gang aft a-gley
version is Scots dialect, and comes from Robert Burns' poem “To a Mouse.”) •Jill: I reserved a hotel room for us three weeks ago, but now the clerk says he has no record of our reservation. So much for our fun weekend in the city. Jane: Well, these things happen. The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.
•I had all the arrangements made for my party, and then the guest of honor got sick and I had to call the whole thing off. The bestlaid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley.
•If a little rain can ruin the best-laid plans of mice and men, think what an earthquake might do!