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Piss Poor

NOSLEEPNOSLEEP Member Posts: 4,526
edited June 2011 in General Discussion
Where did Piss Poor come from? c/p
Interesting History

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 odour.
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!!!

Comments

  • nutfinnnutfinn Member Posts: 12,804 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    What about caught red handed?
  • Mr. PerfectMr. Perfect Member, Moderator Posts: 66,184 ******
    edited November -1
    whoever wrote that was on crack.
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    And fiery auto crashes
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    While sifting through my ashes
    Some will fall in love with life
    And drink it from a fountain
    That is pouring like an avalanche
    Coming down the mountain
  • gesshotsgesshots Member Posts: 15,679 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Good Stuff!
    [;)][:D]
    It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't. ~ J.B. Books
  • NOSLEEPNOSLEEP Member Posts: 4,526
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
    whoever wrote that was on crack.


    Butt crack or just regular crack... [:D]
  • Mr. PerfectMr. Perfect Member, Moderator Posts: 66,184 ******
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
    quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
    whoever wrote that was on crack.


    Butt crack or just regular crack... [:D]
    it's all horse hockey, so they must've been a jockey.
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    And fiery auto crashes
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    While sifting through my ashes
    Some will fall in love with life
    And drink it from a fountain
    That is pouring like an avalanche
    Coming down the mountain
  • NOSLEEPNOSLEEP Member Posts: 4,526
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
    quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
    whoever wrote that was on crack.


    Butt crack or just regular crack... [:D]
    it's all horse hockey, so they must've been a jockey.


    I'm not going to try and authenticate any of it. But I must ask. What makes you so sure?
  • GRIZZLY17GRIZZLY17 Member Posts: 1,676
    edited November -1
    That's pretty interesting![:)]

    Post more if you got it.
  • NOSLEEPNOSLEEP Member Posts: 4,526
    edited November -1
    This article says it is exaggerated.
    Says its been around for a while...

    http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml
  • andrewsw16andrewsw16 Member Posts: 10,728 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sounds like the funny history classes Robert Wuhl teaches on HBO sometimes. Hilarious, true or not. [:D]
  • Mr. PerfectMr. Perfect Member, Moderator Posts: 66,184 ******
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
    This article says it is exaggerated.
    Says its been around for a while...

    http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml
    without even looking at that site (or any other spoiler site like snopes)... none of it remotely makes sense. Only bathe in May? Already smelling bad by June?

    Cats and mice falling off the roof suggests someone say it's raining cats AND dogs??

    You don't use human urine to tan skins.

    the rest is just as bunk.
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    And fiery auto crashes
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    While sifting through my ashes
    Some will fall in love with life
    And drink it from a fountain
    That is pouring like an avalanche
    Coming down the mountain
  • NOSLEEPNOSLEEP Member Posts: 4,526
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
    This article says it is exaggerated.
    Says its been around for a while...

    http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml
    without even looking at that site (or any other spoiler site like snopes)... none of it remotely makes sense. Only bathe in May? Already smelling bad by June?

    Cats and mice falling off the roof suggests someone say it's raining cats AND dogs??

    You don't use human urine to tan skins.

    the rest is just as bunk.


    Well right or wrong. You are incorrect about human urine to tan hides. The American Indians used urine to soften leather during the tanning process and I don't need to look that one up.[;)]
  • Mr. PerfectMr. Perfect Member, Moderator Posts: 66,184 ******
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
    quote:Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
    This article says it is exaggerated.
    Says its been around for a while...

    http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/A_005_Myths1500s.shtml
    without even looking at that site (or any other spoiler site like snopes)... none of it remotely makes sense. Only bathe in May? Already smelling bad by June?

    Cats and mice falling off the roof suggests someone say it's raining cats AND dogs??

    You don't use human urine to tan skins.

    the rest is just as bunk.


    Well right or wrong. You are incorrect about human urine to tan hides. The American Indians used urine to soften leather during the tanning process and I don't need to look that one up.[;)]

    yeah, but they also thought beads were really cool.
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    And fiery auto crashes
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    While sifting through my ashes
    Some will fall in love with life
    And drink it from a fountain
    That is pouring like an avalanche
    Coming down the mountain
  • GRIZZLY17GRIZZLY17 Member Posts: 1,676
    edited November -1
    Yeah they used brains too. What the hell does brain goo do for tanning??[xx(]
  • NOSLEEPNOSLEEP Member Posts: 4,526
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by okkim
    What about caught red handed?


    Caught red-handed
    Meaning
    To be caught in the act of committing a misdemeanour, with the evidence there for all to see.

    Origin
    The Red Hand has long been a heraldic and cultural symbol of the northern Irish province of Ulster. One of the many myths as to its origin is the tale of how, in a boat race in which the first to touch the shore of Ulster was to become the province's ruler, one contestant guaranteed his win by cutting off his hand and throwing it to the shore ahead of his rivals. The potency of the symbol remains and is used in the Ulster flag, and as recently as the 1970s a group of Ulster loyalist paramilitaries named themselves the Red Hand Commandos.

    Red-handed doesn't have a mythical origin however - it is a straightforward allusion to having blood on one's hands after the execution of a murder or a poaching session. The term originates, not from Northern Ireland, but from a country not so far from there, socially and geographically, i.e. Scotland. An earlier form of 'red-handed', simply 'red hand', dates back to a usage in the Scottish Acts of Parliament of James I, 1432.

    Red-hand appears in print many times in Scottish legal proceedings from the 15th century onward. For example, this piece from Sir George Mackenzie's A discourse upon the laws and customs of Scotland in matters criminal, 1674:

    "If he be not taken red-hand the sheriff cannot proceed against him."

    The earliest known printed version of 'red-handed' is from Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, 1819:

    "I did but tie one fellow, who was taken redhanded and in the fact, to the horns of a wild stag."

    Scott was an avid student of Scottish history and folklore, which he relentlessly mined for inspiration in his novel writing. He is certain to have heard 'redhand' before writing Ivanhoe. The step from 'redhand' to 'redhanded' isn't large, so calling Scott the originator of the term is perhaps being over generous to him. Nevertheless, the enormous popularity of his books certainly brought 'red-handed' to a wide audience and, without him, the term might now be long forgotten.

    16th and 17th century Scottish sources provide various examples of 'apprehended redhand', 'taken with redhand' etc. but the earliest known citation of the currently used 'caught red-handed' phrase is in the English novelist George Alfred Lawrence's work Guy Livingstone; or, 'Thorough', 1857:

    My companion picked up the object; and we had just time to make out that it was a bell-handle and name-plate, when the pursuers came up - six or seven "peelers" and specials, with a ruck of men and boys. We were collared on the instant. The fact of the property being found in our possession constituted a 'flagrans delictum' - we were caught "red-handed."
  • searcher5searcher5 Member Posts: 13,511
    edited November -1
    Well, right or wrong, it was still entertaining and thought provoking. I expect many of the scenarios weren't far from right.
  • RogueStatesmanRogueStatesman Member Posts: 5,760
    edited November -1
    I think you need to get some sleep![;)][;)]


    quote:Originally posted by NOSLEEP
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