Hey there everyone. I just heard a song that uses the phrase:
“There are skeletons in everybody’s closet,
I can show you one or two in my own room.”
(just for the record it’s Crash Test Dummies’ “Ghosts That Haunt Me”)
This got me thinking about how eerie the term “skeletons in your closet” is (a term I have heard many times before). Does anyone know if this is just a phrase someone came up with or if maybe there really were skeletons in someone’s closet that inspired the phrase. I looked in the MB archives and couldn’t find anything and the same with past Columns. I found an article on a murderer with bones in his closets but no mention of the saying. Also, I believe the phrase is older than the murders. Any ideas? Later all.
Nope, no skeletons in my closet. Under the floor boards is a different story 
How can you stand the beating of that hideous heart?!?
Ah good old Edgar Allen. 
Relax dude. Come down to the cellar, I’ve a cask of amontillado. Soon you’ll forget about that old man.
I think there might be a small skeleton in my closet, but I’d have to find the right box.
I actually do have a rotting corpse in my living room. Here, I’ll show you.
http://pw1.netcom.com/~heliboy/bob.jpg
Padeye, you wouldn’t know Amontillado from sherry!
I got rid of my skeleton months ago. He’s buried right next to Jimmy Hoffa, so I’m pretty sure the Feds won’t be coming around any time soon. I’m not sure what his name was, so I call him “Murray” (from The Curse of Money Island).
I have a skeleton in my closet, as well. I’ve called him Fritz ever since the fairies killed him.