The Penguin Guide to Plain English

o f someone w ho has narrowly escaped disaster saving his bacon we get

the full force o f it only by recalling how im portant once was the bacon
preserved in the house for the familys food through the winter. Eating
is in the background too in that most useful way o f expressing doubt
about the literal truth o f w hat someone has said: You m ust take it w ith
a pinch o f salt. The implication is that the thing cannot stand on its ow n
w ithout qualification. The degrees o f obviousness in such sayings vary
greatly. To save o nes face, meaning to protect o nes reputation, may
be obvious enough, as is the expression for a rebuff, to shut the door in
som eones face, but to face the m usic, meaning to face up to the dire
consequences o f ones mistakes, is not at all obvious. It has been suggested
that the basis of the saying was the fact that an officer in the army w ho
was guilty o f some offence had to face the drum s w hen the charges were
formally put to him. We have no such explanation for the seemingly
illogical saying H ell laugh on the other side o f his face, m eaning His
rejoicing will be turned to disappointm ent.
It will be noticed that many traditional sayings testify to the w isdom
acquired through experience. They w arn us against rash optim ism ( One
swallow does not make a sum m er), against being deceived by outw ard
appearances (All that glisters is not gold), against overvaluing seeming
promise ( All her swans are geese), against wanting too m uch o f life
(She thinks she can have her cake and eat it), and against thinking we
can escape the consequences of our ow n mistakes ( He has made his bed
and he must lie on it). W hen we shrug our shoulders over some failed
enterprise we quote (or misquote) Robert Burns:
The best laid schemes [not plans] o mice an men
Gang aft a-gley.
So familiar is the quotation that it is only necessary to m ention mice and
m en together to make the point.
It is because o f the hom ely w isdom and the moral guidance enshrined
in such sayings that literary figures (and after-dinner speech-makers) can
have fun in turning them upside down. G. K. Chesterton insisted that If
a thing is w orth doing, its w orth doing badly. And, for one person, sad
experience turned the com forting saying As one door closes, another
opens into As one door closes, another shuts.