Takin' it on the clam

 

a gaggle of clams

The other night I got a bit adventurous and set my oldest son out to rake for clams.  I can't go into the water anymore as I would likely fall over and drown so I passed down what little I know about how to do it and he liked it, was good at it, and...the rest is chowder (too hot for stuff clams).

Anyway, I wrote out the original title and  used the word "lam" instead of clam...actually by habit I put a "c" in there by mistake.  It was an interesting mistake...

"On the lam" has been popular American slang for "on the run" since at least the latter part of the 19th century. The root of "lam" is the Old Norse word "lamja," meaning "to make lame," and the original meaning of "lam," when it first appeared in English back in the 16th century, was "to beat soundly." The English word "lame" is from the same source, as is "lambaste," a double whammy in that the "baste" part is from a Scandinavian root meaning "thrash or flog."

: The change in the meaning of "lam" from "beat" to "run away" probably echoed another slang term for running away -- "beat it." To "beat it" or "lam it" is to rapidly beat the road with one's feet by running, just as sheep do when they smell mint sauce."

 

Well, I thought it was interesting.