LAT Wed. 5/20 Bonnie L. Gentry

[magus]

For some reason I tend to confuse ARAL with URAL, but today I got to see them both together.  Maybe this will help.

"Hoist by his own petard" (blown up by his own bomb) is a phrase often used incorrectly.  Mostly I hear it, "hoist on his own petard" meaning "strung up on his own flagpole."   But hoist means blown up and petard means, as Bonnie says, "explosive device."  The expression comes from Hamlet.  I seem to remember it refers to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with whom Hamlet gets even for their spying.  There's no charge for today's lecture.