Signs, Symbols, Stores and Sir Walter Scott

So - I love Barnes & Noble. One of my top five favorite stores probably. Years ago, I was browsing through the store and saw a book about word and phrase origins. I really wanted it, but it was pricey, and I, very uncharacteristically, walked away....thinking it would always be there - I could get it another time.

Of course, I've never seen it since - (Kurt - see, this is why I should buy stuff when I see it and want it!)

Anywho - here's an entry from a similar online book. It seemed apropos today.

"BAD PENNY -- The phrase usually is heard in this country (U.S.) as 'A bad penny always turns up,' meaning that a no-good person can be counted upon to come back again and again. The expression was originally English and the unit of currency referred to was the shilling. Sir Walter Scott, in one of his early nineteenth-century novels, whereto: 'Bring back Darsie? Little doubt of that. The bad shilling is sure enough to come back again.'" From "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988).

Learn something new every day.

Belated note to self: STOP! Don't pick that penny up!