Hard Times

51 sayings for when that’s the situation. Every one comes with what it means, so you can use it right the first time.

“That's a hard row to hoe.”

A tough job that only gets done one painful foot at a time.

“It's root hog or die.”

Fend for yourself, because nobody's coming to feed you.

“You can't get blood from a turnip.”

Can't take from someone what they simply don't have.

“Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.”

Life alternates between hitting and being hit.

“The creek's up and the well's dry.”

Everything's going wrong in both directions at once.

“Make do or do without.”

Fix it, stretch it, or learn to live with the hole.

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”

Wanting a thing badly has never once made it show up.

“Every dog has its day.”

Everybody gets their turn eventually. Even you.

“Between a rock and a hard place.”

Both options are bad and there is no third one.

“You don't drop a seed in frozen ground and call it plantin' season.”

Forcin' these people to begin again in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, especially them that's strangers to it.

“Dirt don't care whose boots walk it first.”

Folks sent back to Afghanistan they've never seen, expected to make a go of it.

“Even the stoutest ox don't pull when the yoke's chafin' too deep.”

Ariana Grande's emotional tour exit signals she's pullin' back from constant public life.

“When oats run high, even the strongest horse stays put.”

Diesel at an all-time high means a lot of idle teams that once worked sunup to sundown.

“A mule don't quit pullin' just 'cause the first two made it to the barn.”

Two alive from the Nepal tunnel collapse, so they're still pullin' for the rest.

“Hope's a tough old hen—she keeps layin' even after the coop blows down.”

Findin' two alive in that Nepal tunnel's got everybody hopin' there's more.

“When the well runs dry, folks find out who was really carryin' the water.”

Families are learnin' just how much they leaned on the Haitian caregivers now that they're gone.

“Winter don't ask if the barn's ready 'fore it comes.”

Death showed up at the hospital without waitin' on the president's schedule.

“The plow keeps movin' even when one mule's gone still.”

She's still got a nation to tend to, grief or not.

“Thunder's loud, but it's the lightnin' that does the killin'.”

The warnings and noise of conflict mean little next to the sudden strikes that actually took those lives.

“When the wolves come down from the hills, the sheep don't get to vote on it.”

The village had no say in the violence brought down upon it from outside.

“Two bulls lockin' horns just tear up the pasture till the calves go hungry.”

Canada's counter-tariffs on the US drag out a trade war that pinches both sides.

“You don't starve the neighbor's hog without missin' a few meals yourself.”

Canada bracin' for prolonged tariffs against the US will feel the pinch at home too.

“A full barn don't mean nothin' if she's holdin' the key.”

The Korean tycoon's riches got split wide by the divorce payout to his ex.

“You can shame a man at church and he'll still steal your chickens Monday.”

Condemnin' demolitions on paper don't mean much if the demolishin' keeps on happenin'.

“Ain't no use paintin' the barn when the man's already got the torch lit.”

Livin' under demolition orders, folks know sanctions talk won't stop the bulldozer.

“When the north wind's howlin', even the fat hog feels thin.”

Ukraine faces its toughest winter since Russia's full-scale invasion, a UN official told the BBC.

“When the ford's blocked, the whole wagon train waits on the far bank.”

One narrow strait held by fighters can stall shipping for the whole world.

“You can't haul grain past a coiled snake in the barn door.”

Ships won't risk the Houthi-controlled waters no matter how full the hold.

“When the buzzards start circlin' the woodlot, the fight's already lost.”

A report namin' Colombia and Brazil deadliest for environmental activists means the killin's gone on long enough for the vultures to settle in.

“The cow that blocks the butcher's path still ends up on the hook.”

Environmental activists gettin' in the way in Colombia and Brazil are windin' up dead anyway.

“Easy plowin' in wet dirt don't last—the ground hardens and the mule feels it first.”

Low rates made it easy for three years; this first raise's makin' the goin' a sight harder.

“When frost hits after a long warm spell, them early buds pay dear.”

The first US interest rate raise in three years is chillin' folks who borrowed like summer'd last.

“A dog that digs too deep in another man's yard don't always come back with his tail waggin'.”

Diggin' into stories that powerful folks don't like got that reporter killed.

“The rooster that crows loudest gets the first shot at dawn.”

Speakin' out plain and loud cost that journalist his life.

“When the fox gets a taste, he don't leave the henhouse empty.”

Ninth woman's body found as South African police investigate string of deaths.

“The blight don't take just one stalk when it's in the corn.”

Ninth woman's body found as South African police investigate string of deaths.

“Grief don't knock, it just walks on in and sits at the table.”

The grief for the three dead and eight hurt will linger uninvited in that town.

“A hungry man don't wait for the gate to open, he climbs the fence.”

Folks fleeing hard times will keep pushing past barriers even when danger's plain to see.

“You can drive the herd off one pasture, but the ground's still just as bare on the other side.”

Moving migrants off the beach don't solve the hardship that drove them there in the first place.

“Sittin' in the dark don't make the sun come up any sooner.”

Millions in Cuba are waiting out another major blackout with no power in sight.

“They're burnin' the barn just to starve the herd.”

Russia's hittin' Ukraine's data centres to choke ordinary life, Zelensky says.

“Ain't enough to steal the cow — they gone and salted the pasture.”

Russia targeting data centres to wreck everyday living in Ukraine, not just the fight.

“A barn ain't safe just cause somebody says the fire's out.”

Callin' Myanmar safe for return don't mean the danger's really gone.

“A river don't care which bank you was born on when it decides to rise.”

Hardship don't respect borders, yet these folks get sent right back into it.

“They've gone and put a golden lock on the pasture gate.”

Japan raised the permanent residency fee by 20 times.

“A leaky roof don't wait on election day to need fixin'.”

The housing crisis forced the vote to come early, whether leaders were ready or not.

“When the roof costs more than the barn, folks start lookin' for a new farmer.”

Spain's housing crisis has gotten so bad people are demanding new leadership.

“The mule's done give out 'fore they even hit the steep part.”

Russia can't sustain an offensive anymore, the Kyiv general told the BBC.

“The scythe's gone dull and the wheat's still standin' in the field.”

Russia's ability to go on the offensive is broken, Kyiv's ex-top general says.

“You can set a stranger at the table, but it still don't make 'em kin.”

China's lonely are hiring kids to play family, though they ain't blood.

“When the nest sits empty, even a borrowed chick'll do for a spell.”

Lonely folks in China hire temporary children just to fill the quiet.