Fact or fiction

[corydoras]

I belive that Winston Churchill's quote was actually.

 

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

[Peter M]

the man walking on the outside is to protect the lady from human excrement that was thrown out of chamber pots of bedrooms on the First (second if you are from the States)floor. tudor houses as you may have noticed in England have the upper floor jutting out from the lower floor. There was no pipes and the muck was just thrown into the street.

[corydoras]

quote:

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the man walking on the outside is to protect the lady from human excrement that was thrown out of chamber pots of bedrooms on the First (second if you are from the States)floor

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Spot on. All the stuff about swords and hores and carts is wrong IMNSHO.

 

corydoras

[Wordbender]

quote:

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Originally posted by corydoras:

 

hores and carts [/QB]

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Now, THERE'S a video idea!

 

Terry

[corydoras]

The Hores were benevolent deities, beneficent and well-disposed torwards men, offering them delights and serving them as guardians of their works. As their task was to make time roll on, they made sure that people gathered the fruits of their toil at the right moment. The Hores had their appointed occupations on Mount Olympus. In particular it was their duty to guard the gates of Heaven, which they opened or closed by removing or replacing a thick cloud. Another of their basic duties was to serve the goddess Hera: to unhitch her celestial steeds from her chariot, tether them to their rack and look after the goddess'chariot.

 

Corydoras

[Newt]

wotawoppa:

Son of a gun...Women on board sailing ships sometimes had sex with sailors between the cannons. A male child born of such a union would be a son of a gun.

wotawoppa - you are good at this.

 

Only a little bit to add to the "son of a gun" thing. The large deck cannon were named. Dick, Bill, and the like. The children were usually named after one of the guns since the father could never be known.

[wotawoppa]

Newt...can you call my wife please and tell her that I am good at something after all!!!

[Guest sslatter]

corydoras:

The Hores were benevolent deities, beneficent and well-disposed towards men,<SNIP> and look after the goddess'chariot.

 

Corydoras

Well, that's a new one to me. I've heard of the 'Horai' (greek) and the 'Horae' (roman) who were the offspring of Hera (Juno) and who represented the Four Seasons (not Frankie Valli), but I've never heard of the 'Hores'. Did you encounter them on one of your sea trips around the Horn?

 

And as for the 'two-fingered salute', I read something slightly different about the origin thereof: before the battle of Agincourt, the French threatened that they would cut off the 'pulling fingers' of the english archers when the english were defeated. As the french were retreating, having been routed, the english archers all stuck their two 'pulling fingers' up at the remnants of the french army, thus spawning the archetypal UK 'greeting'.

[MrWiggly]

Hi all ...

 

Got you going, didn't I ?

 

A nice mixture of insanity, humour and truth here. I don't know how you think them up ... but I'm sure glad that you do !

 

Can't see anything on "By Hook or By Crook" ... any offers ? :confused:

[wotawoppa]

How about this MrWiggly..

 

By hook or by crook-

 

Possibly from a custom in mediaeval England that allowed peasants to take any deadwood from the royal forest that they could reach with a shepherd's crook or a reaper's billhook.

 

Another possible explanation comes Cromwell's attempt to take the city of Waterford. He is reported as saying he would take the city 'by hook or by crook'. Hook is the headland on the Wexford side and Crook is the name of the Waterford side.