Interesting Facts

UnrealQueen

Here are some facts about the 1500s:
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 odour. 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 dogs, 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 really 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 the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway -- hence, a "threshold." 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 the
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 a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale bread which was so old and hard that they could be used for quite some time. Trenchers were
never washed and a lot of times worms and mould got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, mouldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth." 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 "upper crust." Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them 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 realised they had been burying people alive. So they thought 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...
(and whoever said that History was boring?!) !!!

Araniell

These are fascinationg UnrealQueen. Thanks for posting them!

Victor

BOrinG! http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm

Oriel

That was too long to read, but I'll still say "Boooo" to it, cause I'll believe Snopes long before I believe posts by an internet poster.

...cause snopes.com a broad-sheet newspaper not an internet site, you know...

Senor_Fudge

paragraphs next time queenie

Doctor Funfrock

i agree with victor :ninja:

quank

mehmeh ....
:dunno:

woosaysdan

it was only ok i suspose

Araniell

Well I still thought it was interesting I like etymology...

Sauron

yeah quite interesting.....especially for someone like me who's really bored at the moment.

funky penguin

Im gonna coment on the only thing I read without my eyes irreversably crossing.

Originally posted by UnrealQueen
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
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 odour. 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."

EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!

funky penguin

Actually if this were a thread devouted to people just posting totally useless (and short) facts it might get a ball rolling on some funny discusions.

The Beer Baron

Lobsters have blue blood- apparently.

(Actually UQ I enjoyed that post a lot- don't listen to those unbelievers)

BKtje

i thought that was pretty interesting even if it is a hoax

Why does it matter where the information was gotten Victor?
Dont think at any point the poster claimed it was his/her own words?

Fozzy

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
Why does it matter where the information was gotten Victor?
Dont think at any point the poster claimed it was his/her own words?

The link is actually to a site that says that most of the stuff in that post isn't true.

funky penguin

Originally posted by The Beer Baron
Lobsters have blue blood- apparently.

(Actually UQ I enjoyed that post a lot- don't listen to those unbelievers)

Blue blood?! Never!

Pigman II

Originally posted by The Beer Baron
Lobsters have blue blood- apparently.

The nearest thing I heard to that was that the Queen of England has crabs.

BKtje

Yer ok i can see why its posted then i guess but he coulda said that it wasnt true then posted a link instead of just 'BOrinG'. This gave me the impression that cos he read it elsewhere he didnt appreciate it being posted and considered it 'boring'

funky penguin

Originally posted by Pigman II
The nearest thing I heard to that was that the Queen of England has crabs.

:eek:
We are not amused!

quank

i heard somewhere
that the average human eats 4 insects in their sleep throughtout their whole life

vibe666

well, even if its not true, it sounds true, so thats good enough for me.

and lobsters don't technically have blue blood, it's actually colourless, but turns blue when exposed to oxygen. Lobster FAQ Clicky Linky

funky penguin

Originally posted by quank
i heard somewhere
that the average human eats 4 insects in their sleep throughtout their whole life

I heard it was on average 8 spiders we eat in our sleep every year. :eek:

But only teeny tiny baby ones, cos thats really all we get here.

Imagine wat people in austrailia must go thru? Waking up one mornin with a huge hairy leg stuck between their teeth?

smoke.me.a.kipper

dont care if its real of fake, it was a nice read.