Fun And Games - 'Doubleton' Phrases

What most of us know as The Facts of Life (i.e. 'where babies come from') have many names in English, and doubtless in other languages. One classic way of beginning to explain them to a child might be by pointing out that animals and insects, like us, have life-cycles within nature, including definite stages like making nests and attracting mates. Hence the 'birds and bees' phrase, referring to common creatures that you might often see in your garden. They have the added advantage that the words themselves are easy and both start with 'B'.

It is the 'assonance' of the '-a-' vowels that helps hold the phrase together. If either of these words is unfamiliar to you, please look it/them up: they are both very useful.
It is less fashionable now, but still widely-heard to describe something that is good / impressive / enjoyable etc. as 'smashing' (this does not, in fact, carry any suggestion of breaking anything ~ except, perhaps, the odd record). It would now sound rather over-the-top to describe a boiled egg as 'smashing', even though you would have had to break its top to eat what's inside.
'Grab' means more or less the same as 'snatch': to seize hold, hard and quickly, of something, often in an emergency ('She reached out and grabbed the handle'). In informal English, an office worker (for instance) with little time for lunch might 'grab a bite to eat'.
(We always felt there was a space in the market for an Italian company, selling pannini etc., to call itself 'Grabassani' [ = 'grab a sarnie', i.e. a sandwich]).

The motto here is 'ladies first'; and even in the case of Cole Porter (who usually wrote both), the words to a song more often come before the music.

There seems no logical reason for this phrase, but it has been used for centuries. Many other languages have colourful ways of describing the experience; how about yours?

This, once again, is a classic weather-forecaster's phrase ~ especially in the autumn.
'Mist' always comes first in the phrase, perhaps because it is thinner and/or comes in smaller patches.

This is another true British classic, and note which way round it goes (not like Answer 3). You will find you are never very far from a fish-&-chip shop in any British town or city.

Another classic phrase; sometimes people who needed to write such a traditional letter would say 'I need to put pen to paper'. A less formal note might be made with 'pencil and paper', perhaps 'on the back of an envelope' (e.g. for doing a rough calculation, or writing a quick reminder; we speak of a 'back-of-an-envelope figure', meaning a rough price that someone has calculated for a job).

This is a classic phrase: perhaps you have a similar expression in your own language?

This would be the usual way of referring to these two categories of people. (Some of them may be both, of course ... i.e. colleagues who have also become good friends while they were working together!)

'Running and jumping' (in that order) are all very well, but what about events that involve throwing (discus, javelin, shot-put etc.)? 'Track and field' is the traditional phrase.