Cliche of the Day

Barking up the wrong tree.

The term comes from the 1820's, when raccoon-hunting was a popular American pastime. Raccoons are nocturnal animals, generally hunted on moonlit nights with the help of trained hounds. Sometimes the dogs are fooled, and they crowd around a tree barking loudly to announce that they have treed the raccoon, when it has, in fact, eluded them.