SHAGGY DOGS:A BLUE ribbon event is the one of the highest distinction or prominence.
In Britain the highest award for merit is a knighthood, usually bestowed by the sovereign either to honour great achievement or given to those who donate the most money to the governing political party of the time.
Foremost among the orders of knighthood is the Most Noble Order of the Garter, so called because of the garter of dark blue ribbon worn by recipients.
None of this is of any particular interest, at least not to me; however, it does provide the background to why we use it in describing a prestigious sporting event. In 1846, Lord George Bentinck gave up racing to pursue a political career, selling all his horses and becoming leader of the Conservative Party.
As things turned out, Bentinck was defeated in parliament in 1848 and, only a few days afterwards, on May 28th, Surplice, one of the horses he had recently sold, won the derby, the most prestigious of all horse-racing events.
Bentinck was distraught and Benjamin Disraeli later recalled in his autobiography an exchange he had with his friend, the Tory leader, in the library of the House of Commons:
"All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed it?" he murmured.
It was in vain to offer solace.
"You do not know what the derby is," he moaned.
"Yes I do, it is the blue ribbon of the turf."
"It is the blue ribbon of the turf," he slowly repeated to himself, and sitting down at the table he buried himself in a folio of statistics.
To this day the Epsom Derby is known as the blue ribbon event.
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Bread is the staff of life is a famous 17th-century proverb illustrating the importance of bread as a staple of our daily diet.
The phrase became popular after the publication in 1704 of Jonathan Swift's novel, Tale of a Tub, in which one character states: "Bread . . . dear brothers, is the staff of life."
This is how the expression passed into common usage, but in fact bread has featured symbolically in all religions and is frequently mentioned throughout the Bible, such as in John 6:35: "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger."
Extracted fromShaggy Dogs and Black Sheep by Albert Jack (Penguin Books)