English idioms

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Blessing in disguise : Something good that isn't recognized at first.
Speak of the devil! : This expression is used when the person you have just been talking about arrives.

Digging a hole: creating a worse situation

The most common animal in English idioms is horses.

Some are obvious: Beating a dead horse, neck and neck,ahead by a nose, horse of a different color, riding roughshod, never look a gift horse in the mouth, a real work horse, horsing around, horseplay.

Others are more obscure,but are also connected to horses.

The phrase "that really gets my goat" comes from the practice of providing a thoroughbred race horse with a goat as a companion while the horse is being shipped around to the race tracks around the country. If a rival wanted to sabotage your horses performance he might steal your horse's goat friend to mess up the horse's psychological fitness.

The phrase "Hobson's choice", meaning "the choice between what is offered, or nothing at all" comes from Mr. Hobson, a guy who rented horses in London in the 18th Century (kind of the Hertz of his day).

^^ That's very useful to know.

Method to my madness : An assertion that, despite one's approach seeming random, there actually is structure to it.

Barking up the wrong tree: looking in the wrong place

Let the cat out of the bag: reveal a secret

A hot potato :
Speak of an issue (mostly current) which many people are talking about and which is usually disputed

elephant in the room

Well, it's not just any "hot topic", or just anything "contraversial".

The game of "hot potato" is when someone tosses a freshly baked potato in the air, and everyone else catches it, and instantly tosses it (while in pain)to someone else because you cant hold on to it because its so hot.

So metaphorically "a hot potato" is something undesirable that everyone tries to get rid of by "tossing it" to someone else.

Hard to think of an example. Maybe your state needs a toxic waste dump, and everyone agrees that its needed but no one wants it in their backyard. So the future location becomes "a hot potato" tossed from county to county.

Maybe not in my backyard (NIMBY) can count as an idiom at this point. I like the acronym of its logical consequence: BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything); in short, BAN.

Putting the cart before the horse: doing things backwards or in the wrong order

Counting your chicks before they hatch: counting on something before it's a sure thing

Long standing: of long duration or existence

Wow!! What educational posters, you guys!! I didn't expect at all, Ooh ye~a~~h!! I'll be more serious from now on like naturalplastic.

Acknowledgment of someone's unexpected arrival. The complete expression is “speak of the devil and he will appear,” which is nothing that superstitious people wanted to have happen. As such a cautionary tale, the expression was not used in jest until the late 19th century. That's when responding to an unanticipated appearance with “speak of the devil” lost its dark satanic connotation.

@SpiderPig - I don't think they're idioms but they should be here. Very very helpful. I actually wrote them down on my note.
More please!!

‘To hear it through the grapevine’ is linked by some linguists to the invention of the telegraph, which was publicly demonstrated in 1844 by Samuel Morse in the US. This revolutionary invention was compared to the winding and twisting tendrils of a vine. In Australia, a similar expression is 'bush telegraph', originally a means of communication between indigenous populations through drum beats, but now referring to an informal means of spreading gossip or rumours; Hearing something through informal channels or an unofficial source/contact, such as family members or friends.

Related idioms
Chinese whispers, also a parlour game - it refers to a course of action by which a message is passed on from one person to another, changing along the way
Hot off the press - meaning finding out something through a news article that has just been published
To keep someone posted - meaning to keep somebody informed on a situation
Word of mouth - meaning information conveyed through a conversation

(I've copied and pasted from googling, I'm not the original writer of this info)

"Canary in a Coal Mine"

According to Wikipedia, this refers to caged canaries (birds) that miners of old would carry down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately. For some mining operations, miners took turns "Watching the Birdie" - a term that was later picked up by photographers.

Nowadays, it means something that is sensitive to increases in adverse or hazardous conditions, such as when a corporation starts cutting back on night shift operations, and lays off temporary and part-time workers - this usually means that the general economy is about to take a downturn.

51/49
A beautiful lesbian who isn't completely sure that she isn't over dick.

Yes. This expression is kind of the lost twin of the other old idiom "Buying a pig in a poke".

A "poke" is a "bag". So if you're medeaval farmer buying what you hope is additional livestock for your farm (a pig) you dont want to buy it from some guy who wont let you see what you're buying (that thing squirming in the bag he is holding). But if the guy looses his grip on the bag and the worthless ally cat escapes then "he has let the cat out of the bag".