I. Idiom of the Week—“Pan out”
When something “pans out”, it means that it has worked out favorably. Conversely, when something doesn’t pan out, it means that it has turned out unfavorably. For instance, “Peter decided that if his music career didn’t pan out, he could always go back to school.” This expression originated in the California Gold Rush, when prospective miners began looking for gold nuggets in the riverbeds surrounding the mines. When the prospectors saw something sparkling at the bottom of a stream, they would take a handful of mud from the riverbed and wash it in a pan to see whether the minerals included any gold. Because gold is very dense, with a little skill the pan could be swirled at just the right speed to allow the heavier gold to settle to the bottom of the pan, while the dirt and low-density particles would wash over the side. If the shiny material didn’t settle in the pan when everything else has been rinsed away, it was likely iron pyrites, or "fool's gold."
Uninformed people who have not read the 12/11/2009 edition of the Network Solutions Weekly Update think that there is another idiom that originated from these gold miners—“flash in the pan”. According to their thinking, prospectors who panned for gold supposedly became excited when they saw something glint in the pan, only to have their hopes dashed when it proved not to be gold but a mere 'flash in the pan'. This, of course, is a mistaken assumption, since we know the actual origin of this phrase comes from the late 17th century and refers to flintlock muskets that used to have small pans to hold charges of gunpowder used to fire the bullet. It was not uncommon at the time for a rifleman to attempt to fire his musket, and for the weapon to misfire because the gunpowder in the firing pan flared up without a bullet being fired. Such an occurrence was literally a “flash in the pan”, and eventually became broadened to its current meaning.
