Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, both good and bad can be described with lime and sand.

When something goes well in one way and badly in another, people say una de cal y otra de arena, literally one of lime and one of sand. Cal means lime and arena means sand. The expression is still used in conversation and in newspaper headlines.

Its origin is less well known. Before cement, mortar was mixed from lime and sand, one shovelful at a time. Lime was expensive and sand was cheap, so anyone wanting to save money used more sand.

Today, few people know which ingredient is meant to be the good one. The expression was once longer: one of lime and one of sand make a good mixture.