An hour or so ago I was reading a piece online in The Wall Street Journal about Google, in which the phrase ‘sticky wicket’ was used. This derives from cricket, of course, and on a whim I researched the author, only to find that he was born in Philadelphia. Why would an American use a cricketing reference in an article published in a US newsapaper, presumably mostly read by Americans?
And just now, I’ve read a Blog entry on Watts Up With That, entitled ‘BREAKING: New paper makes a hockey sticky wicket of Mann et al 98/99/08‘. Also based in the US, Anthony Watts, the Blog owner, took the trouble to define ‘sticky wicket’ for his readers.