Everything but the kitchen sink

SEELEY LAKE – A family from Missoula coming to enjoy a day on Seeley Lake might load up the car with a cooler, beach chairs, sand toys, blow-up floats, fishing gear, snorkels ... At which point dad will probably say, "My gosh, we're taking everything but the kitchen sink!"

It's unknown just how that phrase, and its variant "...kitchen stove," "kitchen range" came about, but it has been in use since the early 1900s. A May 6, 1906 article in "Scribner's Magazine" carried the sentence, "She had on everything but the kitchen stove, and yet she looked well dressed."

In fact, early references includ...