Chrysti The Wordsmith: Stright & Narrow

Greetings word lovers this is Christie the wordsmith. If you've ever seen a production of the musical My Fair Lady you may remember the tune called with a little bit of luck featuring a group of merry Cockney bachelors philosophizing about the fun of debauchery and the drudgery of married life and steady employment. They sing Oh you can walk the straight and narrow but with a little bit of luck you'll run amok. When the bachelors make it clear they will avoid walking the straight and narrow. They employ a common linguistic formula that refers to following the conventionally moral or virtuous path. Some writer Alan Jay Lerner who put this phrase in the tune with a little bit of luck lifted the expression walk the straight and narrow from the pages of The New Testament book of Matthew where the reader is cautioned quote wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. But Strait is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life. The words suggest that at the end of a wide and accommodating path a metaphor

for a life of ease. Lie ruin and devastation on the other hand a road that is narrow and uncomfortable and one assumes requires sacrifice and discipline offers the reward of salvation at its terminus. Walk the straight and narrow. I'm Christie the wordsmith. The website for this series is wordsmith radio dot org where you can access a bibliography of outstanding dictionaries and word related books. Good day Vera Vorse Christie the wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dot com.