Whatto! Pepys...
Did you know?
In Baltimore, in the mid 1800's there was a man who sold corpses to the
hospital for research. He stored the cadavers in cheap whiskey to
ferment them before turning them over to the researchers. He then sold
the whiskey to the medical students... thus the term "rot gut."
It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for a
month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law
with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because
their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month"
or what we know today as the "honeymoon."
Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger
into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold,
and the yeast wouldn't grow. Too hot, and the yeast would die. This
thumb in the beer is where we get the phrase "rule of thumb."
Or... The term "rule of thumb" came from the practice in England of
preachers advising their married
male parishoners to beat their wives so they would be obedient. To be
sure that the beating was not lethal, they advised that the branch the
husbands would cut should be no bigger around than their thumb.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old
England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to
mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the
phrase "mind your P's and Q's."
After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they called aul, or
ale, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often without armor
or even shirts. In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt" in
Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.
In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the
Navy's rum. Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and called
Admiral Vernon, Old Grog, after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore.
The term "grog" soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When
you were drunk on this grog, you were "groggy", a word still in use
today.
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the
rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they
used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle," is the
phrase inspired by this practice.
The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the
Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber
machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded
into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it
got "the whole 9 yards."
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed
firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight"
came from.
Tallyho!
Best Wishes - Lord Noel
