Petards and Wringers in the Limelight To sit on the fence. To miss the boat. To spill the beans. To kick the bucket. These are idioms – phrases whose meaning cannot be deduced from the words that form them, much to the chagrin of non-English speakers. Notwithstanding their concreteness, expressions such as these belong to the realm of figurative language, which, to paraphrase Shakespeare, age cannot wither, nor custom stale. Indeed, idioms are capable of enduring long after their source has lost all currency. Take, for example, the expression, "to be hoist with one's own petard." Were it not for Shakespeare, the [...]