Thing Not To Do Today: get in a tizzy.

 Stay calm.

You may have smashed a honey jar while minding next-door's toddler and been so busy separating the mess and the child that you've neglected the frying pan and set off every smoke alarm in the house, but approach the situation with a clear and logical mind...

...oh well, all right: sometimes the headless-chicken routine is as good a response as anything.

I can only advise keeping a wooden spoon to hand so you can reach the fire alarm off-switch. That, and keeping your honey in a plastic bottle.

There's not much you can do about the toddler, though. They get everywhere.

DEEEEP breathhhhh...

Thing Not To Do Today: get in a tizzy. This is an 1800s expression of mysterious origin. Some claim it as 1930s American, and speak of the word tizzy meaning sixpenny piece, or Tizzy, a character in a 1930s cartoon. I just note that tizzy sounds very like the word dizzy - and that testa is the Italian for head.

Sometimes tizzy is shortened to tizz, or lengthened to tiz-woz. It's a reaction to a minor but complex problem. No one gets in a tizzy in tragic circumstances, but they might if they were trying simultaneously to answer a query on the phone and plait someone's hair in the middle of writing a shopping list.