Flip of the Tongue, Part 8

Well, I don't usually recommend writing a blog entry after a glass of wine (at least in my case!), but here goes.

Flush this out -- I have a friend who is fond of using this phrase, in lieu of "flesh this out." I can see how the confusion about this one arises, since you can flush something out (as during a fox or rabbit hunt), and the reference to fleshing something out is a bit obscure -- adding flesh to a skeletal idea to make it more fully formed is pretty metaphorical. I wonder where the phrase comes from originally? It sounds a bit like Shakespeare.

No one knows you like family -- I heard this in a radio ad for American Family Insurance while waiting to check out at a store, and honest to God, I couldn't even figure out what their intended meaning was. All I could think of was "No one knows that you like family." Which makes absolutely no sense -- except perhaps as a plot for a novel, where the main character has a complex about actually liking her family, while all her friends struggle with dysfunctional siblings and parents. I hate to endorse focus groups, but I have to wonder if American Family's agency tested this slogan for plain old intelligibility? Or is mine just a freak example of an oppositional reading?

Semi accessible diesel -- Seen on a sign along I-90 near Rochester, Minnesota. I guess this means that people in wheelchairs can't get to the diesel, but people on crutches can.

You can find the previous seven flip of the tongue entries by searching "flip of the tongue" on the blog.