Say What? Adversity makes strange bedfellows / Any port in a storm
In this week's "Say What?" we'll be looking at two sayings that talk about how we're often willing to go places we wouldn't usually go when faced with difficult circumstances. We'll be helped out as we look at this with examples from NCIS.
Adversity makes strange bedfellows
The underlying idea of this saying is that an adverse situation brings together those whose interests wouldn't normally be aligned. For example, the main Allied powers during World War II were Britain, Russia, and the United States. However, even though those nations were allied in their efforts to defeat their common enemy, the fact that they had so few things in common politically eventually led to the Cold War. Our saying would be very apt to describe the relationship between these three nations. The first use of the saying was somewhat more literal when it appeared in Act II Scene II of The Tempest (Shakespeare 1611):
Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.
In this scene Trinculo is talking about physically sharing a bed with someone else in order to find shelter from a severe storm, but by the time Charles Dickens wrote Pickwick Papers in 1837, the meaning was obviously more figurative:
Illustrative ... of the old proverb, that adversity brings a man acquainted with strange bedfellows.
The saying also has a couple of variants, such as 'politics makes strange bedfellows', first used in P. Hone's Diary entry from 9 July 1839. In 1982, The Times used the headline 'Poverty makes strange bedfellows', showing that the saying has come to be modified in various ways.
As this is a well known expression, your characters are likely to be able to use it fairly readily:
Tony watched from behind McGee’s desk as Gibbs and Trent Kort tried to figure out a way to track down René Benoit. "Adversity certainly makes strange bedfellows, doesn't it Timmy?”
Any port in a storm
Our second saying obviously has a nautical origin and refers to the fact that, in stormy weather, a boat or ship will try and seek the safety of a port -- even one which it wouldn’t typically enter. For anyone who knows anything about sailing, this is fairly obvious due to the necessity of avoiding potential damage or worse, something sailors have done for thousands of years. However, the first time the saying was used in this form in print was in the 1749 work Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by J. Cleland:
It was going by the right door, and knocking desperately at the wrong one ... I told him of it: ‘Pooh,’ says he ‘my dear, any port in a storm.’
Again, this is a well known expression, so is easy to work into your writing:
Seeing the dark expression on Gibbs’ face as he stepped out of the elevator, Tony made a dive for the nearest cube, somehow ending up under Kate’s desk. Looking up apologetically, he shrugged, “Any port in a storm, Katie Bear.”
Whenever you want to have your characters talk about unusual things happening in adverse or troubling situations, these are definitely sayings that you can put to use. Just make sure that you keep your bedfellows out of the storm and your adversity out of port.
Sources
Simpson, John and Speake, Jennifer. A Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Adversity makes strange bedfellows
The underlying idea of this saying is that an adverse situation brings together those whose interests wouldn't normally be aligned. For example, the main Allied powers during World War II were Britain, Russia, and the United States. However, even though those nations were allied in their efforts to defeat their common enemy, the fact that they had so few things in common politically eventually led to the Cold War. Our saying would be very apt to describe the relationship between these three nations. The first use of the saying was somewhat more literal when it appeared in Act II Scene II of The Tempest (Shakespeare 1611):
Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.
In this scene Trinculo is talking about physically sharing a bed with someone else in order to find shelter from a severe storm, but by the time Charles Dickens wrote Pickwick Papers in 1837, the meaning was obviously more figurative:
Illustrative ... of the old proverb, that adversity brings a man acquainted with strange bedfellows.
The saying also has a couple of variants, such as 'politics makes strange bedfellows', first used in P. Hone's Diary entry from 9 July 1839. In 1982, The Times used the headline 'Poverty makes strange bedfellows', showing that the saying has come to be modified in various ways.
As this is a well known expression, your characters are likely to be able to use it fairly readily:
Tony watched from behind McGee’s desk as Gibbs and Trent Kort tried to figure out a way to track down René Benoit. "Adversity certainly makes strange bedfellows, doesn't it Timmy?”
Any port in a storm
Our second saying obviously has a nautical origin and refers to the fact that, in stormy weather, a boat or ship will try and seek the safety of a port -- even one which it wouldn’t typically enter. For anyone who knows anything about sailing, this is fairly obvious due to the necessity of avoiding potential damage or worse, something sailors have done for thousands of years. However, the first time the saying was used in this form in print was in the 1749 work Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by J. Cleland:
It was going by the right door, and knocking desperately at the wrong one ... I told him of it: ‘Pooh,’ says he ‘my dear, any port in a storm.’
Again, this is a well known expression, so is easy to work into your writing:
Seeing the dark expression on Gibbs’ face as he stepped out of the elevator, Tony made a dive for the nearest cube, somehow ending up under Kate’s desk. Looking up apologetically, he shrugged, “Any port in a storm, Katie Bear.”
Whenever you want to have your characters talk about unusual things happening in adverse or troubling situations, these are definitely sayings that you can put to use. Just make sure that you keep your bedfellows out of the storm and your adversity out of port.
Sources
Simpson, John and Speake, Jennifer. A Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 2008.