Hi all. It's been a long time since I last posted. My last post was rather on the blue side and I felt the need to absquatulate for awhile to hide out from the gutter police.
In my exile, I encountered an ad for footwear described as a "blucher style" shoe. In the past, L.L. Bean sold a shoe called a blucher moccassin. I wonder, what is the root (and current meaning, too, come to think of it) of this word "blucher"? Thanks in advance.
hi jackie
it's either a) a strong leather half-boot or high shoe, the actual pattern varying with the fashion (whatever that is), or b) in the style of Frau Blucher (cf. Young Frankenstein]
(skeptical, with a K)
A long time ago I was told that "Blucher shoes" were copies of a German military shoe. It came up well above the ankle, had a square toe high enough to avoid pressure on toenails. It was rather thick leather and gave a lot of support to the ankle. I don't know if original had steel toe cap, but the ones made for contruction workers in this country do. Usually there was a sturdy leather loop attached to top rear to make it easier to put them on. The heels were at least a half an inch thick.
Very intersting, but that shoe sounds quite different from the shoe sold as a blucher moc by LL Bean: see pic at
http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&categoryId=11575&sc1=Search
And they're both a long way from...
http://www.blucherboots.com/64.html
the moc seems to be called a Blucher-style because of the lacing:
Bal Opening - Bal styles feature a V-shaped lace opening and offer a wide variety of styling options.
Blucher Opening - The Blucher style features open quarters or saddles and allows for more variability in the lacing process than bal styles. Preferred opening for person with a high instep.
And if Napoleon had won at Waterloo, LLBean would be selling Maréchal Ney and General Grouchy models.
For photo of modern Blucher shoe as offered by Brooks Bros.
http://www.brooksbrothers.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=514627 It's an advert but ... since the item isn't currently available I don't feel its toooo commercial for the Board!
Another link says : The laced ankle boot we know associate with modern militaria originated from the Blucher shoe which was based on a boot worn by Prince of Wahlstadt, Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, a Prussian field Marshall. His popularity was second only to Wellington as a hero of the battle of Waterloo. The blucher or derby was a high cut shoe with a tongue cut in one piece with the forepart and fastened with laces. Women's boots were a modified version of men's footwear designed for equestrian persuit.For picture of early Blucher click
http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/physio/podiatry/boot.html#military About 1/3 way down in "Eighteenth Century" and zip down to small picture in color red!
It's been a long time since I last posted. My last post was rather on the blue side and I felt the need to absquatulate for awhile to hide out from the gutter police.Ha! Glad to have you back, Alex, Macarena and all. And don't worry, this place has been on a steady gutter-bound decline since your relevant, humorous (of the click-it-if-you-want, no-one's-forced to read it)
blue post.
That's all right, Alex--just welcome back. (Though I still have no interest in the kind of underwear you favor!)
wow--
excellent, my Dear!
The other Blucher was offered by the disinherited brother Mel.
"Frau Blucher....
Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeigh"
"Though I still have no interest in the kind of underwear you favor"
Jackie--huh? I don't get that one. Besides, I don't wear any underwear.
Jackie--huh? I don't get that one. Oh, many moons ago there started to be posting about what kind of underwear the guys favored. Embarrassed me to death. I thought you had said something in a subsequent thread, but I must have misremembered--sorry!
Besides, I don't wear any underwear.AUGH! TMI, TMI, very MUCH TMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jackie, don't get your knickers in a twist!
He calls himself by a human name, but remember, on the internet, no one knows if you are a dog. (and where is jim the dog these days?)
Not that i am suggesting Alex is a dog, but he could be, or he could be a cat, or even a roach-- we do have an occational posting by archie. who'd expect a dog or a cat or a roach to wear underwear?
Alex, what ever you are, you are welcome here...
Actually, I do wear underwear, but an interesting term exists which is employed concerning those who do not. They call it to go "commando" as in "I didn't have any clean underwear Friday night so I had to go commando to the party at Jen's house."
Last year when I was an intern, I did a rotation on the urology service at the VA hospital. One day in clinic we had a 60-something year old patient return for a post-operative visit after having undergone a circumcision about one month before. He stated that his penis was hurting and wondered if there was anything that could be done about it. (You can see where this is going.) So I asked him to drop 'em, as it were, and so he dropped his jeans and I was truly shocked to see that he was without underwear, i.e. he was going "commando." Naturally our advice to him, which he seemed truly surprised by but receptive to nonetheless, was to start wearing some underwear!.
They call it to go "commando" The ladies are looking careful in Rhubarb Commando's di
erection ...
The ladies are looking careful in Rhubarb Commando's dierection ...
*rimshot*
My dear husband said that the phrase "going commando" used to mean underwear-less came into popular use because of the TV show "Friends". True or false? I don't remember hearing it before the show was around, but the timing of my life is such that I many not have discussed the concept much before then, either!