#128 – Close Calls
We have all had close calls, you know, near misses that make us stop and say whoa! The Cambridge dictionary defines a close call as “a situation in which something bad, unpleasant, or dangerous almost happens, but you manage to avoid it,” and Mirium-Webster sums it up even more succinctly as a noun that means a “a narrow escape.” The Oxford English dictionary reports that it was first used in print in 1861 in Portage, Wisconsin. While I am unsure of its specific use, it’s been a part of American lingo for at least one-hundred and sixty-five years. It also has the distinction of being the title of a Jimmy Buffett song.
