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- Volume L
Volume L
We brought in our friend Billy as a ghostwriter to cover for Joe Peterson, who made the mature call to skip the Wi-Fi package on his Caribbean cruise.
I. Dot Your I's and Cross Your T's 🖊️
In medieval Europe, legal documents, contracts, and even wills were handwritten. Given letters (i and t especially) looked so similar, clarity was king.
Forget to dot an I and you might just alter ownership of a farm.
By the 1700s, the idea moved away from longhand into everyday speech.
Take it from your grandpa with perfect penmanship. Be precise. Be thorough. Check the stove twice before leaving town.
II. Blackballed🎱
In 18th-century gentlemen's clubs, membership was decided by secret ballot. Each man dropped a ball into a box—white for yes, black for no. A single black ball was enough to keep you out.
No debate or appeal allowed, you had a quiet walk home, knowing someone in that room decided against you without ever saying why.
So you can keep this one in your pocket for the next time a boomer tells you their “generation wasn't full of cowards.”
III. Put a Little English On It 🔄️
Though the precise origins of this phrase remain murky, it appears to step from a rare acknowledgement of British superiority by Americans - in the pool hall, at least.
Players from across the pond were some of the first to harness the laws of physics and put improbable levels of spin on the ball, an advantage they exploited against all who dared challenge them on the felt.
They’d simply put some English on it and a stripe or a solid would swerve into a corner pocket, tapped with a level of precision that was unquestionably foreign.
Nowadays, you can find people putting English on just about anything. And sometimes, you have to tip your newsboy cap to those who did it first.