Truth in Advertising

I've always been interested in the origins of words and idioms. Yes, that makes me a nerd. But I've always thought it was interesting to learn where certain words and phrases originally came from or to see how expressions that have outlived their original context still survive in the English language. The phrase "sleep tight" is one example - we continue to use it even though most of us are well over a century removed from having to tighten the ropes that support our mattresses anymore (although that might not actually be the origin of the phrase - see here for more - http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/sleep%20tight.html)

I tried looking up the origin of the phrase "sleep like a baby" but to no avail. I suppose it's too obvious in some ways. After all, a newborn often sleeps 20+ hours per day and there are times when you could fire up a chainsaw next to Madeleine and she would still sleep right through it. So, I get the concept.

Still - when I see ads on television or in the newspaper that talk about a mattress that will let you "sleep like a baby" - I start thinking about what that really means in our household. Generally speaking, it means you would sleep for 2-3 hours at a time, grunting and chirping the whole time, and wake up crying, hungry and/or covered in your own fecal matter. Not exactly an ad for the "Serta Perfect Sleeper." It sounds more like how you would feel if you had to sleep on this - http://www.geocities.com/signemickey/bedofnails.jpg

Here's another one - "softer than a baby's bottom." Admittedly, she has a cute little behind - most of the time. But there are also times when her little bottom looks anything but soft. Here is an actual picture of Madeleine's rear end - as you can see, it doesn't exactly look as soft as a down pillow -

http://beth.hohertz.org/miscpix/Baboon001-AfricanLionSafari.jpg

The bottom line (couldn't resist the pun) is that real babies are a lot more real that our little linguistic idioms have them cracked up to be (sorry, couldn't resist again).