[Jim Robinson]

Disclaimer: Unsolicited email. To be taken with a grain of salt.

[ThomasThomas]

He came from Kenya.

[M Kehoe]

Confucians say, girl who drink beer naked on beach gets sand in Schlitz.

5.56mm

[freedumb2003]

It has some grains of potential truth.

Some I have heard before, some passed as lore, but I haven’t seen or heard of any of these being debunked...

[momtothree]

Now I know where that saying, “I’m so poor that I don’t have a pot to p*ss in or a window to throw it out of”... comes from. Thanks!

[GQuagmire]

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May

Occupy Middle Ages?

[PieterCasparzen]

Piss poor is from the chamber pot. If one did not own a chamber pot, one would have to get up and go outside to relieve oneself at night.

There’s an addendum: “or a window to throw it out of”.

In towns, chamber pots were typically emptied by simply throwing the contents out the window. The streets also served as sewers.

One who had no home at all was that poor, not a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

[mplsconservative]

I’ve got one. Why are very light blond haired children called tow heads?

Anyone have an answer because I certainly don’t know.

Love the thread, Jim. Many interesting ‘factuals’.

[rawcatslyentist]

Full read post. Thanks for the education.

[Cicero]

I think that much of this makes sense.

“Saved by the bell” comes from boxing, but it could have had earlier roots, I guess.

And I don’t think that many peasants with thatched roofs had canopy beds. They were more upper class, from before the days of central heating. You could pull the side curtains closed and keep a bit warmer and more private.

[Inyo-Mono]

When you pulled the trigger on your flintlock rifle and only the powder in the pan went off without igniting the main charge, it was called “flash in the pan.”

If you sold your entire rifle, and not just the parts, you sold it “lock, stock and barrel.”

And of course “straight as a ram rod” came from the the loading rod used to stuff the powder charge down the barrel.

[me1og]

Folk etymologies are fun!....and in the words of Cecil Adams, “some day one of these cute stories will actually turn out to be true!”

[autumnraine]

With the most vulnerable getting the nastiest water of all, it’s no wonder so many babies died.

[bigbob]

Great! Some stuff is just meant to be read, snopes is a bunch of libs anyhow!

[dalereed]

In Mexico they still piss on the hides to tan them!

If you buy mexican shoes, don’t get them wet, they will smell just like their tanning fluid!

[GOP Poet]

:-). Very cool! Thanks Jim!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

That’s a piss poor analysis to a piss poor question, on a piss poor Sunday.

[4yearlurker]

During colonial times innkeepers would tell the girls serving tables to “mind their Ps and Qs” or Pints and Quarts. A cocktail was a hot drink with a rooster's feather sticking from the top of the glass. Just for looks.

[Cvengr]

I thought it’s performance had been prevented with proper prior planning.

[Baynative]

I always enjoy these tales about the history of your language, our sayings and customs.

[verga]

BTTT