The season of holidays is nearly upon us - Thanksgiving (in US) Christmas and New Year"s Eve. All those gatherings and all those toasts!
Surely we here at AWAD must have some unique "toasts"
I'll start with Irish toasts:

"May those who love us, love us.
For those who don't love us; may God turn their hearts.
If He won't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles,
So we will know them by their limping."

And this one for all-male gatherings:

"Here's to us and our wives' husbands, not forgetting ourselves."

Or for the solitary drinker:
"Here's to me, and me wife's husband, not forgettin' meself."

I could never toast myself...

Considering the object of the toast isn't supposed to drink it seems a self-defeating proposition.

"I could never toast myself". Luckily I could never fit inside the toaster.

Why on earth is it called a "toast"? Atomica seems less than certain: [Perhaps from TOAST1 (from the use of spiced toast to flavor drinks).]

What's the Big Book have to say?

Is the Rocky Horror Show as big a deal in the States as it is in New Zealand? The writer (and Riffraff in the movie) was Richard O'Brien, a New Zealander. Any stage production always draws large audiences, often dressed up in drag or in whiteface and top and tails. The audience, en masse, usually gets up and does the Time Warp in the aisles.

"Time Warp" seems to be one song that everyone knows, young or old. At one stage production I went to, a frail-looking woman who was well into her late eighties or early nineties got up and wiggled during the song, hanging on to the back of the seat in front of her for dear life.

Some interesting arcana: In one of the national stage productions, the then-Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, was the narrator. There were lots of political references and to-ing and fro-ing between him and the audience for some strange reason. I just about suffocated from laughing. Plus the fact that the actor who played Frankenfurter was really as gay as they came, and camped it up much more than Tim Curry could ever have got away with in the movie. It was really outrageous and the audience lapped it up. Lots of rice thrown. No toast, though.

One of the best renditions of "Time Warp" I've seen was sung (and played, on two pianos) by two caged-in queens at a piano bar in Dallas. The waitresses in the bar all got up on the pianos and did the dance steps, and the patrons all fell about trying to emulate them. It may have been the amount of Sam Adams I'd consumed, but I thought it was absolutely priceless.

Ah, well!

W3 proposes the spiced toast origin... stay tuned.

the movie ran in Mpls. for 25 years via Saturday midnight showing at an old landmark theater (Uptown); it was almost required to go in costume (and bring a plastic sheet if you sat up front).

no house hold is complete with out its very own copy of the video.. old shower curtains make good indoor tarps.. the beer is cheaper, (especially if you have a keg!) and its so much easier to replay your favorite scenes--again and again..

(and fishnet stocking are so uncomfortable if you actually have to walking around in them..)

Dear gymkhana: here is URL with very long etymology on "toast". It to give "spiced toast" in wine bit.

http://courses.lib.odu.edu/engl/jbing/444-Joshua.html

[A figurative application of toast n.1, the name of a lady being supposed to flavour a bumper (A cup or glass of wine, etc., filled to the brim, esp. when drunk as a toast.) like a spiced toast in the drink.
See the Tatler, No. 24, of 2 June, and No. 31, of 18 June, 1709, in both of which toast is explained as a new name, upon the origin of which ‘the Learned differ very much’. No. 24 says that ‘many of the Wits of the last Age will assert’ that the term originated in an incident alleged to have occurred at Bath in the reign of Charles II, 1660–1684. No. 31 is silent as to the incident, and gives the account cited below.]

1709 Steele Tatler No. 24 39 This Whim gave Foundation to the present Honour+done to the Lady we mention in our Liquors, who has ever since been called a Toast. Ibid. No. 31 38 Then, said he, Why do you call live People Toasts? I answered, That was a new Name found out by the Wits to make a Lady have the same Effect as Burridge in the Glass when a Man is drinking. Ibid. No. 71 38 A Beauty, whose Health is drank from Heddington to Hinksey,+has no more the Title of Lady, but reigns an undisputed Toast.

Burridge - an old-fashioned (pre-dictionary) spelling for Borage, the sweet scented herb that adds the distinctive odour and flavour to Earl Gray tea.

OK, I'll give it one last try. (sigh-e)

For a "toast" to a notable person or couple on a special occasion:

May your troubles be less
And your blessings be more
and nothing but happiness
come in through your door.

Now, c'mon folks!

A very private toast, just between two people - sitting either side of a table in a discreetly lit restaurant:-
"To the light in your eyes -"

And to the assembled company at a larger occasion:
"May your health exceed your wealth, and your wealth exceed your wisdom!"

>so I'll assume there'a a connection between burgamot oil and burridge in flavoring the tea.

this may be a bad assumption...
borage is a kind of herb
bergamot is a kind of citrus tree

this may be a bad assumption...
borage is a kind of herb
bergamot is a kind of citrus tree

So we can assume that WW got it kind of wrong?

I took a long raft drip down the Dnieper River in Russia some years ago. They served Chai, Russian tea, that had been specially formulated for the river rafters. Yep. That stuff was in it.They floated ground burridge on top as a flavor enhancer.

Made a good movie too. Burridge on the River Chai.

It certainly isn't ww who got things wrong - it was me I managed, in a senior moment, to confuse myself, and you. It is indeed, bergamot oil that flavours Earl Gray, and the only connection with borage is in my fevered mind.

>the only connection with borage is in my fevered mind.

Too much bromide maybe?

Being the ignorant b- that I am, there was not a single toast that I could recall besides "Bottoms up" and the ubiquitous "Please charge your glasses, be upstanding - and here's to <<insert name or title of principal guest/s>>. It's not that we're an unimaginative lot here in Oz - it's just that speechifying and toasting cuts into precious drinking time.

Frown on me if you will, but I had a bit of a google and came up with the following URL - the author's arranged a whole bunch of toast by category: http://members.aol.com/xibarblue/toasts.html EDIT: Have edited this URL and it now works (sorry :-) thanks jwh

stales

I realize bergamot comes from a sort of citrus tree--Italian, I think--
Yes, it is a tree coming from mixing orange and citron trees. It is typical of Calabria - if you think of Italy as a boot, the part of fingers..In fact, this kind of trees needs a lot of sun, and grows well just in the south.

"Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen blühen......"
I tried to check this in Yahoo! Germany, and was sadly disappointed.

...if you think of Italy as a boot, the part of fingers..

I presume you're referring to the foot fingers? "dedos de pie" ~ I've always loved that. In Korean, the word for ankle translates to "foot neck" and wrist is "hand neck". That fractures me...