Lore

Thread the needle

Three meanings hide inside one small idiom, and the third one is why Norn now has to absolve her browser.

Thread the needle - Literally - goes without saying. As an idiom - risky business. Putting it in your profile on a dating site (or rather a dating app, in this day and age) may bring you unexpected consequences (although Freud would probably say it was all subconsciously on purpose). More commonly, that’s how we describe a feat of precision (whoever has tried to thread the needle knows). But there is also a third, fringe meaning, which refers to certain goings-on that usually (though not always) take place in bed, between two people in circumstances, shall we say in flagrante, during which the needle is threaded inside someone. Usually (according to the Internet, Norn didn’t know, Norn blushed) said needling tends to take the form of going in behind enemy lines…ahem, allied lines. Now I have to absolve my browser.