BS: Fun bits of trivia

Subject: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 01:48 AM

Don't know if all of these are the gospel-truth, but they are fun for speculation anyway...enjoy:

Did you know? Truth or Balderdash?

In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are limbs, therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, "Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg."

As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year! (May and October) Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. The wigs couldn't be washed, so to clean them they could carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term "big wig." Today we often use the term "here comes the Big Wig" because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.

(REALLY NOT sure of the veracity of THIS one!)

In the late 1700s, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board was folded down from the wall and used for dining. The "head of the household" always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Once in a while, a guest (who was almost always a man) would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. Sitting in the chair, one was called the "chair man." Today in business we use the expression or title "Chairman or Chairman of the Board."

Needless to say, personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told "mind your own bee's wax." Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term "crack a smile." Also, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt and therefore the expression "losing face."

Ladies wore corsets which would lace up in the front. A tightly tied lace was worn by a proper and dignified lady as in "straight laced."

Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the "ace of Spades." To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't "playing with a full deck."

Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars who were told to "go sip some ale" and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. "You go sip here" and "You go sip there." The two words "go sip" were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term "gossip."

At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint-and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in "pints" and who was drinking in "quarts," hence the term "minding your 'P's and Q's."

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem... how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". (And all this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?)

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 02:36 AM

Oh, this is fun! But, we've seen the brass monkey stuff before.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: semi-submersible
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 05:31 AM

I have always assumed a properly worn corset was supposed to be tightly or "strait-laced" and that "straight" was a misspelling. Does anyone have an Oxford English Dictionary or similarly authoritative source to check this out?

I get a whiff of steer manure reading most of these. They're rather strained. For instance in real life, beeswax is used in cosmetics only when mixed in something more spreadable, for the obvious reasons. Or in another case, must we assume a slang designation for pints and quarts, which would have to be widely known to give rise to a ubiquitous saying, would thereafter have disappeared without a trace? Lowercase p's & q's, like b's & d's, get mixed up all the time (and a regular nightmare for printers - letters on moveable type have to be reversed).

So in the same spirit as the author of the stuff above, here's something a friend forwarded to me.

Maureen

> This came from my friend Nollaig MacKenzie:

    Mahatma Ghandi walked barefoot everywhere, to the point that his feet became quite thick and hard.

    He was also quite a spiritual person. Even when he was not on a hunger strike, he did not eat much and became quite thin and frail.

    Furthermore, due to his diet of raw grains, he ended up with very bad breath.

    Therefore, he came to be known as a:

    Super calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: GUEST,LFF at Work
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 08:19 AM

I thought minding your P's and Q's simply meant being polite - P for please and Q for the q sound in thank you.

Semi-sub's printer theory would surely apply more to p's and d's or q's and b's, as those pairings resemble each other if one or the other is upside down. Though I suppose they'd all look the same if the printer had been drinking from a quart pot!

LFF

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 08:50 AM

Today's word is coprophiliaphobia...

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 09:56 AM

With a lot of such trivia, surely the word sould be proctoglossolalia?
PS: The corsetry etymology is 'strait laced' as in strait-jacket. Ps and Qs have more to do with printers' pies than publicans' pots, and the brass monkeys have indeed been show to be balls!

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 10:18 AM

hard work & bad words used in getting my Oxford dictionary from under a pile of stuff in an awkward spot, & not forgetting sore fingers, now I have to put it back. Nah, tomorrow will do, maybe.

I knew the 'gos' in gossip was good/god & it comes from goddsib = person related to one in god ie. godparent

strait laced would certainly refer to corset lacing but the Oxford has no reference to the term

in the late 1th century furniture was sparse, but ...

Some of them sound like My Word!

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 12:19 PM

'Big wig' referred to the actual size of the wig, not it's fluffed up size. Take a look at the old portraits.

'Beeswax' is a slang construction from the early part of the century, a nonsense term. (ie. in the sense given)

Chairman of the Board? Picture every one sitting on the floor except for one person on a chair. It won't work. Again, look at old paintings. You won't find that set up anywhere.

'Mind your p's and q's.' supposedly arose in medieval scriptoria.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 12:54 PM

Most, if not all, are nonsense. The person who did it -- and I've seen such before -- shoulda oughta have checked with their library first.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Amos
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 02:14 PM

This another crop of un-researched imaginary etymologies with little to recommend it except a certain fun humor. Strait-laced, for example, (NOT straight-laced) means what it says -- tightly constrained by lacing.

Acquiring etymology from the illiterate is certainly a good way to lose the thread of semantic history.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 02:22 PM

maybe so , but I'm sure it was a well meant attempt to entertain us. Anyway perhaps some people were bigwigs cos of that , and maybe there was only one chair in some houses - thats the whole point of trivial, its trivial - hopefully not too much rides on these weightless matters.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 01:23 AM

Today's word is hydrocoproaphobia...

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Splott Man
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 07:45 AM

This may have been posted elsewhere, but I thought the brass monkey story was attributed to Frank Muir and/or Denis Norden as a made up story in the BBC programme My Word, some time in the 50s or 60s

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 09:58 AM

My Word, Splott Man

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 10:48 AM

Balderdash! That's what it is and 'twas only meant for fun as the title says...sheesh whadda buncha pent-antz!

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Amos
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 11:28 AM

AW, I'm sorry I mouthed off atya Kat -- I just get PO'd at this kind of inaccuracy being promoted around the internet as though it were scholarship.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: freda underhill
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 11:32 AM

long words are like turds.

Subject: RE: BS: Fun bits of trivia
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 12:18 PM

Nah - Turds is a pretty short word realy. Now effluent, anal secretions or pre-treated sewage and we are talking long...

:D