APAD: Much ado about nothing

Meaning:

    a great deal of fuss over a thing of little importance

 

Background:

   The phrase `much ado about nothing' is best known to us as the title of

   Shakespeare's play, which he published in 1599. He had used the word ado,

   which means business or activity, in an earlier play - Romeo and Juliet,

   1592:

 

     "Weele keepe no great adoe, a Friend or two."

 

   Ado, or as it was more commonly spelled in Tudor England, adoe was a widely

   used word at that time.

 

   Shakespeare didn't coin `much ado about nothing', although we probably

   wouldn't consider it part of the language without the boost it got from being

   elevated by him.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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An illiterate woman of small stature and bound feet, my grandma toiled all her

life in her village home, cooking meals, mending clothes, minding kids, and

slopping pigs. The years weren't easy on her generation and many carried

bitterness to old age. Unlike them, grandma sweetened over time and smiled more.

Her face took on a soft pink glow under a shock of wavy snow-white hair, just

like some deity figure in a Chinese new year artwork.

 

She kept asking before I went abroad: ``That far? What for?'' It was two decades

ago yet felt like yesterday and overnight it was my turn to grow graceful. I

wondered if she had it figured out all along and my adventures and exploits had

been much ado about nothing special.