To be 'at sixes and sevens' means to be all over the place, as momj says. Not said so much these days but if for eg. you are late for an appointment, the car wont start, a child says they feel too ill to go to school, your husband suddenly remembers he is bringing home a couple of work colleagues for dinner . . . then you may be/or soon will be at sixes and sevens. Spotted Dick is a very traditional English pudding (the word 'dessert' is usually reserved for rather fancy cold dishes). These hot, filling puddings used to be the mainstay of school meals, though these days, with all this calorie control, sedentary life-style etc, plus the fact that they take some time to prepare plus a couple of hours to 'steam' they are much less popular. Made with a suet-crust pastry with a scattering of raisins, currants (hence the 'spotted' appearance) rolled into a wide sausages shape and cooked in a steamer in a 'pudding cloth'. Served with lots of custard they are very yummy. Didn't know they sold them in cans (which we call 'tins'). Don't you have any pudding-type 'desserts' in the US? Perhaps those of you with German/Dutch/Polish ancestry have similar recipes. Here is a link that might be useful: Make your own Spotted Dick

My wife asked me what "refulgent" meant - she'd found it in a magazine article. I was able to tell her that it turns up in a song in the Mikado, but I didn't know what it meant. So we looked it up - it means "shining, brilliant or radiant" - and it's marked in my dictionary as "Literary". I've just looked up the G&S - I was actually wrong! This is the song I was misremembering. The sun, whose rays are all ablaze With ever-living glory, Does not deny his majesty He scorns to tell a story! He don't exclaim, "I blush for shame, So kindly be indulgent." But, fierce and bold, In fiery gold, He glories all effulgent! And what does "effulgent" mean? Radiant, brilliant... I have to say that in my opinion, both effulgent and refulgent sound downright unpleasant - it's a surprise to me that they don't mean as they sound. Is there a word for the opposite of onomatopoeia?

SEE'S Chocolates.......ah, yes. Growing up in the northeast I'd never heard of them until my son married a California girl. Her family always sends her boxes of a variety of SEE'S Chocolates and they are good ! One of the treats I would enjoy also was when my son would give me a treasured small box of Vosages chocolates. They were so delicious and special I would cut them in half to make them last longer !! Funny sidebar....When he was first dating her we loved to shock her by diving into some horrid huge box of chocolates that clients would nicely leave for my son. Our family "tradition" for these less than wonderful chocolates was to take any and all we wanted and nip them, then put them back in the box. It was a riot of tasting and horrific behavior. I don't think she knew what to make of it then but NOW she understands and joins right in the craziness. ( okay, it's weird...but normal is just a setting on the washer !)

I was watching a news program the other day, when the talking head clearly said, "he has a tough road to hoe." I think hoeing any road would be pretty darned tough. The expression is clearly supposed to be "a tough row to hoe," yet I constantly hear people say it as road.