There's the rub This idiom means: There's the snag/problem. You have a plan that seems perfect apart from the fact that mum will never agree to it. There's the rub! The 'rub' is a small fault in a bowling (the outdoor type on grass) or golf green. The ball is rolling along nicely, but suddenly it changes direction because of a rub in the green. The phrase has become very popular in English because Shakespeare used it in probably the most famous speech he ever wrote. Hamlet is unhappy; his father has died and his mother got remarried. He has also seen a ghost, and he no longer trusts his girlfriend. He wonders whether to commit suicide: 'To be, or not to be - that is the question: ... To die, to sleep - To sleep - perchance [perhaps] to dream: ay, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death what dreams may come ... ... Must give us pause [make us hesitate] ...' So, Hamlet is saying: maybe death would bring peace, but one cannot be sure of it - there's the rub! Since death may not solve anything, he decides to live on. Make a mountain out of a molehill Moles are small animals that live underground. They dig tunnels to move around, occasionally pushing up the earth they have removed and forming small molehills. Unless you are a careful gardener, molehills are not major things. They do not deserve comparison with mountains. We use this phrase when we are frustrated with someone who is making a big issue out of a minor problem. You are on a picnic and everyone is enjoying themselves. But you see some ants and start screaming, saying you want to move to another place. Unless they are fire ants, you are making a mountain out of a molehill. If you are five minutes late for something, you would expect to apologise. But if there is great drama, with everyone shouting at you and threatening punishment, you might think they are making a mountain out of a molehill. The phrase first appeared in a book from the 1540s, along with an older one about making an elephant out of a fly. Actually, a molehill did once become a mountain and affect British history. Britain's soldier king, William III, died after falling off his horse which had tripped on a molehill.