Subject: A bone to peck
Date: Feb 25 18:20:28 1999
From: Mullerin at aol.com - Mullerin at aol.com


I smiled to come across the old favorite "keep your pecker up" in this list.
Interesting information about the Morris Minors, but I believe the expression
goes back further than that--Dickens used it in the mid 19th century. It does
in fact refer to a bill or beak (hence to relevance to this list), and means
to keep up one's courage--probably best translated in the US by "keep your
chin up." So add that to the other perpetually stiff member of British
physiognomy, upper lips. (My favorite instance, in Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial
by Jury: "Be firm, my moral pecker.")

So Tweeters, keep your pecker up!

Marilyn Milberger