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Tamara and I frequented a tea house called Tempest Tea in Highland Park last winter. Apparently, there's more to that name than meets the eye, and I was unaware of it until this morning.

A fellow Mensan wrote a post to my Mensa mailing list that contained the phrase "more tempest than teapot," which inspired my reply of "what does that mean?"

Our resident librarian directed us to this page at Wikipedia. The Teapot Dome scandal involved the illegal leasing of oil reserves in Wyoming and California by Senator cum Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall (R-New Mexico) to private corporations in exchange for no interest personal loans and other bribes.

Thus, the phrase "tempest in a teapot" (not mentioned at Wikipedia) was coined, and its use means something like, well, that's an awfully big storm for such a small space.

Naming a tea shop Tempest Tea was clever, indeed.