Reader question:

What does "Plan B" mean, as in this headline: "'Do it yourself' is free trade's best 'Plan B'"?

My comments:

"Plan B" refers to an alternative to the original plan – something to fall back upon when the original plan fails. Or to use a business term, it's a "contingency plan", contingency referring to something unpredictable (and undesirable) that may happen in future, causing disruptions to your original plan.

In short, Plan B is your second option. Obviously, Plan B alludes to Plan A, the first option, the ideal course of action to take. However, "Plan A" is not as popular an idiom as Plan B. And that perhaps has something to do with the popularity of a contraceptive pill.

Plan B, you see, is also a trade mark, the name of the popular emergency contraceptive pill which was approved by American Food and Drug Administration as a prescription contraceptive in 1999. Anyone over the age of 18 can buy them over the counter (in other words, easily) in many cities in the United States.

Taken orally, Plan B is "a progestin-only emergency contraceptive designed to prevent pregnancy within 72 hours after a contraceptive accident or unprotected sex" (Medterms.com) – hence the name, and quite an apt name it is too.

Anyways, with the economy veering towards global recession, more and people are talking about Plan Bs, and usually without mentioning Plan As – presumably having long been thrown out the window.

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