THE CAT'S PAJAMAS XXVII

Tad Tuleja

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases

ONE BRICK SHY OF A LOAD

This expression comes from the Caribbean drug trade, in which marijuana and hashish were shipped in compact blocks known as "bricks." A suitcase full of bricks comprised a "load." A smuggler who would deliver a suitcase that was short of the agreed-upon number of bricks would have to be either dimwitted or mad, for the ruse would be easily discovered and he would pay for the "mistake" with his life. Hence, coming up one brick short of a load means a person who is either intellectually slow or mentally unbalanced.

WITH BELLS ON

 

To go to a social event with bells on is to do so enthusiastically and dressed to the nines. The most recent reference is to jesters' bells - the small, tinkling decorations that European merrymakers began to add to their costumes, especially at carnival time, toward the end of the Middle Ages. The clown-like "cap and bells" still seen at Mardi Gras is an exaggerated form of this costume. But the jesters' bells were themselves derivative. They were a variant of medieval lepers' bells - the heavy and far from fanciful metal clunkers that leprosy victims were forced to ring continually to warn their healthy neighbors that they were coming. Initially, then, one who walked the streets with bells on was not a cynosure, but a pariah. The metaphoric "bells" that make one stand out in a crowd today originally made one stand far apart.