stones ... and I remember at least one girl with far-away eyes.
