Why do we say the things we do?

Cats and dogs raining from the sky? Really?

Puppies under an umbrella. 1914. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

It’s been quite a week. We learned that, contrary to popular opinion, an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters will not eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare. In fact, there’s only a 5 percent chance that all of the world’s monkeys, typing from now until…