I. Idiom of the Week—“Paint the Town Red”
To “paint the town red” means to engage in a riotous spree. It generally refers to the kind of unruly behavior that results in much blood being spilt. The most common theory as to the origin of this phrase dates back to England in 1837, when the Marquis of Waterford and a group of friends ran riot in the Leicestershire town of Melton Mowbray. They literally stumbled across some tins of red paint, and ended up painting the town's toll-bar and several buildings red. That event is well documented, and is certainly in the style of the Marquis, who was a notorious hooligan. To his friends he was Henry de la Poer Beresford; to the public he was known as 'the Mad Marquis'. His misdeeds include fighting, stealing, being 'invited to leave' Oxford University, breaking windows, upsetting (literally) apple-carts, fighting duels and, last but not least, painting the heels of a parson's horse with aniseed and hunting him with bloodhounds. He was notorious enough to have been suspected by some of being 'Spring Heeled Jack', the strange, semi-mythical figure of English folklore.
However, the first use of the phrase in print was not until 1883 in The New York Times:
"Mr. James Hennessy offered a resolution that the entire body proceed forthwith to Newark and get drunk... Then the Democrats charged upon the street cars, and being wafted into Newark proceeded, to use their own metaphor, to 'paint the town red'."
