Normally I wouldn't do this but...

My wife forwarded this to me and I wonder how much truth there is in it.




"Life in the 1500's

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 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."

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."


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 added 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 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 "upper crust."


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 !"


I don't know who the author is or was.

If I wish really hard will you step into a conveniently open cellar door and fall down and hurt yourself in an amusing yet painful manner. Perhaps it could involve a macaroni sculpture.

Also I'm too lazy to bother picking holes in your piece of crap forwarded email but needless to say large portions of it are wrong or at least dubious.

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

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
If I wish really hard will you step into a conveniently open cellar door and fall down and hurt yourself in an amusing yet painful manner. Perhaps it could involve a macaroni sculpture.

Also I'm too lazy to bother picking holes in your piece of crap forwarded email but needless to say large portions of it are wrong or at least dubious.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm

Originally posted by Ringtailhunter
Thank you, you are a real sweetheart. I am glad to see that you are just [b]not too lazy to post in this thread. I am also glad to see that you can find the time to break away from choking your chicken.
http://www.redhotpawn.com/profile/playerprofile.php?uid=97084

Did I personally step on your toes or are you just a complete wad?

RTh
[/b]

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
I want the world
I want the whole world
I want to lock it all up in my pocket
It's my bar of chocolate
Give it to me
Now!

I want today
I want tomorrow
I want to wear 'em like braids in my hair
And I don't want to share 'em

I want a party with room fulls of laughter
Ten thousand tons of ice cream
And if I don't get the things I am after
I'm going to scream!

Originally posted by dale21
you crazy a$$

Originally posted by Daemon Sin
No, I think 'complete wad' was a better description!

Originally posted by Daemon Sin
No, I think 'complete wad' was a better description!

Originally posted by dale21
how about wazak?
wad could be good, like wad of money.

Originally posted by Daemon Sin
Personally, I'd go with 'muppet' over 'wazak'

Originally posted by dale21
agreed. how about fadge head?

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
No one gets a good combination animated gif and Seinfeld reference these days.

Originally posted by Ringtailhunter
...you are a real sweetheart...

RTh