The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
And thereby hangs a tale
An expression, taken from As You Like It, by William Shakespeare, that means roughly “There’s a real story behind this.” It is commonly used by someone who is about to give the background of an interesting object, incident, or idea: “The colonel remarked, ‘See that umbrella over the mantelpiece? It saved my life during the war, and thereby hangs a tale.’”
