Time to knuckle down

SEELEY LAKE – When school buildings closed because of the Corvid-19 pandemic, teachers devised home assignments for their students. However, with distractions such as toys, TV and video games readily accessible in the home, many students had a hard time focusing on those assignments. And no doubt many a parent was heard to say, “Knuckle down and get to work,” or perhaps “buckle down and get to work.” While the two phrases now mean the same thing, they have different origins.

Knuckle down may sound like a gorilla’s way of walking but the phrase actually refers to the game of marbles. Though pla...