• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 hours ago

    Utterly tangential, but:

    … wtf is the origin of the ‘waiting for the shoe to drop’ phrase … to indicate waiting for a twist in a plot, or a secret to be revealed, an impactful complication to be explained?

    How… what is the metaphor here?

    ???

    • Simulation6@sopuli.xyz
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      23 hours ago

      If you live in a boarding house or apartment and the man above you comes home late and sits on his bed and takes his shoes off and drops them on the floor. You wait for him to get the second shoe off and drop it.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        22 hours ago

        … Is… is that seriously … the origin of this phrase?

        That does… at least make a basic level of sense…