Did You Know?

[KarlS]

Q: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left?

A: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right! And that's where women's buttons have remained since.

 

Q: Why do ships and aircraft use 'mayday' as their call for help?

A: This comes from the French word m'aidez -meaning 'help me' -- and is pronounced, approximately, 'mayday.'

Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called 'love'?

A: In France, where tennis became popular, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called 'l'oeuf,' which is French for 'egg.' When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans (mis)pronounced it 'love.'

Q. Why do X's at the end of a letter signify kisses?

A: In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called 'passing the buck'?

A: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would 'pass the buck' to the next player.

Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

 

 

 

 

Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be 'in the limelight'?

 

 

A: Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre,a performer 'in the limelight' was the centre of attention.

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Why is someone who is feeling great 'on cloud nine'?

A: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

Q: In golf, where did the term 'Caddie' come from?

A. When Mary Queen of Scots went to France as a young girl,Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game 'golf.' So he had the first course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this a lot and when returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced 'ca-day' and the Scots changed it into 'caddie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?

A: Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense orange clay called 'pygg'. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as 'pygg banks.' When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig. And it caught on.

Q: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches (milling), while pennies and nickels do not?

A: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren't notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

[slick97spirit]

love stuff like this.....more....more!

[Sailor]

"It is no use flogging a dead horse"

In the days of iron men and wooden ships the sailors would collect their pay form a trip and spend it on bad booze and naughty women. They would soon be broke and go looking for another ship to sign on with. They would collect a months pay in advance. In those days a debt was called a "dead horse" and anyone who was in debt was said to be carrying or dragging a dead horse. Flogging was the standard punishment for just about anything on board ship. Flogging a sailor who was carrying a dead horse just wasn't worth while as he would not do much work until he had worked off the debt and started getting paid.

 

"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"

 

Between decks on the old sailing ship was generally less than 5 ft in height. I have been on the Cutty Sark and the Golden Hind replica. I had to duck walk along the deck. Young boys, 10-12 years old were used to run bags of gunpowder from the magazine up to the cannons because they were short enough to do it quickly. They were known as "Powder Monkeys". The cannonballs were held in brass hoops mounted alongside the cannons. They became known as "Brass Monkeys". Brass does not expand or contract, iron does. When it got cold enough the iron balls would contract and fall through the brass hoops.

 

Flogging was the standard punishment on board ship. The whip was "the Cat O'Nine Tails"

It had nine strands which could be knotted or even have bits of metal in them. It was kept in a black bag. If you "let the cat out of the bag" you were in trouble. Since there was "not enough room to swing a cat" below decks punishment was carried out on deck where the sailor would be tied to the mast or a hatch cover or even "over a barrel"

[mbrood]

"cold enough to freeze"

 

Actually there is no such thing. The rolling deck of a fighting ship was kept clear of anything not required for sailing. Balls and powder were kept below decks and passed up as required during batle. Can you imagine a bunch of 10 pound shot rolling around on a pitching deck? Neither could they.

[Monty]

This is a brass monkey. They did exist.

[Sailor]

Those are not the brass monkeys from ships. There is no way a pyramid of balls would last on a sailing ship. Those are pictures of cannon balls at some shore based facility. The brass hoops held the balls secure and they did not roll around. In extreme weather they could be moved below decks. The balls would sink almost half way through the hoops keeping them secure.

 

" The Devil to Pay"

 

On wooden sailing ships the seams between the planks was calked or "payed" with tar and oakum or "small stuff". Sometimes a ship could spring a bad leak in mid ocean which the pumps could not keep up with. In such a case all the cargo and anything else movable would be shifted to one side and the ship turned broadside to the wind to heel it over and lift the seam out of the water. A sailor, usually an unpopular one, would be lowered over the side. The lowest seam, nearest the keel was the hardest to get at and was called "the devil" . In that case the sailor was "between the devil and the deep blue sea" and " had the devil to pay".

[SilvrT]

now now boys... let's not fight over a monkey's balls ... :rotf:

[twigg]

The "Brass Monkey" explanation was a: held by me for a long time and b: disproven quite a while ago.

 

It's a cute explanation but it isn't true

 

Mainly for the reasons above, but also because the relative differences in expansion coefficients are far too small to cause this to happen.

[greg_in_london]

'Cold enough to freeze the knockers off a brass monkey', shortened to plain 'brassy' I always understood to be a local cockney phrase. Posh people had relatively ornate door knockers - whether lion, monkey or 'green man' shaped, cast in bronze with a knocker on a loop going through the mouth.

 

It was a simple double entendre as the effects of cold weather were well known to east end Victorian gentlemen and knickers was (is) a euphemism for a gentleman's hows-yer-father's.

 

taters - or potatos is another word for cold - as in potato mould.