Posted on 05/05/2016 5:03:45 AM PDT by harpygoddess
"Hang up the phone." comes from one specific kind of land-line phone that had a kind of hook you'd hang the handset from when you were done. Doing so would pull down the hook that was connected to a switch inside the phone that would disconnect the line.
And lots of nautical stuff:
Groggy - In 1740, British Admiral Vernon (whose nickname was "Old Grogram" for the cloak of grogram which he wore) ordered that the sailors' daily ration of rum be diluted with water. The men called the mixture "grog". A sailor who drank too much grog was "groggy".
Leeway - The weather side of a ship is the side from which the wind is blowing. The Lee side is the side of the ship sheltered from the wind. A lee shore is a shore that is downwind of a ship. If a ship does not have enough "leeway" it is in danger of being driven onto the shore.
Pipe Down - Means stop talking and be quiet. The Pipe Down was the last signal from the Bosun's pipe each day which meant "lights out" and "silence".
Slush Fund - A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff called "slush" was often sold ashore by the ship's cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a slush fund.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
“Confucius say: woman who think way to man’s heart through his stomach have sights set too high.”
;^)
I know...there is something that really irks me about not being able to pump my own gas.
I just had to do a search to find out why that is, and it turns out only Oregon and NJ don’t allow consumers to pump their own gas.
They won’t repeal it because it will put people out of work, and besides, THEY SAY, it doesn’t add anything to the cost of the gas.
The article I read says “Nothing is better in freezing weather than rolling down your window 1/4 of an inch and passing your card out...”
I don’t get that. I live in New England, and I have no problem getting out of my car in any weather to pump. I simply don’t like having to wait for someone to do something I can do faster. It feels like it is wasting my time.
It refers to a preparation of your clothing for running, when wearing a long wrap around garment. Grab the bottom rear and pull it up around your loins. Then tuck it through your waistband, your girdle, so that it is all above your knees like a big diaper. “Gird up your loins” then means to prepare for exertion.
Old Flour Mill References
Milling around: When you took your wheat to the mill, it took some time for them to grind it so you just stood around and socialized.
Waiting for your turn: Each batch of wheat that went into the mill was called a turn (turn of the grinding stone)
Putting your nose to the grindstone: The miller would smell the opening where the wheat went in. If the pressure and speed were not right the wheat would burn and he could smell it. Paying attention to your work.
Which insulation consisted of gray asbestos board about 1/2"+ thick.
The milk, into the mid-fifties, was un-homogenized, with the cream collecting at the top of the neck. Had to shake the bottle vigorously to mix the cream. Seeing a pale bluish-gray fluid poured over the breakfast cereal caused fights between siblings focused on the one who brought the milk in. SOB skimmed the cream off the top. Hate skimmed milk to this day.
;>)
All the time! I had the chance recently to sit down at a real typewriter and type, and it is funny how limiting a real typewriter is (I found the stalks would jam on me, too many letters typed close together) but how fast I could get back into the flow of “clickety click click clickety click clickclickety click clickclickety click clickclickety click click THUD-ZINGGGGGGGGGG!clickety click click clickety click clickclickety click clickclickety click clickclickety click click THUD-ZINGGGGGGGGGG!clickety click click clickety click clickclickety click clickclickety click clickclickety click click THUD-ZINGGGGGGGGGG”
It was kind of fun
I found that on a computer keyboard, there are combinations of letters and words that I scream through, and it can’t be done on a regular typewriter that way...you have to be more “consistent”.
"p" and "q" can easily be confused, as well as "b" and "d".
I agree - they told us when we visited Williams burg that this is what the wives told the men as they went out in the evening.
Asleep at the switch: Railroad reference when track switches had to be moved manually. If it didn’t get done train went the wrong way.
Any body remember that?
Yep! My grandmother would order only half of a 25 lb block of ice, which went into the top part of the oak ice box. The iceman would cut the blocks with his ice pick.
Old 1960 Main Frame Programming.
Flush the Buffers
(I know...her name tag gives her away!)
Follow up on “Run of the Mill” - The output of the grinding was somewhat inconsistent in the size of the flour produced. You could take is as milled which was called the “Run of the Mill” or you could pay more and they would seive it for you. Run of the mill was cheaper and ordinary.
You do realize that all left-handed people are sinister, right? (Latin for left!)
One that I am uncertain about is the phrase "Takin' it for a spin!", which now days refers to automotive actions. I don't know where this came from in my memory, but I seem to think that this once referred to phonograph record stores where they had booths to listen to a record before buying - thus "Takin' it for a spin!" (Real old time here!)
Of course, going back to Latin roots, the word "record" comes to English from French and was derived from the Latin "recordari", to remember.
-PJ
My 7 year old grandson was reading a book at my house and was trying to sound out the word ‘CLOTHESPIN’. When his dad told him how to say it, he looked at us with a puzzled look and said “What’s a clothespin?”
Crank up the volume and break the knob off!
Many authors still like to write “the smell of cordite filled the air” in their description of a small arms exchange.
In the early 90’s I came across some old .303 that was manufactured using cordite. Surprisingly, about 2/3’s of them still fired.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.