Cliches

Term Paper Title	Cliches
# of Words	801
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.2

Cliches

�If you study balls to the wall from now on, you just might pass this class�- said my roommate when he saw me studying for the Financial Statement Analysis course, �Professor is a real ball breaker.� When I heard that phrase, I assumed he was referring to testicles, but in fact he wasn�t. Balls to the wall means to push to the limit, go all out, full speed. This is a very colorful phrase; one needs to be careful when using it. Although its real origin is very benign, most people assume it is a reference to testicles, just like I did. In fact the expression came from fighter planes. The "balls" are knobs atop the plane's throttle control. Pushing the throttle all the way forward, to the wall of the cockpit, is to apply full throttle.
Some are of opinion that this phrase originated from railroad locomotives. Early railroad locomotives were powered by steam engines. Those engines typically had a mechanical governor. These governors consisted of two weighted steel balls mounted at the ends of two arms, jointed and attached to the end of a vertical shaft that was connected to the interior of the engine. The entire assembly is encased in a housing. The shafts and the weighted balls rotate at a rate driven by the engine speed. As engine speed increases, the assembly rotates at a faster speed and the force causes the weighted balls to hinge upward on the arms. At maximum engine speed - controlled by these governors � the force causes the two weighted balls to rotate with their connecting shafts parallel to the ground and thereby nearly touching the sides - the walls - of their metal housing. So, an engineer driving his steam locomotive at full throttle was going "balls to the wall". The expression came to be used commonly to describe something going full speed. This phrase took a new meaning when I looked up its origin, and quite frankly, it turns that its not all that hip as guys make it sound.

Two weeks ago my girlfriend and I decided to drive out for an early spring picnic. On that Sunday morning, it began to rain hard. Sadly my girlfriend declared:� We are not going anywhere because it is raining cats and dogs out there and it�s your fault (the nerve!), you should have planned the trip on a di...

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