"Half the battle", and exploding brain

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/4/2013 04:25 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>One of the Super Bowl commercials, the one for Jeep about troops returning
>home, had the following line:
>
>"Half the battle is knowing that this is half the battle."
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FadwTBcvISo
>
>My brain promptly exploded, but when I had put it back together again,

I have recently learned (although not from Wikipedia) about
"exploding brain syndrome", one of the parasomnias.  "Exploding head
syndrome is a form of hypnagogic auditory hallucination in which the
sufferer sometimes experiences a sudden loud noise coming from within
their own head. The noise is brief and is usually likened to an
explosion, roar, gunshot, door slamming, loud voices or screams, a
ringing noise, or the sound of electrical arcing (buzzing)."

>I wondered whether we know the origin of "half the battle" as a phrase.
>Anyone?
>
>DanG

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