The lead story in today's New York Times is headlined, "Recession Began Last December, Economists Say." The story reports that yesterday the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the U.S. economy has been in recession since December 2007. Then you get to the second paragraph (emphasis mine):

"In declaring that the economy has been in a downturn for almost 12 months, the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed what many Americans had already been feeling in their bones."

How does the Times know what many Americans have been "feeling in their bones"? Does Edmund L. Andrews, who wrote the story, also cover orthopedics? And isn't the appropriate saying here that Americans have been feeling recession pains "in their pocketbooks," not their bones? Based on anecdotal evidence, I can report that all that most Americans feel in their bones is the onset of arthritis and maybe a strange tingling right before a thunderstorm.