The term initially makes the third grade boy in me giggle inappropriately a little. (Visually that wouldn't make sense). My first time hearing the term, I was working in a city emergency room when one of the ER physician told an EMS dispatcher that we (the ER department) were, "balls to the wall and couldn't accept anymore trauma patients". I couldn't imagine what he meant by that. Now, this was in Montgomery, Alabama and many of our ER physicians were from the country for which we heard many odd antiquated terms and informed about many unusual home remedies for everyday ailments. Needless to say, I was a little dumbfounded on the term, "balls to the wall". There were only two other male staff members that evening, so I assumed there was not a gender meaning, as my inner third grade boy would giggle about. Obviously in context, I felt the physician meant we were too busy or overloaded with work. In a general conversation with my mother, I got a little different reply. Now, if you have ever met my mother you could literally hear her reply. "It means the shit has hit the fan". Tasteful. Later, when I took up a administrative position at a hospital in Atlanta, the term was used again in a meeting. This time, everyone stopped what they were doing, and turned to look at this individual asking if they just said, "balls to the wall". The person put their head down in shame and said yes they had. This started a round of laughter around the room that confused me even more. Here I was shaming myself in Alabama for thinking the balls in balls to the wall meant something related to male genitalia, and now in a professional meeting with colleagues in Atlanta, Georgia, the implied meaning was of a perverse nature. So, this meant that I was on fact finding mission. According to on online site that describes the root of words and terms, the phase came from airplane pilots. The throttle for the fuel had a handle in the shape of a ball and when the pilots needed more speed for take off or to get through a tough area, they would say, put the "ball to the wall", the wall of the front of the cockpit. Well ... that meaning wasn't at all what I was expecting. My take away is to use the phrase when you want to get going and plow through an obstacle, to put the pedal to the metal or burn the midnight oil. (Those terms are for another blog at an other time).
The phrase balls to the wall, meaning an all-out effort, comes from the world of aviation. On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and the fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (what else?) balls. Pushing the balls forward, close to the front wall of the cockpit increases the amount of fuel going to the engines and results in the highest possible speed.
