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Reader question: In this sentence – the deadly virus, which came as a bolt from the blue for Microsoft users in the West, possesses the arsenal to destroy “Sector Zero” from the hard disk – what does “from the blue” mean? What blue? My comments: Here it means Microsoft users were utterly unprepared for the advent of this deadly virus, which is capable of destroying “Sector Zero” (which, by the way, is completely beyond yours truly) from the hard disk. “The bolt from the blue” is a beautiful American idiom. Blue refers to the blue sky. Bolt, of course, refers to a lightening bolt, which is normally observed in a heavy rain storm. When lightening strikes from a clear sky, it, well, shocks people. It is a rare occasion to be sure. I’ve never seen a bolt from the blue personally but have seen something similar. I remember playing hide and seek with pals as a kid when we saw a father of one of the boys come back home riding a bicycle. It was sunny with a few sparkling white clouds overhead but the man was soaking wet, with water dripping from his face and trousers. He had caught a rain shower, or the rain caught him, in the street next ours. “I thought nothing of it as I could see the sun shining,” he explained to a chorus of curious laughter, “but it became heavier and heavier. And before you know, I was like this. Apparently, it seemed all that rain dropped on my head.” At any rate, even though a bolt from the blue is rarely seen as a phenomenon, the idiom is pretty commonplace in use and it means, remember, total surprise. | 
