Be careful when calling ads “rip-offs.”

The first known use of the phrase “high, wide and hand­some” appeared in the Bucks County Gazette, Novem­ber 1881: “Among the many improve­ments on Mar­ket Street, few are so con­spic­u­ous as the high, wide and hand­some build­ing on the cor­ner of Eighth Street.” Since then, the expres­sion has com­monly been used in auto-racing cir­cles to describe a par­tic­u­larly aggres­sive style of dri­ving. (Lit­tle known fact: “High, Wide and Hand­some” was the orig­i­nal title of the Will Fer­rell movie “Tal­ladega Nights.”) It’s also the title of a 2009 Grammy-winning folk album by Loudon Wain­wright III. To us, though, it’s come to rep­re­sent a resource­ful, relent­less and utterly com­pre­hen­sive approach to accom­plish­ing a task. As we like to say, “Hold noth­ing back…go high, wide and handsome.”