Idioms Have Purposes Too! (Part 3)

And once in a while, our obscure proverbs obscure exactly what we are saying -- which may be helpful in case they take it just a tad too personally, because we won't be around when they figure it out at 2 AM.

Example: Your poor husband really bought the farm going to bat for that political football. Well, the cat's out of the bag now. Everyone knows that's like trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. Always suspected, he had a few extra bats in the belfry -- bless his heart.