Loved it—and certainly didn’t know most of it!
Thanks!
A ‘pot to piss in’ is also known as a commode. The saying that you ‘don’t have a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out’ refers to how people would pee in their commodes and then throw it out their windows - typically at night.
This also led to the chivalrous tradition of men walking closest to buildings when walking with a lady. The intent was that if someone threw out their toilet waste into the street it would land on the man and not the lady.
Mr. Megan owns the pewter commode, wash basin, and matching pitcher with a very nice cabinet that has been in his family for generations. Thus I’ve heard about this a few times.
During the battle of Escargot, back in the eleventyhundreds, a French Commander of a catapult unit saw that he was out of boulders to use as ammunition. Looking around, he quickly realized that chickens were of the right size and weight to use as ammunition for the catapults. He loaded a chicken and let fly. It worked fabulously! The problem was that the other chickens had seen the first hen take to the air, and they didn’t want anything to do with becoming feathery shrapnel. They all ran away. So, the French realized that the only way to catch the chickens was to nab them while they were snoozing. Snoozy chickens made the best ammunition. This is how we got that famous old phrase, “Let sleeping chickens fly!”
This is still the case in Hong Kong. If you want a burial plot, especially on Hong Kong island, you can lease a space for 7 years. I remember walking by one during a hike, and seeing disinterred bones set out in the sun to dry. Creepy.
Then there’s this one that I heard years ago....don’t know if it’s true, but here goes....
The term “cat house,” i.e., a house of prostitution.....
In the early mining towns during the California Gold Rush and elsewhere in the American West, there was a problem with mice and rats in these early mining communities. The miners had one or more cats in their homes to catch the rodents.
When the miners left their homes for a period of time to go prospecting in the hills, they brought their cats to the local whore house and the ladies of the night would look after the felines for a small fee while the miners were away. Hence the term, “cat house.”
Also, the term “bull market” and “bear market.” The miners would entertain themselves by staging fights between bulls and bears.
A bull would fight by thrusting its horns upwards, hence a “bull market” when the stock market is going up.....
A bear would fight on it’s hind legs and thrust it’s paws downward, which would be a “bear” market or a down market.
BTTT
Some of these are wrong. A “thresh hold” was a board placed on a threshing floor to contain the valuable grain. And “saved by the bell” describes a boxer who is nearly knocked out but who gets a reprieve because the round ends (at the sound of the judges’ bell).
Colorful stories though ...
Then there was the snake, Mrs. Pott, who did not have a pit to hiss in.