2008-12-09

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Just to make sure that I was using the idiom properly, I googled "wait for the other shoe to drop" and found a site that explained the origin of the phrase:
This phrase means "to await an event causally linked to one that
one has already observed". In the form "drop the other shoe",
meaning "say the next obvious thing" or "end the suspense", it dates
from the early 20th century. It derives from the following joke:

A guest who checked into an inn one night was warned to be quiet
because the guest in the room next to his was a light sleeper. As
he undressed for bed, he dropped one shoe, which, sure enough,
awakened the other guest. He managed to get the other shoe off in
silence, and got into bed. An hour later, he heard a pounding on
the wall and a shout: "When are you going to drop the other shoe?"
I have no idea if it's apocryphal or not, but I liked the joke.

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