When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There's the Devil to Pay: Seafaring Words in Everyday Speech
Isil's lifelong fascination with sea lore has led her to produce this compendium of nautical metaphors and colloquialisms that have "washed ashore" into modern speech. However, the book doesn't always "run on an even keel," as even Isil herself admits. Some of the entries detail lengthy histories or semantic developments, including examples in literature; others are very brief and to the point, while still others are either apocryphal or sail off on tangents (e.g., one never really learns the origin of "blood is thicker than water," only that the same naval commander who once used it was also implicated in the peculiar history of the Merrimac). A couple of chapters on weather lore and sea legends, myths, and superstitions complete the text. Although this colorful work is occasionally "first rate," enough of its bibliography is still in print to make it a low-priority purchase for reference purposes.Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., ManassasCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.