Leaderboard
728x15

A POKER GAME IN HEAVEN... OR PERHAPS ...

Large Rectangle

Some cool facts about animals images:


A POKER GAME IN HEAVEN... OR PERHAPS ...
facts about animals
Image by mrbill78636
... well, let's not speculate. I just got this email from Barbaroo one of my classmates in Corpus Christi High School. Barbaroo passed on a history lesson, but had this to say before offering the lesson:

"After reading the fascinating “simile/aphorism/idiom/adage/saying/axiom/truism/metaphor” historic collection below…….study the photograph and try to determine how, where & when the English language added to the vernacular such colorful phrases as: “Fat cats!”….”Eating high up on the hog!”……”Suckin’ hind teat !”…….”Birds of the feather flock together!”…..”That’s the elephant in the room!”…..”Jury-rigged!”….“Poker-faced”…..”Hush money”…….”the whole nine yards”…..”Keeping it in the family…until the stock ran out!”. ……ad infinitum."



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:


They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee
in a pot & then once a day it was taken & 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.



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
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 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 History was boring ! ! !



So . . . get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share these facts with
a friend like I just did! ! !
and you could be.....
SMARTER than a 5TH GRADER!
*LOL*

Frankly, folks, I think this is a pure crock of sh-t, and I don't even care where that expression came from, but it's worked for me for 82 years and I'm sticking with it.


10 Things (and maybe a few more)
facts about animals
Image by Bunches and Bits {Karina}
I was tagged by Wendy and Bootsieking to share 10 things about myself,

A while back there was something similar going around Facebook where you were to note 25 Random Facts about yourself. Warning: I think I stopped at around 35 on that one, so here we go, in no particular order!

1) I worked for Sears for nearly 20 years starting as a Sales Associate at my local store in Pennsylvania and retiring as a Buyer at their Chicago Headquarters. It's the only place I've ever worked (unless you count my cousins Chicken Farm as a kid). I still straighten and fluff racks whenever I go into a retail store.

2) I'm good at Math, but for some reason I don't know my multiplication tables (especially the 7's and 8's). Now that my daughter is learning them, I'm embarrassed she knows them better than me, although we're studying together, and I think I'm improving. Maybe it's not too late.

3) I'm incredibly dependable and have little tolerance for those who are not. I have a hard time asking for help, or saying NO...so I often find myself working into the wee hours of the night to get it all done.

4) I love Journey and especially "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin" - it still makes me smile when I hear it. I seldom listen to CD's because I like the surprise of hearing a favorite song come on the radio - like I was meant to hear it for a reason.

5) I secretly want to be a cake decorator or work in a flower shop.

6) I was 16 when I graduated High School and didn't skip any grades (I turned 17 a week later). My father was in the Air Force stationed in Finland when I started first grade. Students there begin school at age 4.

7) At one time we had as many as 7 pets, only ONE of which we actually saught out and purchased. The rest were gifts or strays. My husband has a soft spot for the lost and needy. I really want to keep a few chickens in a pen/coupe in our backyard, but he is very much against it. However, should one - or two - happen to show up on our door step one day...

8) I love food and will try almost (I said almost) anything at least once. Some of the more exotic things have been Sea Cucumber, Thousand Year Egg, Shark Fin Soup, Tripe and Chicken Feet. It really bothers me when people say "yuck, gross or eew" to foods they have never even tried.

9) I volunteered as a Docent at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago (one of the BEST Zoo's in the country). I still remember a ton of animal facts - go ahead, ask me a question!

10) I'm a terrible speller (yet another thing my 8 year old can do better than me). The perfectionist in me is saying I should cut and past all this into word and run a spell check...but tonight I'm throwing caution to the wind and letting it go. So tough cookies if my erros offend you.

Now it's your turn!


There's Just Something About...
facts about animals
Image by Soulfull
There's just something about the way the night changes into day, but I have no time to enjoy it for we're on the road again. Yesterday sho was a bit challenging. I mean, what's a trip without being late in this family!? We dashed down I-95 towards Petersburg, VA to the funeral of my Great Uncle and I just couldn't believe that we were late! We made it none the less but it pissed me off that my parents wanted to pick this day, of all days, to start beefing....

So here I sit contemplating what it is about being 'down south'. The sun seems to shine so much brighter, the people are more receptive to conversations, and definitely vocal about their beliefs. In fact, I've seen so many opinated billboards promoting a stop in abortions, stopping the killing of animals for fur, and you better not forget to buy your fireworks... My goodness... I'm quite happy that I remembered the Ipod and that our rental car has a built-in DVD player which has helped to pass the time away as we fly through Sorth Carolina...It's amazing how many times children can watch Shark Tales or Chicken Little and actually like it! Outside, the scenery is so bleak. Weigh stations, farm land, rest stops, and patches of houses here and there. I'm butt ass tired man. Just took my pain killers for my tired and overworked back, but you know, what has happened to South of the Border? I remember as a child craving to step foot on Hot Tomala land, but as we passed through looking for some grub, everything looked like a scene out of a horror flick. Damn, it seems that all good things do have an ending or maybe not an ending, but a breaking point when things just can't stay the same. Oh well, onto my favorite grub joint... BURGER KING, where the burger is king and I can have it any way I want it... =

Banner