What the Heck is a Ball of Wax?

I've been thinking a lot about phrases and words that we hear that are mispronounced, misused, or they're just "mystery" words or phrases that get me thinking about their origins.  The other day I heard a lawyer use the phrase "whole ball of wax".  That's one of those phrases I hear, but I don't know where it came from.  I thought the correct word might actually be "bailiwick" and it has just gotten misused so often that the phrase became "ball of wax".  I was wrong.  Ball of wax is the correct phrase to use when someone means all of something.  By the way, bailiwick would be completely wrong, once again proving that I'm frequently incorrect.

In an effort to rehabilitate my reputation, however, here are a couple of words that are said wrong, or spelled wrong that I happen to know about.  Jibe.  People often say "That doesn't jive."  The correct word is "jibe", unless you're interested in "jive talking", a la the Bee Gees.  Jibe means to be in accord or agree.

Gypped is another good one.  I've seen it spelled out like "J-I-P-P-E-D.   It's possible that gypped is a short form for Gypsy.

This brings me to my pet peeve, and I'm hoping someone can either correct me, or tell me I'm right.  When talking about someone taking a plea in a criminal matter in the past tense I always thought the correct word is "plead", as in "He plead guilty to the murder."  But on TV and radio they say "pleaded".  Likewise, in the newspaper it's written P-L-E-A-D-E-D.  Can someone tell me who is right?  These are the kinds of things that court reporters think about.

Court reporters brains are wired similarly.  When I worked in a pool setting (not a swimming pool) with other reporters at the DA's Office we all seemed to like the same types of games, Sudoku, Mahjong.  We also all liked to knit or keep our hands busy in some way.  Is that a common characteristic of us reporters?  Let me know if you like these same types of things.

I often wonder what makes one person able to do this job, while another can't.  Maybe it's the way our brains function.  I'm going to start a list of characteristics right now to be a successful court reporter.  Please add your own.  Fidgety hands.  A mind that likes to keep busy (otherwise known as an inability to relax).  Well organized.  Able to multi-task mentally and physically.  Ability to think very quickly.

These are all positive attributes.  I'm going to throw in some negatives now.   Perfectionist.  Intolerance for working with other people.  Nosey.  Opinionated.

And by the way, there's only theories on where the phrase "ball of wax" came from, but one theory is that wax is a substance to which almost anything will stick, and it also takes on the impression of most anything that is placed against it so that's where the meaning of everything may have come from.

I'm going to add to the list of characteristics the desire to know small useless details like this.