This week's idiom is, "La fin des haricots." Literally
translated as, "the end of the beans," it means that the
situation is disastrous, that it's all over, and that all hope
is gone. Sounds depressing? Wait! It is in fact a colloquial
expression that is most often used humorously, with a measure of
irony. It may refer to 1) a situation that really is serious,
but of which the speaker is trying to make light, 2) a situation
that seems terrible in the heat of the moment, but isn't that
significant in the grand scheme of things, or 3) a trivial
situation, the importance of which the speaker wants to
exaggerate for comic effect. Example: "Si on perd ce client,
c'est la fin des haricots !" "If we lose this client, it's the
end of the beans!" (This exemplifies usage 1 or 2, depending on
how much you depend on the client.) Listen to the idiom and
example read aloud: (If no player appears, here's a link to the
audio file.) This expression is fairly recent -- it appeared in
the early twentieth century -- and it refer