Let’s Paint The Town Red

Photo credit, michaelcfriday.com

The Woo-Hoo Factor

It’s my birthday and I’ll smile if I want to, smile if I want to….

I celebrated a birthday this week—the first day of December. I painted the town red.

Have you ever wondered where the expression originated? How exactly does a person and friends go about painting the town red?

I found a plethora of answers:

• From Google. Celebrate. Have a party. Live it up. Have a ball.
• Fireworks and bonfires where the sky appears red. Set something on fire. (The Free Dictionary.)
• Visits to the bar and drunkenness. (Pity a fun saying brings such emptiness and misery.) (idiomeanings.com)
• Violence. Dating back to the 1800’s, an article in The Phrase Finder, “The allusion is to the kind of unruly behavior that results in much blood being spilt.”

No unruly behavior going on here. For our purposes, keep in mind the glitter and sparkle of painting the town red. The “woo-hoo!”

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