Cranky About Word Usage

There are a couple of phrases that I wince at every time I hear them.

"Born and Bred"  Um, according to Mother Nature, your parents had to breed and then you were born.

"We're pregnant!"  hetero couple.  The man is not pregnant.  His wife is pregnant.  They  are happy to be having a baby.  "We're having a baby!" is just as joyful and won't make Miss Manners, Jr.'s eyes roll.  The only couple who can yell, "We're pregnant!" would be a lesbian couple, inseminated at the same time and both resulted in pregnancies.

Adjacent to these baby thoughts, ponder something called "a push present" which seems to be an extremely expensive gift from husband to wife on the occasion of the birth of their child.  It seems to have been started by celebrities engaging in a competition  to give The Most Lavish Present - aapphire and diamond necklace, new Rolls Royce... Interestingly, 30,000 pregnant women were asked if they wanted a push present.  Thirty-eight per cent actually got one; 55 per cent wanted one and 40 per cent of both groups said the baby was present enough.  Heroines, dammit!  Respect them!

And I've been wrong about this - "Lock and load."  Frankly this never made any kind of sense because even if you have only a cursory knowledge of guns, one would presumably insert the bullets (load) and then lock the mechanism that keeps them in there until being used..

No, I was wrong.  Lock and load refers to refilling an M1 Garand rifle.  The bolt must be pulled back and locked into place so that a new clip can be inserted to complete a re-load.

Live and learn.