Kingly in my Thoughts

The English language is surely one of mankind's most infinitely glorious creations - its idioms and absurdities that have been passed down through the generations. Had a spare moment last night to relax at the public library and a reference on such origins caught my eye. Two classic entries about famous flies of the past:

"the fly on the coach-wheel" - one who fancies himself of great importance, one who is in reality of none at all. The allusion is to Aesop's fable of a fly sitting on a chariot-wheel saying: "See what dust I make."

The fly in the ointment - the trifling cause that spoils everything; a Biblical phrase: "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour; so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour." (Eccles. x, i.)

Master Shakespeare, of course, triumphant throughout the text, along with the other usual suspects. I like this excerpt about "making fair weather". Appropriate for a Friday. Time for some free cheer and then a 200-to-1 shot at the Grand Prize Bonanza... Anyone can be a winner.

YORK
[Aside] Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great:
O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint,
I am so angry at these abject terms;
And now, like Ajax Telamonius,
On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury.
I am far better born than is the king,
More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts:
But I must make fair weather yet a while,
Till Henry be more weak and I more strong,
--Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me,
That I have given no answer all this while;
My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
The cause why I have brought this army hither
Is to remove proud Somerset from the king,
Seditious to his grace and to the state.