Some Arbit Gyan I Found Interesting!!

I received this rather interesting piece of gyan (well technically 'pieces') by email , It was titled " Whoever said history is boring..." .( Well, for starters I don't think history is boring at all... I think it is fascinating , like a lot of other things and I love it!!!) However, I'm not quite sure to what end this was originally written ... Did they just put together an interesting set of insights into certain aspects of 14th century life and how it relates to modern day language , for the heck of it?? Well, in any case, it certainly it held my attention ( and in these days of ennui , pour moi , that's certainly something! ) and it definitely seems to make sense. I'm not quite sure if all of it is entirely accurate ,especially the references to the origin of certain phrases , but the explanation seems plausible and definitely makes sense and I suppose that means at the very least it lends itself to being food for thought... I guess you will see what I mean once you read it..

And since I found it interesting I thought I would put it up on my blog - In an effort to resurrect it , you might say! It's been dormant for far too long.. There are reasons and reasons.. And I would hardly like to point fingers but I'm afraid I have to attribute it to the entrance of a certain someone into the sphere of my rather mundane existence.. Not to say that he has spiced it up Too much (me being far too resistant to too much change) , and what with him being a staid , sober ( ha ha ha ....) person himself... Nevertheless, he has certainly occupied my thoughts a lot...if not entirely!!

But excuses , excuses ... Yes, the amazing feeling of novelty that still persists three months into this relationship has lent itself to submerging me in a state of distraction , but there is (fortunately for me ) another (and the main) object of blame!
The lull (that just must lift one of these days , even if i have to hire a crane to do it ) is due , I believe , to the overwhelming ennui that seems to have settled comfortably over my sky -
That seemingly immovable entity, coupled with the inertia and sheer laziness that I constantly fight - finds me exceedingly frustrated , and fervently hoping that all of it will evaporate as quickly as it seemed to set in , all those months ago...

In that earnest hope.. here's what I was referring to:

(Oh and I could'nt help including a couple of comments and a little extra gyan , just 'cos ... Blame the cynicism that comes with ennui!!)

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, // Yeah right , I think in Madras ( still can't call it freaking 'Chennai' ) , if we get water in our taps we'd be pretty darn happy!!! // think about how things used to be.Here are some facts about the 1500's:

--Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence, the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

// Thank god for Chanel et al. Now , we could probably dispense with the flowers... Seriously though, I knew this , and it's also, I think , for the same reason that women wear flowers in their hair in india , but here, mercifully there was a lot more water and it was'nt quite so cold and people understood the concept of Hygiene and consequently it was a far more regular occurrence...I mean - the bathing!!! //

--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."

// Gee! Who would have ever thought... And what were we women complaining about!! We were'nt suppressed ...we were THIRD from last .... It was'nt us who got thrown out with the bath water... But then , I think that was probably a practical thingamajig... Who would make up the bath and get everyone to bathe the next year!! //

--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 (like 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. // With a menagerie on the roof... I'm sure it was immaculately clean! // 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 floors were layered with dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor."

--The more affluent had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet , so they spread thresh (straw) on the 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 heavy piece of wood was placed in the entranceway to keep that from happening. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

--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.

// This is why , here in more enlightened (if i may say so) india , we used copper utensils , because copper is one of the most chemically inert substances and it would'nt react with the acid or many different salts contained in our food - so we were saved being poisoned by our own utensils!!! Although to be fair , we did'nt eat tomatoes until they were introduced to us by the europeans.. , but i'm sure there are other equally acidic food stuffs that we did and could have led to our demise , save for , well , i guess , the wisdom of a few here //

--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 "upper crust."

--Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.

// And to think that people now shell out exhorbitant sums for the same effect... I just need to check if Lead ,in combination with alcohol, can induce atleast some hallucinatory effects - And if it does...Hire some thugs , pass out the lead cups free for a bit and we might begin a thriving cartel right here ...Oh and incidentally , we might even manage to help contain the population explosion by knocking off the unfortunate thrill seekers...//

And 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".

// Presently, ofcourse , we just hook them up to the ECG machine (or is it something less complicated than that even? )... and the expense of a wake , the anticipation and suspence of wondering if they will live , disappears...But then maybe back then , that was the fun part for everyone else... bet you anything , the men ran bets , maybe even a nice Winner-takes-all pool , everytime someone was found on the side of the road...while the women sat by discussing which one was going to get to skin him for not "returning her call" after he'd slept with her.. And the poor soul , if somehow cognizant of this would wonder .. " To wake or not to 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, about every 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."

// This bit is actually pretty darn morbid !! //

Now , whoever said that History was boring !

// Like my friend meera mentioned in one of her recent posts , anything can bore the death out of anyone if the source of the information himself is bored with what he saying ... Thank god for books, the wonderful neutrality of their face!! //