Idioms, what do they mean?

[Sundae]

I did once use the phrase "going off and a tandem" as opposed to a tangent.
What? I knew what tandems were - and I knew they were unreliable unless handled properly. It made sense to me.

Is this the right place to reintroduce the carrot & stick argument?
In which I (and a handful of people worldwide) believe the carrot is ON the stick, meaning a system of dangling a reward which can never be reached.

Whereas the rest of civilisation believes is is a system combining incentive AND punishment. Somehow the dangling carrot is perceived as reward (although the donkey never reaches it) and the stick is used to hit the donkey anyway; proving that not only is the carrot unobtainable, but that it is useless as an incentive.

Very bleak view, people. At least my view only fools the donkey. The other makes a monket out of him and then beats his ass!

[Lamplighter]

I've always been in the reward and punishment crowd.
but I'm smiling at getting your new-to-me thought.

[classicman]

"carrot and stick" and the "carrot dangling from a stick" are two different idiots.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

And that they involve an ass... let us pass by, in charity.

[squirell nutkin]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I always thought it referred to people who try to be helpful but are not. Turns out, it refers to Things that you intended to do, but never got around to doing.

Have your cake and eat it should be Eat your cake and (still) have it. You can, in a sequential way, have your cake and (then) eat it too. In fact, in order to eat your cake you have to have it in the first place. However, the same is not true of eating your cake and continuing to have it after you've eaten it.

[HungLikeJesus]

Don't you still have it in your belly?

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's not cake anymore.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I always thought it referred to people who try to be helpful but are not. Turns out, it refers to Things that you intended to do, but never got around to doing.

Really? I've never heard of that interpretation. Makes sense though.

One I previously misunderstood was "There's no smoke without fire". I thought it meant it didn't matter how much someone was accused, you couldn't judge them until you had real proof. I know - it doesn't make sense. Of course the meaning is almost opposite - it means if someone is accused of something there must be a reason for the accusation.

[classicman]

Interesting how that saying is different on this side of the pond .
Here its: "Where there's smoke, there's fire,"

meaning that if there is telltale evidence of some event, the event is probably occurring.

[classicman]

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" & were the lowest
of the low

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:

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 whiskey. 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

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

Don't you still have it in your belly?

Yes, but I am working out now so it's only a matter of time...

[Lamplighter]

Hey Classic, almost all of that was new to me. Great !

[classicman]

Me too! I was checking one of my old email accounts and found that from an old client/friend.

[Scriveyn]

Nice, but of course entirely ficticious.

[Scriveyn]

I have been wondering about "to take the mickey out of someone"

Here's a website (Take our word for it) from people who know their etymology. Sadly it is very rarely updated these days.

It's rhyming slang. The original was to take the piss which means "to deride, to make fun of". Mike (or Mickey) Bliss is rhyming slang for "piss" so, applying the usual rhyming slang rules, we substitute Mickey Bliss for piss then drop the rhyming portion. Hence, to take the Mickey.
http://www.takeourword.com