---

[michb]

Thought this was "food for thought".

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because. The water
temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500s:

These are interesting...

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly Bath in May,
and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell,
so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the Body odour. Hence the
custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the household
had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men,
then the women and finally the children. Last of all, the babies. By then
the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the
saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other
small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became
slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and off the roof. Hence the
saying: "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a
real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up
your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the
top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence
the saying "dirt poor."

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet
, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the
winter wore on, they adding more thresh until when you opened the door it
would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the
entranceway. Hence the saying "a thresh hold."

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always
hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.
They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the
stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then
start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there
for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,
peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made t m feel quite special. When
visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a
sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a
little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid Content
caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning
death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or
so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the
loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes
knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road
would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on
the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around
and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom
of holding a "wake.

"England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places
to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a
"bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25
coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized
they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist
of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie
it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the
"graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by
the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."


And that's the truth... Now, whoever said that History was boring!

[Doc-Holiday]

I love history.. glad I'm not part of it

[dfiremann]

Now that is some of the most interesting history/origin of phrases that I have ever read. Thank you for the contribution!

[Dorganath]

While you're at it, you should look up the origins of the "rule of thumb".

Granted, it's not nearly as pleasant as the rest of the things you listed.

There's also a cool book called "Why you say it?" that's filled with this kind of stuff.

[lunchboxkilla]

Back when computers were the size of homes the term "a bug in the system" was coined when a moth was crushed in one of the many switches that made the the huge computer crash

[NITEMARE2004]

that s xactly right luchbox im suprised to se some one knew that lol. a great example of the is in the movie (pie sign) its called pie except it uses the symboll for pie (3.14)

[dfiremann]

Celgar,

That computer was an Army computer at Ft. Lee, Virginia, if I'm not mistaken.

And I believe Dorganath and I both started with computers when you still entered your punch card.

[Wknight999]

Very interesting I have to say. Thanks for that informative post.