ill wind that blows no one any good, it’s/’tis an

Someone or other usually benefits from a misfortune or loss. This expression appeared in John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection and several of Shakespeare’s plays. Today it remains current, often shortened simply to an ill wind. Laurence McKinney punned on it in People of Note (1940), saying of the notoriously difficult oboe, “It’s an ill wood wind [sic] no one blows good.”