# What are the origins of these phrases? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554 "2004-12-01T20:01:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/1 "2004-12-01T20:01:44Z")
“Think outside the box.” “When come, bring pie.” “I for one welcome our alien overlords.” ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/2 "2004-12-01T20:04:51Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > "“I for one welcome our alien overlords.” This is from the Simpsons. Uttered by Kent Brockman when Kang and Kodos had become rulers of earth ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/3 "2004-12-01T20:10:51Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > “When come, bring pie.” “When come _back_, bring pie.” [http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm](http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/4 "2004-12-01T20:19:09Z")
Two have been answered; as long as this remains in Cafe Society and not General Questions, I feel free to talk out my butt about the last one. There’s a simple, confounding puzzle: arrange nine dots in three rows of three, one on top of the other, to form a square, like so: … … … Now draw four straight lines such that each dot is intersected by at least one line. Try this for a bit before reading the postscript to this post. Daniel P.S. The solution is one folk etymology I’ve heard for the saying. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/5 "2004-12-01T20:19:49Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > This is from the Simpsons. Uttered by Kent Brockman when Kang and Kodos had become rulers of earth Not quite; uttered by Kent Brockman went he though giant alien ants were about to become rulers of the earth. “Think outside the box” comes from corporate feel-good-training-sessions-speak. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/6 "2004-12-01T20:25:47Z")
Okay, two addenda: 1. If I bothered to google before posting, I’d find out that the Internet agrees with my butt: [this puzzle is the source of the expression](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordoro.htm). 2. I left out a crucial component of the puzzle: **you’re not allowed to lift your pen off the page when drawing the four lines**. Otherwise, it’s stupidly easy. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/7 "2004-12-01T20:28:04Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > “Think outside the box” comes from corporate feel-good-training-sessions-speak. …itself drawing on the explanation given by **Left hand of dorkness**. However, I find it hard to believe that this is itself the origin - the ‘moral’ of the exercise seems to rely on a pre-existing knowledge of the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/8 "2004-12-01T21:47:29Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Not quite; uttered by Kent Brockman went he though giant alien ants were about to become rulers of the earth. And it’s not “alien overlords”, it’s “insect overlords”. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/9 "2004-12-01T23:37:23Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > …itself drawing on the explanation given by **Left hand of dorkness**. However, I find it hard to believe that this is itself the origin - the ‘moral’ of the exercise seems to rely on a pre-existing knowledge of the phrase. I know I’ve been in management consulting training sessions where the phrase was used, without the puzzle. It was a metaphorical box; think without being constrained by your self-imposed boundaries. So I think the word origins cite is bogus. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2004, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origins-of-these-phrases/277554/10 "2004-12-02T05:32:40Z")
My mother used puzzles like that when I was a wee lass (in the early '80s) to make me examine ALL possibilities. I didn’t hear that god-awful phrase until much much later but my mother’s lessons, and the point of the puzzles basically boil down to the same thing.