Yes, Champing At The Bit

So now even my wife has added her voice to the electronic chorus with an email from work about "Champing at the Bit." ... One of the problems of being a trained journalist, I suppose, is that you get taught these rules and you find them hard to break. Here's an explanation of champing, stolen straight from the Internet (link):

Champing at the bit

If someone is eager or anxious to do something, they are said to be champing at the bit, (not chomping at the bit. nor chomping on the bit).

CHAMPING: Repetitious, strong opening and closing action of the mouth which
produces sounds when the teeth hit together. Champing in swine may be a
threat signal, but also is performed by boars during courtship and
mating. Definition from Hurnik et al., 1995.
- The Encyclopedia of Farm Animal Behavior
champ
v. tr. - To bite or chew upon noisily.
v. intr. - To work the jaws and teeth vigorously.
Idiom: - champ at the bit
To show impatience at being held back or delayed.
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

So there you have it (although I must admit I didn't know about the boar courtship stuff).

Several other sayings people usually get wrong that I had drilled into my head ...

A team that is stuggling is foundering .... not floundering.

A car careers around a curve ... not careens around a curve.

There are more, but I'm trying to forget them ;-)