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I offer this with no comment. It arrived today in an email:
Reasons for sayings, circa 1500
People get married in June, because the annual bath was in May and they still smelt reasonable.
Baths were big tubs hauled into the house, Man of the house first, then sons, women and children and finally the babies. By then the water was so daughter you could loose someone. Hence "throwing the baby out with the bath water".
Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw with no wood underneath. Animals slept up there in the warmth. When it rained and became slippery, they would slide down," hence raining cats and dogs."
Only the wealthy had floors made of anything except dirt, "hence dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floor which got slippery, so they would spread thresh (rushes) over it to keep their footing. As winter progressed they added more and more, until when you opened the door the thresh would blow out. So they put a board across the entry to stop this. "Hence crossing the threshhold."
Sometimes they would obtain pork and feel very special, when company came over they would hang the bacon for all to see as a sign of their wealth and to show a man could really "bring home the bacon."
Special guests got a little bit cut off and could 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 leech into the food, as this happened most often with tomatoes they stopped eating them for 400 years.
Most people didn't have pewter plates but used a wooden board with a trench cut in it. These were never washed and after awhile got worms in the wood. After eating off them people got "trench mouth."
Bread was divided according to status. The workers got the burnt base, the family the middle and the quests the top crust. "Hence the Upper crust"
Lead cups were used for drinking ale and whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them out for days. People out walking would find them laying on the roadside and return them home burial. The corpse was laid on the table for a couple of days, whilst the family continued eating and drinking around them, waiting to see if they would wake up. "hence the holding of a wake."
England is old and small, so was running out of burial space. They would dig up a coffin remove the bones, and reuse it. They found one in twentyfive had scratch marks, and it was clear they were burying people alive. To rectify this they tied a piece of string to the corpses wrist, the string coming out of a hole in the coffin and up through the graound, where it was attached to abell. Someone would sit up all night to listen for the bell. "hence the graveyard shift" and "saved by thebell" and "a dead ringer".
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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I, uh, er...ahem...think perhaps someone could have done with some proofreading.
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Great list, CapK...some of these practices continued into the 18th century, most notably until they discovered that germs caused disease circa 1870 (they knew about bacteria since the microscope was discovered in the 1700's, but they never got the correlation until a doctor decided to wash his hands before surgery and eliminated infection). The June wedding and 'throwin' the baby out with the bath water" always got a good laugh in my historical interpretation spiel. My other favorite was this: For centuries people had to use chamber pots when the weather was severe or they were sick (and just before bed), but the poorest people couldn't afford them. And, so..."don't have a pot to piss in."Also, for centuries taverns had a serving niche in the gentlemen's "other room" with a partition that could be closed and locked over it when the laws forbade the sale of alcohol during certain days or hours (as in Blue Laws) so they could still sell food, etc., or when the innkeeper needed to go outside for something. The partition was usually wooden with verticle bars, thus the drinking room came to be called a "bar" or "barroom" instead of a tavern. "Sleep tight" comes from the fact that mattresses used to be supported by ropes, and if they came loose it made for a very uncomfortable night. And in the day of the outhouse or privy in centuries past if cornstalks or leaves became scarce they had to improvise, and sticks were not uncommon for such use. That's right, "the dirty end of the stick," "the s**t end of the stick," in all it's different phrases. No...don't pick up that end of it!  And poor farming families usually had one bedroom and one wide bed for the entire family. The mother and father slept in the middle with the daughters next to Mom and the sons next to Dad. And since they had such large families in those days (usually 10-15 children, you needed hands to run the farm and childhood mortality was high), I guess their amorous moments consisted of "Hurry up! I think they're all asleep!" Until the late 1800's most USn's chewed tobacco, and they were notorious for spitting on the floors of all public buildings, even churches and courtrooms. They had spittoons, but they didn't bother...too incovenient. And foreign travelers would often complain bitterly about "the awful habit these disgusting Americans have of chewin' tobacco and spitting it everywhere." There's a documented account of an 1826 session of the Virginia House of Burgesses (this is the aristocratic political body, folks) where "the floor was completely awash with their disgusting tobacco juice"). The habit of not bathing was peculiar to Europeans who were warned by physicians in the late 1300's during The Plague that bathing was dangerous because it could wash away the oils and leave them vulnerable to the disease. This pungent no-bath period lasted in Europe until the late 1700's. By 1400 hundred it became fashionable and a status symbol among the Royalty and aristocrats to claim that portions of their body had never been touched by water. Like Napolean, who never bathed, they had massages with French cologne on a daily basis. When the English (whom, I'm afraid, were the most notorious of all the Europeans in their zeal for not-bathing), first embarked in Massachusetts in the 1600's the Amerindians thought they were filthy people because the Indians said "you could smell 'em before you saw them coming!" The Amerindians swam and bathed daily in the warm weather (as was the case with most African and Asian peoples). In the 1700's Europeans were still afraid to even swim, and picture our USn "Founding Fathers," Franklin and Washington, in those hot clothes never dousing for a full-bodied wash. In fact, Benjamin Franklin was noted for inventing what he called "the air bath" where he'd strip naked and flap his arms in the air...claimed it was healthy for you....this was quite an innovation! Once folks attempted to brave those treacherous bath waters again in the late 1700's, and continuing until they learned the value of cleanliness in the 1870's, one bath a year was usually the rule. And as CapK pointed out, they'd take their first (some braved up to 3 a year by the mid 1800's!) or only bath in May when the weather warmed. And since they still smelled good in June this is why the tradition of the June wedding was born...so much for the romance ladies. AND the custom of the bridal bouquet was to add perfume and fragrance to the bride's personage. AND a bridal shower was called a "shower" because that's when her female friends and relatives got together to help bathe and perfume her sometime before the wedding! Enjoy your next bath or shower, folks! I think every child should have a course in lifestyle history at a very young age. They might appreciate what they have a little more...I know I would've!
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Carpal Tunnel
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could have done with some proofreading
Not to mention some fact checking.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, Faldage, you leave us hanging here. Wanna spill about the incorrect facts? My brain's busting with incorrect information as it is, and mebbe I could unlearn a thing or two--not that I'd necessarily remember correctly even then, brain such as it is with chrysalis determined never to unfold correctly.
Best regards,
Dubbed "Dub"
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Carpal Tunnel
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Nothin specific D'Dub, just these smell of internet legend.
Snope them or whatever your fave debunker is. Ya might google "urban legend" and run with that.
WO'N's chamber pot and sleep tight stories I might go along with, but that's about it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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For some reason (frames?) I can't get an exact URL for the debunking of this particular urban E-mail myth (maybe one of our more computer-savvy types can?). Go to: http://www.snopes2.com/Then click on Language and then on Phrase Craze.
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 You've by now noticed, my dear Faldage, that I did just that.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Lessee what happens do we do this: http://www.snopes2.com/1500.htmWell, that was interesting. I include it here merely for its entertainment value.
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