Set Up Like A Deck Of Cards

Thanks for the heads up

Yesterday, I used this phrase in an an email to a few people at work.

Today, one of them asked me what the phrase meant. He honestly had no idea, had never heard it before, couldn’t work out what it possibly could mean — it just seemed like random words to him. He thought I’d had some kind of brainfart when I was typing it.

I’m not criticising him — this kind of thing happens to everyone occasionally — but it surprised me that someone could speak English as their only language for over 30 years and never encounter this phrase.

I wonder what things there are that I don’t know that would surprise other people. Because I want to know those things.