> my metaphors are going to be extremely mixed for the next while. after my bike trip, i have no clue where some of our metaphors come from... namely, uphill and downhill. now, everyone will say that "things are going uphill" or "looking up" means that things are going well, while "downhill" means bad. howEVER.... on a bike, and walking, and in just about every mode of trnasportation sans motor powered vehicles, uphill is HARD. DOWNHILL is what you look forward to, because it's easy, it's fun. NObody on a bike says "yay, an uphill! ladadeedadum, i'm going up, wow this is easy and fun and nice... oh darn, i'm going down again. i hate not having to pedal and going 32 miles per hour! gosh darn it!" so why do we say that in life? i'm giong to have fun confusing people from now on... "yay, i've finally turned in all 5 of my term papers! it's all downhill from here!" i just thought i'd offer that random thought.
>
> uni"my life's pretty uphill right now"peg

Um, I thought that "uphill" and "downhill" were used in the intuitive way that you'd expect, such as "it's an uphill struggle" (bad), and "it's all downhill from here" (good) -- you've actually used that one yourself. "Uphill" *does* usually mean an unpleasant and taxing effort, and "downhill" usually means a chance to coast effortlessly along. Same as you'd expect from the bicycling analogy.

There are superficially similar expressions that make "uphill" seem positive, like "on top of the hill", "king of the hill", "on the up and up" -- but these aren't exactly the same thing. There are "downhill" expressions that seem negative, like "on a downward slide", but that's not really the same thing either.

In conclusion, I have no idea why I've bothered to jump in and clobber you over the head with dry, dull commentary on the use of "uphill" and "downhill". Must have been that unendurably boring three-hour meeting I just sat through. Sorry for taking it out on an innocent, convenient target like yourself. :-)

Iss "Hill's Angel" achar