Hello Nick;

I am not sure who first coined the phrases, “Burning the midnight oil” and “Cooking the books”. You are right about false accounting being a part of business in the United States. When you get caught then you are, “Cooking the books”! :)

Tom



>Don't know about the Americans. I don't know if they have a phrase for false accounting I think they just call it business :-)(Americans please note thats a joke)
>>Thanks for replying Nicholas!
>>
>>Do you know if these expresions are used by the british only or by the americans as well?
>>
>>Fernando
>>
>>>Right on both interpretations Fernando. Cooking the books is usually any sort of compnay fraud involving false accounting. Enron could be said to have cooked the books in a big way.
>>>
>>>Don't know about the band though
>>>
>>>>Hi,
>>>>
>>>>Last night I was watching a TV series (Inspector Morse - UK - excellent!) and at some point in a dialog came the expression: "he was burning midnight oil", that was translated (in the subtitles) to something like "working late at night".
>>>>
>>>>Later on came the expression: "cooking the books" that althougt wasn't translated I understood as manipulating the ledger of the company to false numbers.
>>>>
>>>>Is that correct?
>>>>
>>>>BTW there was (is) a band called "Midnight Oil", does their name have something to do with the first above?
>>>>
>>>>Regards,
>>>>
>>>>Fernando