In light of current events.....

[kieefer]

All is not lost. Unplug for a minute and take your mind off things;

 

 

Where did "Piss Poor" come from? Interesting history.They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a
pot.   And then once it was full it was taken and sold to the tannery...  if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...They "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.

 

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 1500's

 

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were
starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. 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 house 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 fall 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 the floor to help keep their footing.  As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door,

it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.  Hence: 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 them 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 the 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; “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, â€œsaved by the bell" or was "considered

a dead ringer."  And that's the truth.

Now, whoever said history was boring!!!

 

So get out there and educate someone!   Share these facts with a friend.

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering,  "What the heck happened?"

We'll be friends until we are old and senile.  Then we'll be new friends.

 

Smile, it gives your face something to do!

[Raoul]

Huzzah! Thanks Kieefer.

[thundersnow]

Well played sir...

[daveW]

Good read...funny how things come about.

[Guest cardcutter]

Thanks.We needed that.

Edited December 18, 2012 by cardcutter

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I have to say I learned a lot from that, kieffer. That was great!

[AdotOdot4]

Thanks for the education!

I find it pretty amazing that these phrases have survived for so long.

[kieefer]

thanks for the likes  :woohoo: 

 

feel free to add to it.

 

 

Quotes from pages of a 1912 Third National Bank book;

• It is not what you earn, but what you save that makes you independent.

 

• The secret of success is not so much in knowing how to make money as in the ability to hang on to it.

​

• The substantial wealth of rich people of the world came through their habits of saving.

 

• Habitual savers can never be poor. In seasons of prosperity provide for seasons of want.

 

• A good bank account is exceedingly comforting in times of need.

 

• Do not hesitate to lay aside a reasonable portion of your income.

 

• Where one man gets rich through hazardous speculation, a hundred get poor.

 

• Where one mans stays poor, through the slow methods of saving, a hundred get rich.

 

• The wise earner makes a present sacrifice for future comfort.

 

• Shape your affairs so that you can deposit at least a small sum every week.

 

• Deny yourself present luxuries that you may have them in plenty later on.

 

• Lean not upon others. Rely upon your own strength.

 

• Earn your own dollars. Save and deposit as many of these dollars as you can.

 

• Educate your children to save by setting a good example.

 

 

 

.

Edited December 18, 2012 by kieefer

[runco]

Another wrinkle in the brain, thanks!

Edited December 18, 2012 by Runco

[kieefer]

http://youtu.be/XRCIzZHpFtY

 

pretty cool

[canadienmike]

While it might be entertaining alas, it's not true

http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp

[kieefer]

While it might be entertaining alas, it's not true

http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp

:-\  well fine then.

 

debunk this  :squint:

 

 

 

 

If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on the right side of your mouth.

If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on the left side of your mouth.

 

To make half a kilo of honey, bees must collect nectar from over 2 million individual flowers.

 

Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by 'Bayer'.

 

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

 

People in nudist colonies play volleyball more than any other sport .

 

Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined.

 

Astronauts can't belch - there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

 

Ancient Roman, Chinese and German societies often used urine as mouthwash.

 

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. In the Renaissance era, it was fashion to shave them off!

 

Because of the speed at which Earth moves around the Sun, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.

 

The night of January 20 is "Saint Agnes's Eve", which is regarded as a time when a young woman dreams of her future husband.

 

Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros .

 

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

 

Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of years .

 

Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end .

 

If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

 

Each year 2,000,000 smokers either quit smoking or die of tobacco-related diseases.

 

Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.

 

Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.

 

The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.

 

Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.

 

Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450?F.

 

The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

 

Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean.

 

The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.

 

Airports at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.

 

The University of Alaska spans four time zones.

 

The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.

 

In ancient Greece ,tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.

 

Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday.

 

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

 

A comet's tail always points away from the sun.

 

The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent.

 

Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines.

 

The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.

 

If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.

 

When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight.

 

In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.

 

Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.

 

Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.

 

The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year.

 

The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

 

Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters.

 

Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy.

 

Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down.

 

Everything weighs one percent less at the equator.

 

For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at lift-off.

 

The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.

 

And last but not least: In 2012, December has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays. This apparently happens once every 823 years! This is called 'money bags'.

 

So send this on to 5 and money will arrive in 5 days. Based on Chinese Feng Shui, the one who does not pass this on will have money troubles for the rest of the year.

 

 

:rofl: