Pulling out all the stops...

Dear Diary,

I must confess to a certain fascination for the origin of words and phrases like, "pulling out all the stops". You certainly see evidence of that at the Olympic Games, when athletes hold nothing back and go for the gold. The phrase just popped into my mind while I was dusting the old pump organ in the sitting room, the one my dear friend Dotty played at my wedding in 1998, 20 years ago this August.

The phrase refers to pulling out all the tonal adjustments so the organ will have the most complex range of tones possible. The things you pull are called "stops". I never learned to properly play the piano, let alone an organ, but both my mother and grandmother played and we had one when I was growing up.

How often does one truly, "pull out all the stops"? Go for the gold? Not very often I suspect. Perhaps that's why we love to watch these amazing athletes perform. It is very inspiring to me.