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Reader question: Please explain this sentence, particularly “fat of the land”: Mostly we lived off the fat of the land, but there were lean years. My comments: In a strictly farming sense, this means that the people involved lived comfortably enough in those years, when the weather was good and the harvests were bumper; but there were hardships, too, during the lean years when crops die and food became scarce. Or metaphorically speaking, mostly they lived comfortably without having to do too much due to an abundance of natural resources, except during a few lean years (when, say, people went hungry due to famine caused by drought or some other bad weather). Or something like that. Oh, fat of the land. Fat, as in body fat. If someone has a lot of body fat, you can be sure they have more than enough to eat on a regular basis. “Fat of the land” literally implies rich, fertile soil, or land that grows crops abundantly and easily. Hence, if someone is described as living off the fat of the land, we may infer that they live a rich and comfortable life on a surplus of money and resources, and therefore don’t have to work very hard – in contrast to the poor who have to toil day and night and yet often go hungry and generally don’t have enough of anything. The phrase “fat of the land” comes from the Christian Bible, as Freedictionary.com explains: | 
