Gangbusters.

This morning on Today, Katie Couric told actress Jennifer Coolidge, "Things are going gangbusters for you..." I thought, there must be millions of people who use that word and have no idea where it came from. Well, you don't have to rely on the memories of older people like me; today we have Google, and the millions who are cluttering the cyber-mind with such apparently useless information. Just Google Gangbusters, or go directly to one of the links that pop up, at Random House's Mavens' Word of the Day. You can even find a place to buy recordings of the original Gangbusters radio show, one of the great cop shows of the Thirties and Forties, and, eventually, listen to its opening seconds--a burst of gunfire, sirens, and like that--the source of the original simile..."[He] comes on like Gangbusters."

Sorry, I just can't get over the Internet.