Monday’s Fourth
|March 27, 2006|
And this week’s winner of the ARC for THE ART OF DETECTION is Jim in Sacramento. Congratulations, Jim–and we have four ARCs left, to give away the next four Mondays, so don’t give up yet. But if your name isn’t on the mailing list, you can’t win one, unless you sign up here or by going to LaurieRKing.com and clicking on the newsletter tab of the menu bar. And if any of you think you are still having problems,send a note to Maggie at webmaven@laurierking.com and ask her to check into it.
Posted in Uncategorized
LIFE IN THE 1500’S
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 the1500s:
! 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..
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 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 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 sta! rted 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 ! ! !
Could you leave us some footnotes, please?
Thanks – Karen
Per the following link:
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm
This is a deliberate pulling of the virtual leg.
Snopes is an interesting place to browse.
Coincidentally, seaching Snopes on the phrase “Life in the 1500” also turned up this:
http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/seussban.asp
About the “Banned Dr. Suess book” — which turns out to be a case of dated phrases being taken out of context…
Very amusing, anonymous. But why on earth spam Laurie’s blog with it? Get your own! (it’s not as if it costs anything)
Hmmm??? Another man is the winner? I see mostly women on your blog, yet only the guys are getting the goods. Do I smell a rat here?
Yes, very strange and also that everyone is in the USA. What about your readers across the world especially in the UK?
Interesting spammer!? Bit random, isn’t it?
I don’t think us foreigners are in the running for a book, Pen. 🙁 We have to suck up to local writers. 😉
I wish we had local writers that’s good. (sigh) I can only get my LRK’s through amazon!! Oh well. LOL.
Interesting Spam but once again, I think it’s better if you get your own blog. This is LRK’s. It’s a privaledge to post here that should not be abused by useless spam. I’m not saying this too be mean, 🙂 I’m just worried about abusing a privaledge that not many authors allow their readers. 🙂 Thank you!
A whole book has been written saying that the stuff the spammer put in is not true. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the book, though. I gave it to my son-in-law as a stocking stuffer and he was reading and quoting the sources of the material negating that quotation. I’m with the rest of you, though, Give us a break! We want original posts, not coughed up spam.
A whole book has been written saying that the stuff the spammer put in is not true. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the book, though. I gave it to my son-in-law as a stocking stuffer and he was reading and quoting the sources of the material negating that quotation. I’m with the rest of you, though, Give us a break! We want original posts, not coughed up spam.
At 3/27/2006 4:45 PM, Anonymous said…
“Hmmm??? Another man is the winner? I see mostly women on your blog, yet only the guys are getting the goods. Do I smell a rat here?”
It’s clear that LRK is selectively distributing her latest work to the hidden men of her blog so she can make them her personal slaves….
Only kidding.
We’re all kind of needy/excited about her new book. Four guys out of, what, a gazillion excited LRK fans that read her blog? The gentleman fans may not write much, but I’m certain they can recognize a good opportunity when they see one, and like every one, they’d LOVE to get their hands on the new book!
Thanks
Drury
Same applies to the ratio of US and foreign/overseas readers.
Besides, can we really know for certain that “Jim”, “Greg”, and “Philipp” are men while “Kathleen” is a woman? You can never be sure with first names nowadays … 😉