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Reader question: Please explain this headline: Gloves came off in Democratic debate (FoxNews.com, March 8, 2016). My comments: This means the debate among Democratic candidates are heating up. The fight for presidential nomination between Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders (among others) is getting fierce and serious. So fierce and serious that the candidates are perhaps beginning to call each other bad names and are prepared to do whatever else it takes to hurt and beat their rivals. That’s what happens when they decide to take the gloves off. The question is, what gloves? The gloves, of course, are metaphorical and proverbial here. Actually, I’ve written more than once about these gloves (as in, the glove are off) but it is an interesting enough expression to warrant another full explanation than for me to simply say: Read my column on such and such a date for an answer. The gloves, you see, originally refer to the gloves boxers wear in a boxing match. If you watch boxing on TV, you’ll notice that fighters each wear a thick pair of leather gloves with which to hit the opponent. The gloves are big, thickly padded so as to prevent injury both to opponents and fighters themselves. Needless to say, gloves provide a cushion preventing boxers from hurting their own fists while they also help lessen the pain when opponents get hit. After all, boxing as a sport is an exercise for body building and entertainment, rather than seriously hurting someone. | 
