facing facts

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you help me to get to the bosom of expression facing facts in the following sentences?

I wonder for your capacity for facing facts.

Health Promotion and WorkLife Services launched Facing Facts, an on-going program designed to tackle the stigma of mental illness, with the goal to raise awareness, dispel myths and encourage a healthy dialogue about mental illness.

While Barkley continues looking for work to allow him and his wife to live independently again, it is obvious that he has little or no prospect of success. When Lucy continues to speak optimistically of the day that he will find work, her teenage granddaughter bluntly advises her to "face facts" that it will never happen because of his age. Lucy's sad reply is to say that "facing facts" is easy for a carefree 17-year old girl, but that at Lucy's age, the only fun left is "pretending that there ain't any facts to face ... so would you mind if I just kind of went on pretending?"

V.

[5jj]

If you face facts, you accept the harsh realities of life, something most of us are very good at avoiding.

Although the calendar, and the fact that I am drawing an old age pension, suggest that I am not as young as I once was, I tend to think I am every bit as active, mentally and physically, as I was forty years ago. However. I used to be able to dig in my garden for a whole morning with hardly a break. Now my body forces me to take a rest every half hour or so. I have to face the fact that I really am getting old.

ps. In my youth, I did enjoy getting to the bosom of certain ... er .. situations. However, in old age, I accept the the normal expression is 'to get to the heart of something.'

[vil]

Hi fivejedjon,

Thank you for your pictorial explanation.

Thank you also for your correction concerning my elevated writing style. I know, I might also use the expressions come/get down to brass tackle or get to the bottom of. You may rely that you couldn’t imagine how close are bottom and bosom in my distorted mental picture?

What do you think about the expression put somebody through his facing?

I through of putting my son into the wireless business as he seems to keen about it but I’m not sure that he knows enough.
Well, if you like to send him to me on Monday, I’ll put him through his facing and tell you what I think.

facing = military term – turn in a rank (face round about)
put somebody through his facing = to put somebody to test

There is also the expression go through one’s facing.

V.

[5jj]

What do you think about the expression put somebody through his facing?

I through of putting my son into the wireless business as he seems to keen about it but I’m not sure that he knows enough.
Well, if you like to send him to me on Monday, I’ll put him through his facing and tell you what I think.

facing = military term – turn in a rank (face round about)
put somebody through his facing = to put somebody to test

There is also the expression go through one’s facing.

Although, in my inglorious past, I managed to do stints in branches of the British army, navy and air force, I have not come across this expression. This could be because I was a great skiver - definition 2, skiver - definition of skiver by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.