Volume LI

I. Phoning it in📞 

In the 19th century, journalists and sports reporters were expected to deliver the “goods”(their findings or game reports) in person. Occasionally, though, they’d take a shortcut and phone it in, which often implied laziness or half-hearted reporting.

Today, the phrase has left the newsroom. It’s the naughty twin of winging it, when someone trades effort for the easy way out.

So the next time you log in on a Friday, doom scroll LinkedIn, and keep Slack green with a mouse jiggle, just know: you’re phoning it in.

II. Throw caution to the wind 🌬️

This phrase traces back to old seafaring days, when sailors would cast things into the wind and accept they had no control over where they would land.

Over time it came to mean choosing action over hesitation and stepping forward even when the outcome is not guaranteed.

As the Roman poet Virgil popularized around 29 BC, “fortune favors the bold.” The point is not to live with regret. Send the risky text. Take the high upside job.

Just maybe hold off on liquidating your retirement accounts because of a 30 second Instagram reel from Grant Cardone. It is a vote for bravery, not stupidity.

III. Crème de la crème 🥛 

Before it was a compliment, it was dairy science. When fresh milk sat out, the richest part naturally rose to the top — smoother, thicker, better than everything beneath it. That was the cream.

The French weren’t satisfied stopping there. They skimmed the cream, then took the best part of that — the cream of the cream or, as they say, La crème de la crème. By the 1800s it slipped into English as the go-to for anything sitting a cut above the rest.

Now, you hear this one dropped at Michelin-starred restaurants or your buddy explaining why he won’t drink bottom-shelf champagne.

Keep on sending on. Forward to a friend.