Today I'm going to talk about the story behind "all over bar the shouting", which is an expression that mean that some situation isn't yet done, but we pretty much know the outcome. But when the end does come, there's often no shouting at all, so it seems a little bit curious on the face of it. But it turns out there did use to be a lot of shouting many centures ago, because in Englsnd at that time, towns would make a major decisions by all gathering together and having a sort of live referendum. And it was called an acclamation. And the louder they shouted on a particular issue, the stronger their voice would be heard. And so it was considered to be a vote. They were incredibly noisy, by all accounts. And if, before the gathering, the outcome of vote was known of it was obvious, that's when they would say, "It's all oner bar the shouting". In fact, they were known as "shoutings". There's another similar saying that often puzzles people, ehich almost means the opposite, and that's, "It ain't over until the fat lady sings". And trere's been lots and lots theories about this one. Most of them focus on the American baseball coach, Yogi Berra, who was famous for lots of wonderful sayings, like, "It's deja vu all over again". Or my favourite, "When you come to a fork on the road, take it". But he did also say, "It ain't over till it's over", which sort of make sense, and that's why people associate it with him. Other people think it goes back to opera and the final aria from Brunnhilde in Wagner's Ring Cycle, which is about 14 hours long, so you can imagin some people really were hoping for the fat lady to sing. But, in fact, yhe saying goes right back to the American South in the 19th century, and churchgoers there would say, "Chirch ain't over till the choir sings", or similary, outside of chirch, they might say, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings a blues". It's traveled a long way since those beginings in the American South, and it's as popular today as it ever was.
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