Posted on 08/30/2013 1:39:08 PM PDT by B4Ranch
Since single-letter typesetting requires using letters that are mirror images of the desired letters, the p and q are especially easy to mistake for each other.
These sound like they were written by Woody Allen.
As for rum, we know what it means to be “groggy”. There was a Royal Navy captain whose trademark was his heavy coat made of coarse `grogram’. His crew nicknamed him “Old Grog”.
When he began cutting the sailors’ rum ration with water, the resulting drink was called `grog’ though not in his honor.
"Balls to the wall" is a far older phrase than the age of flight. . . especially WWII Multi-engine bomber throttle planes. It comes from rowing and the order for speed to the oarsmen to put out maximum effort. So your sailor may be closer than aviation.
Another proposed derivation comes from steam engines. The governor on was a double set of spinning balls on a rotating valve that closed down the amount of steam as centrifugal force spun the balls faster and faster I.E. closer to the wall...
Finally, the term is said to derive from baseball. . . with the coach telling hitters to send their "balls to the wall" I.E., the out field wall, or fence.
All three of these make more sense than the bomber derivation as the phrase predates WWII. . . and the best and most efficient flying speed would
Do you have a source on that? The military aviation explanation is all over the Interwebs.
Some of these are dubious. And the expression is actually STRAIT-laced, as in “strait jacket.”
Regardless, coming up with an additional 6' to the belt to account for the links and total 27' is doubtful.
Stacks of cannon balls were NEVER used aboard ship. Such stacking was used in forts and land based cannon emplacements, on ships, with the uncertainties of the ocean, such a stack is too unstable. The shot on shipboard is stored on the gun wall in racks of holes made for the purpose, not on the deck. Having built museum quality ship models from the keel up, including warships of the period, I know there is no nautical e term "brass monkey." There is a "monkey fist" knot. . . But that is a rare reference. If I recall correctly, it is a terminating knot used inside an eye loop.
The first one is probably the only true one on the list.
1887 Webster`s Dictionary “gossip [AS, goddsibb . fr. god God + sibb related, a relation
1. archaric. a. a godparent.
b. A friend; crony.
2. An idle tattler; a newsmonger,,, “
“gossiping 1. one who gossips
2. Now Dial. a. A christening or christening feast
b. A meeting of friends...also, a merrymaking
“gossipred” [sic] “1. Hist. Spiritual relationship between sponsor and sponsored”
2. Rare. Gossip, chatter
The wax on the face was to cove the scarring of smallpox.
Bigwig is wrong, too.. It has nothing to do with lice and shaved heads. It had to do with wealthy people could afford more expensive and, therefore more elaborate, and bigger, wigs.
Saving Face comes from Asia and has nothing at all to do with wax, cracking smiles, or any of that twaddle. It has to do with prestige, honor, and social position.
And as you probably found out, "gossip" is derived from an old English word for Godparent (LOL). . . gottsibb.
Where do they make this stuff up? And who?
Now do the calculation for the F6F Hellcat or F4U Corsair (with 400 rpg)
The real issues of watching your ps and qs arose in sorting movable type after a paper or book had been printed and the pages were being broken down the individual letters sorted back into the fonts (the drawers of individual lead characters that make up each style and size of a particular family of type). Lower case ps and qs were the most difficult to tell apart and the print devils (the young printing apprentices) who were given the unenviable job of doing the sorting were always being reminded to "mind your ps and qs" while doing the sorting. The qrinter would NOT be qleased to have to reset an entire qage because a squrious "q" was used when the qroqer word was sqelled correctly exceqt for the devil's mis-sorting... ;^)
I've seen derivation of this phrase that yet again predates WWII, and leads back to sailing ships of the 18th century. . . Specifically three masted ships with three square sails per mast, each called a yard. When sailing before the wind, it was said they'd use the who nine yards. They could also add stud sails and sheet sails and fore and aft sails. But the saying was "the whole nine yards." It got a lot more complicated with clipper ships in the 19th Century when a mast could have up to eight sails off the yard arms, plus studs'ls. There were a few with ten. . . but they were found to be impractical. These include moonraker, skysail, royal (named for what once was the pennant, or king's flag), upper and lower gallant, upper and lower topsail, and main course sail.
By the way, there is no sail called a "sheet," a sheet is a line, a rope, attached to the bottom corner of the sail. If you lose these lines into the wind, you've lost control of that sail. . . and the ability to tack. The ropes will be blowing out over the open water and essentially very difficult to retrieve, hence the "two (or three) sheets into the wind" signifying someone falling down drunk, out of control.
Then there's the phrase of which most people don't know the source: "learn the ropes." Each and every one of those sails had at least eight control rigging lines and then the supporting wood and iron had more, called working rigging, plus the "standing rigging," which supported and kept everything taut, that a sailor had to learn. . . and each ship, while adhering to basic methods, was different. Hence, "learning the ropes."
If I read your measurements correctly, you are not leaving room for the linkage between the rounds.
Heavens to Betsy
Who is Betsy and what do heavens have to do with her ?
So is the nine-yard myth, but no one can find a nine-yard belt of aviation ammo anywhere.
As to source, not currently, but KSFO had at one time Dr. Richard Lederer on their morning show the last Friday of every month and he addressed that chestnut once. He is the author of several books on word and phrase origins and derivations. He pointed out the problem of the "balls to wall" pre-dating the age of flight and that as far as he could research it no Multi-engine aircraft throttle actually had throttles that went to a "wall" except for a couple of German designs, yet this is an English phrase. Some small aircraft had push-pull throttles, but not big bombers, but their throttles were out for full, not into the wall. Dr. Lederer suggested the rowing scenario from literature, but also allowed the train engine and baseball as possible alternatives in response to callers who offered alternatives from the Internet. . . But he thought the rowing was more likely, given that the steam engine governor was generally not in proximity to a wall, and baseball field perimeters were usually referred to as fences, and the early literature reference to rowing.
How about you do the calculations and post your results?
Ah, so what is the space of the linkage between the rounds?
So, the point of your post being...?
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