The other night, I was engaged in the social activity of playing euchre.

My card-playing partner (not my Music Man, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who is married) and I were kicking some major patootie–we'd already won the first game, 10-1, and were well on our way to winning the second (8-1) when the worm turned.

Or so spaketh one member of the other team. 

I'm not sure the turning of the worm had actually happened before he pronounced it, or if by his announcement, the worm really did turn–but either way, after that it was all downhill from there. I won not another game that night. Ugh. (8-10, 5-10, 9-10)

So during the game, when I was still confident that the worm's direction had no real bearing on my game-playing skill cards, I blithely asked, "Does anyone know where that phrase came from: the worm has turned."

Many suggestions were bandied about, helped, no doubt, by the amount of fermented grape drink and/or squashed hops that had been imbibed, but no one knew for sure.

One suggestion was that when it finally rains after a long dry spell, the worm "turns" as it comes up out of the ground.

Another suggestion was that Worm was the name of some sports figure who had lost many games and finally won one. (Can you tell I was surrounded by male members of the species?)

Another person thought that perhaps since a worm can burrow from either end of its body (is this true?) that it could change direction underground and basically reverse itself.

But no one knew for sure. So, I of course had to look it up, and I found the answer easily enough. I'm going to post it below in a dark font, so to read it, you'll have to highlight it with your mouse.

But first…give it a shot. Where do you think the phrase came from?

And, I gotta know–does anyone outside of Michigan play euchre? Do you even know what it is?

Okay, here's the answer to the trivia question:

THE WORM TURNS - "Someone previously downtrodden gets his revenge; an unfavorable situation is reversed. The saying represents an evolution of the old proverb, 'Tread on a worm and it will turn.' The meaning was that even the most humble creature tries to counteract rough treatment. Shakespeare picked up the thought in Henry VI, Part 3, where Lord Clifford urges the king against 'lenity and harmful pity, saying:
To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.'"
"The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).