The Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches sits on my shelf, and every so often I leaf through it. The back cover says:
"Whether cliches make you as happy as a clam or set your teeth on edge, it goes without saying that our language would be pretty dull without them.

Each entry tries to identify the source of an expression, generally from literature. Here is an example:

"hair of the dog A small amount of what made one ill might be used as a remedy; recipe for curing a hangover. This expression appeared in John Heywood's Proverbs of 1546 ('I pray thee let me and my fellow have a haire of the dog that bit us last night') and alludes to the even older folk remedy of treating a dog bite by placing the burnt hair of a dog on the wound. Although having a drink is a dubious cure for the aftereffects of alcoholic overindulgence, the expression is still used, and occasionally is transferred to other matters."

Here is what is says about:
"where's the beef? Where is the substance of this issue? This expression began life as an advertising slogan for Wendys, the third-largest American hamburger chain. In a 1984 television commercial, three elderly women are given a small hamburger on a huge bun, a competitor's product. They admire the bun, but one of them, a retired manicurist named Clara Peller, asks, 'Where's the beef?' The slogan caught on, and Walter Mondale, seeking the nomination for president, used it to attack his opponents' stands and policies. The phrase echoes another, much older slang expression, what's the beef? meaning what's the complaint. The use of the noun beef for gripe or complaint dates from the late 1800s. George V. Higgins used it in Deke Hunter (1976), 'I agree with you . . . so what's the beef?'



Go ahead, ask me to look something up.