In Like a Lion…

I hope that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb this year and not the other way around…  It’s been a hard winter on the east coast and I’d rather get it all over with than have it come back again!  I couldn’t resist a peak at the OED (the Oxford English Dictionary); that definitive work by the British to classify and document the use of English language.  [I would rather have them conquer words than people, wouldn’t you?  So I think it’s only fair to encourage them.]

Apparently we’ve been using the phrase “In like a lion and out like a lamb” since 1693, when an almanack (D. Leeds Almanack, to be precise) put it in their notes & observations section like this: “according to the Proverb, March cometh in like a Lyon, and goes out like a Lamb.”  There you have it.  And here is my best attempt to deco the fierce winds of March.