Volume XLIX

I. All That Jazz 🎷

Before the days of Louis Armstrong serenading a crowd with a smooth-sounding sax, jazz had a different meaning. It meant spunk, flair, pizzazz. Having jazz meant having swagger — and not long after, the genre was born.

All that jazz originally referred to that same flair or excess — the energy early ragtime and jazz tunes carried with them. But as the music smoothed out and the phrase got tossed around more freely, its meaning drifted toward irony.

Today, leave the clarinet at the door. All that jazz is just a jazzier way of saying etcetera or yada yada yada.

II. Deadline ⏳

What today is a calendar alert or due date has darker roots.

Originally, a deadline was a literal line painted inside Civil War prison camps. If you stepped past it, guards were ordered to shoot. No extensions or negotiating to be had.

Journalists later borrowed the term for the final moment a story could make the paper because a day late and its momentum is dead.

So when a deadline feels brutal… historically, you’re not too wrong.

III. The Best of Both Worlds 🌍

This one has a more polished pedigree than most idioms. The phrase dates back to the late 1500s and is commonly credited to English poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney. He used it to describe a rare situation where you didn’t have to choose, where two good options could coexist without compromise.

Back then, life was usually either-or. Pick a path and accept the tradeoffs.

Today, the meaning hasn’t changed much. When something offers the best of both worlds, it’s the sweet spot. The rare win-win that makes you wonder why anyone would settle for less.

Keep on sending on. Forward to a friend.