Monday, July 14, 2014

Poster: Good Luck



See a pin and pick it up:
all the day you'll have good luck.

(English proverb)

The source for the proverb is English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases by William Carew Hazlitt (GoogleBooks). It is also included in the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, edited by Jennifer Speaker. Although the ODP reports on contemporary usage, it does not report a usage that I have heard: "Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck." Given that people are much more likely nowadays to find a penny lying around than a pin, I am not surprised by this usage (it's even part of the Wikipedia article on "penny") - and I am surprised that it is not mentioned in the ODP.

The poster is made with AutoMotivator. The image above is a photo of a pincushion by 46137 at Flickr, and the image below is a penny by miguelb at Flickr.



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