1/ Wow. Kansas. One of the stupid states is proving the point of how the Republican Party is truly the party of the crazies by electing an extreme right wing Governor, purging the party of any of it's moderates and it's all to do the bidding of the religious loonies and the Koch Brothers. The national party says it's all about fiscal conservatism, but at the state level it's the same social crap it's always been.
It's happening folks.....yes it's Kansas, but it could be any state where Republicans control the House, Senate and the Governorship. Hmmmmm.........Floriduh?
Excellent and scary article from Rolling Stone......
ogue State: How Far-Right Fanatics Hijacked Kansas
Gun nuts, anti-abortion zealots and free-market cultists are leading the state to the brink of disaster
For the past 12 years, the Kansas State Capitol has been under constant renovation. Most recently, its grand dome, which towers majestically over sleepy downtown Topeka, sprung leaks, forcing repair crews to cage the entire building with a blocky, ramshackle grid of scaffolding. From a distance, it looks like painful orthodontia, or perhaps a bad political metaphor.
Inside, though, one can't help but be swept up by the bustling, civics-in-action buzz of the place. Groups of children on field trips are being led past murals of hearty Kansans surviving a blizzard, grazing cattle, leading kids into a one-room schoolhouse. Politicians and their staffers sit on benches nearby, conducting hushed confabs or chatting amiably with Capitol bureau reporters and red-badged lobbyists. None of this reeks of Machiavellian House of Cards amorality, perhaps because we're surrounded by so many paintings of pioneers doing various things with wheat. In the gift shop, you can buy snowglobes containing tornados and Wizard of Oz characters.
And look, there's the governor, Sam Brownback! The 56-year-old, a regular sight on Capitol tours, today happens to be wandering the corridor near his second-floor office. He's holding a coffee mug and sporting one of his signature sweater vests – such pleasingly Capra-esque touches that one wonders if a wardrobe consultant was involved – and when his eyes alight upon an unfamiliar face, he beams and gives the visitor a pleasant nod.
Just a few years ago, Brownback seemed washed up. A devout Catholic who attends mass several times a week, he'd built a following among the Christian right as one of the most socially conservative U.S. senators of the Bush era, but his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 proved an embarrassing folly. Unable to raise money or make a dent in the polls after religious conservatives flocked to Mike Huckabee, Brownback wound up limping from the race before the first votes were even cast in the Iowa caucus.
But apparently, the notion of wielding executive branch power had become appealing. Two years later, he handily won the governorship, part of the class of Republicans elected in 2010 on a Tea Party-driven wave of anti-Obama sentiment.
Once in office, Brownback surprised critics and supporters alike with the fervor of his pursuit of power, pushing what reporter John Gramlich of Stateline described as perhaps "the boldest agenda of any governor in the nation": gutting spending on social services and education, privatizing the state's Medicaid system, undermining the teacher's union, becoming the only state to entirely abolish funding for the arts, boasting that he would sign any anti-abortion bill that crossed his desk, and – most significantly – pushing through the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history. His avowed goal is to eliminate the state income tax altogether, a move that many predict will torpedo the budget and engender even more draconian cuts in spending. "Other Republican-led states have experimented with many of the same changes," Gramlich pointed out – the difference in Kansas being that Brownback "wants to make all of those changes simultaneously."
2/ Do you need validation on how far the Republicans have descended into lunacy at the State level?
Watch this Rachel Maddow clip [12 minutes, but excellent and worth the time] on how the State of Virginia has recruited some crazies to run for office......even Rachel is dumbfounded at these idiots........
3/ A pretty good Bill Maher "New Rules", where he takes on the longevity of Congressmen, or "Cryptkeepers"..........five funny minutes......
4/ And continuing this theme of polarisation, Robert Reich with an essay on how America is changing.......
This means many blue states are moving further left, while red states are heading rightward. In effect, America is splitting apart without going through all the trouble of a civil war.
With Washington completely paralysed, it's the states that are "getten 'er dun", and in the red Republican states this process isn't pretty.......
The Quiet Closing of Washington
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2013
Conservative Republicans in our nation’s capital have managed to accomplish something they only dreamed of when Tea Partiers streamed into Congress at the start of 2011: They’ve basically shut Congress down. Their refusal to compromise is working just as they hoped: No jobs agenda. No budget. No grand bargain on the deficit. No background checks on guns. Nothing on climate change. No tax reform. No hike in the minimum wage. Nothing so far on immigration reform.
It’s as if an entire branch of the federal government — the branch that’s supposed to deal directly with the nation’s problems, not just execute the law or interpret the law but make the law — has gone out of business, leaving behind only a so-called “sequester” that’s cutting deeper and deeper into education, infrastructure, programs for the nation’s poor, and national defense.
The window of opportunity for the President to get anything done is closing rapidly. Even in less partisan times, new initiatives rarely occur after the first year of a second term, when a president inexorably slides toward lame duck status.
But the nation’s work doesn’t stop even if Washington does. By default, more and more of it is shifting to the states, which are far less gridlocked than Washington. Last November’s elections resulted in one-party control of both the legislatures and governor’s offices in all but 13 states — the most single-party dominance in decades.
It’s as if an entire branch of the federal government — the branch that’s supposed to deal directly with the nation’s problems, not just execute the law or interpret the law but make the law — has gone out of business, leaving behind only a so-called “sequester” that’s cutting deeper and deeper into education, infrastructure, programs for the nation’s poor, and national defense.
The window of opportunity for the President to get anything done is closing rapidly. Even in less partisan times, new initiatives rarely occur after the first year of a second term, when a president inexorably slides toward lame duck status.
But the nation’s work doesn’t stop even if Washington does. By default, more and more of it is shifting to the states, which are far less gridlocked than Washington. Last November’s elections resulted in one-party control of both the legislatures and governor’s offices in all but 13 states — the most single-party dominance in decades.
5/ An SNL skit from last season titled "Coroner", where Jeremy Renner has to identify his dead brother.....and chaos ensues.....four amusing minutes........
6/ A fascinating article from the American Prospect that says the demographics of the Southern states will eventually turn them from red to blue.....but [my opinion] there is an element of wishful thinking in the story that underestimates the power of the corporate right wing money, the ruthlessness of the Republicans hanging on to power and the stupidity of the voters, easily manipulated by God, Guns and Limbaugh.
This is definitely one for you political junkies......
Victor Juhasz
This piece is the first in our Solid South series. You can read Abby Rapoport's Texas reporting here, and Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm on North Carolina here, and Jamelle Bouie on Virginia here.
The final rally of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign took place on symbolically charged ground: the rolling fields of Manassas, site of the first major battle of the Civil War. It was the last stop on an election eve spent entirely in the South: Jacksonville, Charlotte, and finally Northern Virginia. In the autumn chill, an estimated 90,000 people spread out across the county fairgrounds and waited for hours to cheer a new president—and a new South.
By this point, Virginians knew Obama well. In February, he had beaten Hillary Clinton 2 to 1 in the state’s Democratic primary, a blow to her floundering bid. After clinching the nomination, he’d kicked off his general-election campaign in rural Virginia and been a frequent visitor since. Bucking conventional wisdom, Obama’s team had invested heavily in three Southern states: not just perennial battleground Florida but also Virginia and North Carolina, which had not voted Democratic for president since 1964 and 1976, respectively. No Democrat—not even Bill Clinton—had made a serious attempt to win North Carolina or Virginia since Ronald Reagan claimed it in 1980. But Obama was gambling on an emerging South—one that is younger than the rest of the country, far more ethnically diverse than the old black-and-white paradigm, and more liberal-leaning than any Southern generation to precede it.
That emerging South was arrayed in the dark hills around Obama as he flashed into the spotlight. On soil where whites once fought to the death for the right to enslave blacks, this throng had gathered to hail the soon-to-be first black man to be elected president. The next day, Obama carried all three of his Southern targets—55 electoral votes for the party. For Southerners, the message was unmistakable: The future has arrived. The Solid South is dead.
When Americans talk about the South, they tend to be talking about the past. When they talk about Southern politics, they tend to be talking about the old, stereotyped “Solid South”—that uniformly conservative, racist, anti-union, snake-handling cluster of former Confederate states that voted en masse for Democrats from the pre–Civil War through civil rights, then switched their allegiance to the former “party of Lincoln” beginning in the 1970s. Once LBJ and the Democrats betrayed the cause of white supremacy and Richard Nixon cooked up the “Southern Strategy,” the region became as solidly Republican as it once was Democratic. End of story.
Southern politics has never been quite so uncomplicated as that. It took decades for Republicans to outnumber Democrats, and Republican control of the region has never matched the Democrats’ former hegemony.
http://prospect.org/article/
7/ Yes it's a silly video, but quite amusing nonetheless......it imagines roommate squabbles as a local TV news feed........4 minutes of bitchiness.....
Slacktory's new web series "Apartment 8 News" chronicles what life would be like if terrible roommates were also news anchors reporting all apartment-related breaking news and never paying rent.
8/ Coming in December - the second in the Hobbit series "The Desolation Of Smaug".....this trailer was just released......
Can't wait, looks excellent! Hobbitsssses.......
9/ Every bloody site on the internet needs a password, and consequently you tend to use the same ones over and over.....
This duplication creates security problems, but luckily David Pogue [the tech guy in the Times] has found a solution - Dashlane, a new program that hides your passwords inside your computer, encrypted......
Read on......
“If you want to avoid having your identity stolen, use long passwords that contain digits, punctuation and no recognizable words. Make up a different password for every Web site. And change all of your passwords every 30 days.”
Have these security pundits ever listened to themselves?
That advice is clearly unfollowable. I currently have account names and passwords for 87 Web sites (banks, airlines, blogs, shopping, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter). How is anyone — even a security professional — supposed to memorize 87 long, complex password strings, let alone remember which goes with which Web site?
So most people use the same password over and over again, and live with the guilt.
There are solutions. Most Mac and Windows Web browsers now offer to memorize passwords for you. But that feature doesn’t work on all Web sites, and is generally of little help when you pick up your phone or tablet. At that point, the only person you’ve locked out of all your online accounts is you.
The only decent solution is to install a dedicated password memorization program (like Roboform, KeePass, LastP
Installation is quick. Dashlane works in Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. It can import existing password “vaults” from rival programs.
Dashlane has two primary features. First, yes, it’s a password memorizer. Every time you type your account name and password into a Web page and press enter, Dashlane pops up, offering to memorize that information and fill it in the next time.
In fact, it also offers to log you in — not just to enter your password, but also to click “log in” for you. In effect, Dashlane has just removed the login blockade entirely. When you go to Facebook, Twitter or Gmail, you just click your bookmark, smile at the briefest flash of the login screen and arrive at the site.
Since Dashlane is now storing and auto-entering your passwords, you’re now free to follow the security experts’ advice. You can make up long, unguessable passwords — a different one for every Web site, since you don’t have to remember any of them. In fact, each time you sign up for a new account, Dashlane offers to make up such a password for you, and then, of course, to memorize it.
10/ A series called "We Love Russia", sort of a cross between fails and just silly pranks.....they are a strange people.......6 minutes of weird stuff.......
11/ Conspiracy theorists have often bandied the name "The Carlyle Group" around as the power behind everything, i.e. one of the oligarchy, and I like most of us have shrugged and moved on.....but guess who owns Booz Allen Hamilton, the shadowy company that collects all of the data for the NSA?
Yup - The Carlyle Group. Feel better now?
So it’s true, as filmmaker Michael Moore once warned us, the Carlyle Group is Big Brother. That’s the $176 billion private equity firm that once employed former President George H.W. Bush, his Secretary of State James A. Baker III and a host of political luminaries that would put any other list of America’s ruling elite to shame. Plenty of Democrats too, including former President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff Mack McLarty and Arthur Levitt, the man Clinton appointed to head the SEC during the creation of the housing bust.
It is also the firm that owns Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which, thanks to the revelations of one of its employees, whistle-blower Edward Snowden, we now know collects and stores much of the government’s immense PRISM database spying on the lives of this nation’s citizenry. This is systematic snooping through the telephone and Internet records of hundreds of millions of Americans conducted by Snowden and others in Booz Allen’s employ who had the highest access to our most private personal data while working at a for-profit company.
Of course, to those swinging through the revolving door between the government and its defense contractors, it must be difficult to draw a distinction between their changing roles. James R. Clapper, the chief intelligence official in the Obama administration, who is now investigating this security lapse, was himself a top Booz Allen executive. And it should be of little surprise that John M. McConnell, currently vice chairman of Booz Allen, was previously the chief intelligence official in the George W. Bush administration. It’s crony capitalism at its patriotic best.
://www.nationofchange.org/one-
12/ Classic Music Video - His Royal Purpleness Prince with his performance from the movie of the passionate and intense "Purple Rain"..........another wonderful geetar solo......love the opening......
13/ The US is #1 in the world for incarcerating it's citizens, many of whom are inside for drug offences. Some states have contracted to privatise their prisons to for-profit corporations, and guess what - they have the harshest drug laws because this is a steady supply of prisoners for the corporate prison system.
America's private prison system is a national disgrace
An ACLU lawsuit against a prison in Mississippi is the latest to detail flagrant abuses at a private correctional facility
A US flag waves within the razor wire-lined compound of a prison. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/Pool/Reuters
The privatization of traditional government functions – and big government payments to private contractors – isn't limited to international intelligence operations like the National Security Agency. It's happening with little oversight in dozens of areas once the province of government, from schools to airports to the military. The shifting of government responsibilities to private actors isn't without consequence, as privatization often comes with a lack of oversight and a series of abuses. One particularly stunning example is the American prison system, the realities of which should be a national disgrace.
Some of those realities are highlighted in a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of prisoners at the EastMississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF). EMCF houses severely mentally ill prisoners, with the supposed intent of providing both incarceration and treatment. Instead, the ACLU contends, the facility, which is operated by private contractors, is rife with horrific abuses. As the ACLU states, it is
"an extremely dangerous facility operating in a perpetual state of crisis, where prisoners live in barbaric and horrific conditions and their basic human rights are violated daily."
The complaint lists a litany of such horrors, but here are a few highlights: rampant rapes. Placing prisoners in solitary confinement for weeks, months or even years at a time, where the only way to get a guard's attention in an emergency is to set a fire. Rat infestations so bad that vermin crawl over prisoners; sometimes, the rats are captured, put on leashes and sold as pets to the most severely mentally ill inmates. Many suicide attempts, some successful. The untreated mentally ill throw feces, scream, start fires, electrocute themselves and self-mutilate. Denying or delaying treatment for infections and even cancer. Stabbings, beatings and other acts of violence. Juveniles being housed with adults, including one 16-year-old who was sexually assaulted by his adult cell mate. Malnourishment and chronic hunger. Officers who deal with prisoners by using physical violence.
14/ I think regular readers of DDD know how we feel about the Villages and the billionaire owner of this Tea Party enclave, so it was with great pleasure I read Lauren Ritchie's excellent two part series in the Orlando Sentinel exposing the fraud and corruption that underlies Morse's wealth......the same people that got Al Capone are now after Gary Morse - the IRS......
Part 1 - Oh, dear. The IRS has shut down the printing press that for years has churned out what seemed like endless cash for the family that developed The Villages retirement community.
The agency has ruled that the bureaucracy running The Villages, called a community-development district, couldn't be considered a real government because it's not structured to represent the residents. (This is something the astute resident already knew.)
Rather, the Villages Center CDD is set up to keep the developer in control of the board of directors and "indefinitely avoid responsibility to a public electorate," according to the Internal Revenue Service. Not to mention helping the developer to amass almost unfathomable wealth at the expense of residents. Oh — and maintain the golf courses, too.
Real government acts in the public interest and gets the privilege of issuing tax-free bonds for doing so. This one doesn't, the IRS said.
Although the IRS probe focused on $364 million in bonds, $426 million in bonds are affected by the ruling.
Amen. Last week's news has been a long time coming.
Part 2
Golfweek is hosting its 10th annual Golfest in The Villages. The two-day event, which kicks off today, is a feast for the eyes of avid golfers, who flock to the event to check out the latest advances to help their game. This is the 8th year the Golfest has been held in the retirement community(Tom Benitez/Orlando Sentinel) (Tom Benitez, Orlando Sentinel /June 11, 2013)
|
Lauren RitchieCOMMENTARY
10:26 a.m. EDT, June 11, 2013
To all you who live in places where there is a community development district — other than The Villages — here's a word of advice: Chill out, dudes. Crank up the Jimmy Buffett.
A ruling by the IRS saying that the Village Center Community Development District in the massive retirement community isn't really a government that's qualified to issue tax-free bonds is just that — a ruling about a single district.
The same advice to relax goes, too, for Villagers who are wondering about bonds issued by what are called the "numbered districts" in the massive community of 100,000 retirees.
15/ Good Movie
"Superman - Man of Steel" is just out, and this rather flowery review in the Times is overall positive, but the film is dark and goes off the rails towards the end with special effects and general mayhem. Not that this is a bad thing.......
At once frantically overblown and beautifully filigreed, “Man of Steel” will turn on everyone it doesn’t turn off. Summer blockbusters have a way of encouraging multiplex Manichaeism, though I propose a middle way. It won’t be easy. Even those who patiently ride out the bludgeoning excesses of the film’s final 45 minutes may wonder what happened to the movie — the one about human and humanoid struggles — they watched for the first 100. They may also wonder why no one, anyone, smacked the director,Zack Snyder, in the head and reminded him that he was midwifing a superhero franchise, as the film’s first image, of a yelling, straining woman signals, not restaging the end of days.
Apocalypse Now (a movie that Mr. Snyder nods at), Apocalypse Then: The 21st century has been tough for Superman, at least at the box office. After decades of saving the world on the screen and on the page, the movie character seemed stuck, particularly after the dreary 2006 reboot, “Superman Returns.” The Superman story had been told in so many ways and in so many moods in the comics — he has married and mourned, died and been reborn — but shaping these transformative cycles into a new film, much less a viable series, remained elusive. Christopher Nolan went dark and then darker with another DC Comics legend in the Dark Knight films, but this was Superman, idealism embodied. What was there left to say about the man in the primary-color suit, especially after Sept. 11?
For starters, return to basics, and add a fighting-trim Russell Crowe, a howlingly mad Michael Shannon, that emotional guidepost Amy Adams and a superdude — the British actor Henry Cavill — so ripped that he’s nearly shredded. Much like “Batman Begins,” the first part of the Dark Knight trilogy, “Man of Steel” narrates the how and why of its character, tracing an existential arc from child to man. The difference is that while Batman has to journey into the world (with a layover in a bat cave) to acquire his particular skill set, Superman comes fully loaded. He just needs to burrow into his innermost self, hang out at the Fortress of Solitude and meet the right woman.
He does all that in “Man of Steel,” which was written by David S. Goyer from a story that he created with Mr. Nolan that extracts the canonical account from 75 years of seemingly infinitely layered supermythology.
A fairly restrained trailer.......
Good TV, a British import available on Netflix....stars Gillian Anderson.......
Killing Becomes a Habit, With Madness and Method
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: June 10, 2013
- GOOGLE+
- SAVE
- SHARE
- REPRINTS
You may think that television is currently supplying more than enough serial killers and serial-killer pursuers to meet our entertainment needs. But at Netflix the reigning view is apparently that too much is never enough: the service is now offering its subscribers a British serial-killer series, “The Fall,” from BBC2, starring Gillian Anderson of “X Files” fame.
A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics.
Netflix
Gillian Anderson in “The Fall,” a series about a murderer who is also a kind of eerie curator of his crime scenes.
It’s a fine show, relying on slow-building tension rather than the gory shock value of series like “The Following,” and the five-episode arc now on Netflix is worth a look if you haven’t had your fill of cat-and-mouse dynamics. If, on the other hand, you’re watching more than two serial-killer series already and feel the need for more, you may want to ask yourself what this says about you.
Anyway, Ms. Anderson is Stella Gibson, a police investigator who is brought in to jump-start a stalled murder case in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She soon sees possible connections to a different unsolved case, though others are skeptical.
“Failure to see that crimes are linked — linkage blindness — is a thing that will allow the killer to strike again,” she advises a colleague. Soon enough, he does.
While the investigation is gearing up, we are also given glimpses of the killer, Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), a grief counselor with a seemingly idyllic life — pleasant wife, two cute young children — but an exceedingly dark side. He doesn’t just kill; he carefully studies and stalks his intended victims, collects mementos of them and arranges their bodies in poses. Each side in this law-versus-lawbreaker game is meticulous.
The series, which was created by Allan Cubitt and renewed for a second seasonin Britain, shows admirable patience in telling its story. After one victim’s sister discovers the body, we hear her entire panicked emergency call to the police. Paul’s children aren’t mere props; his daughter is given a story line involving night terrors. There is one side plot that hints at police corruption and another about a couple Paul is counseling.
Oddly, the character developed the least may be Ms. Anderson’s. Stella is an enigma, a woman who seems cold and emotionless yet thinks nothing of issuing a blunt invitation to an officer she has just met to come to her bed, which he does. This type of female character is common now, but “The Fall” is particularly stingy with details about why Stella is the way she is. And as an investigator, she is downright bland; she brings no fiery bluster or endearing tics to the search for the killer. Fans of Ms. Anderson’s may be annoyed that more isn’t asked of her.
Interesting, atmospheric trailer.......Ms Anderson seems to have got prettier with age.......
Todays video - this is all over Facebook right now, but this video of Bruce lee playing ping pong with a numchucka is fake.......however, it's still amazing........
If it's black and white and looks like grainy film, it must be old, right? Wrong. This clipappears to show martial arts master Bruce Lee playing Ping-Pong with his nunchakus, but in fact this is an from Nokia for the N96 Limited Edition Bruce Lee cell phone.
And as with any great fake viral video, the online comments were filled with thousands of people debating whether the footage was real or the magic of digital production.
And as with any great fake viral video, the online comments were filled with thousands of people debating whether the footage was real or the magic of digital production.
Todays IRS joke
The IRS decides to audit Grandpa and summons him to the IRS office.*
The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up with his attorney.
The auditor said, Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no
full-time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money
gambling. I'm not sure the IRS finds that believable.*
"I'm a great gambler and I can prove it" says Grandpa. "How about a
demonstration?*
The auditor thinks for a moment and said, Okay. Go ahead.*
Grandpa says, I'll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.
The auditor thinks a moment and says, It's a bet.*
Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor's jaw drops.
Grandpa says, Now, I'll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my
other eye.
Now the auditor can tell Grandpa isn't blind, so he takes the bet.*
Grandpa removes his dentures and bites his good eye.*
The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand -
with Grandpa's attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.*
Want to go double or nothing? Grandpa says, I'll bet you six thousand
dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk and pee into that
wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.*
The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and
decides there's no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he
agrees again.*
Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he
strains mightily, he can't make the stream reach the wastebasket on the
other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor's desk.*
The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss
into a huge win.*
But Grandpa's own attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.
Are you okay? the auditor asks.
Not really, says the attorney. This morning, when Grandpa told me he'd
been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty-five thousand dollars that he
could come in here and pee all over your desk and that you'd be happy about
it.
Todays geezer joke
I pointed to two old drunks across the bar from us and told my friend Bob,
"That'll be us in ten years."
He turned to me and said, "That's a mirror, you dumb sxxt."
Todays historical snippets
Here are some interesting tidbits that just maybe you didn't know.In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more.. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint)
*******
As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October) Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term 'big wig.' Today we often use the term 'here comes the Big Wig' because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.
*******In the late 1700's, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The 'head of the household' always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the 'chair man.' Today in business, we use the expression or title 'Chairman' or 'Chairman of the Board.'
*******Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told, 'mind your own bee's wax.' Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term 'crack a smile'. In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt . . . Therefore, the expression 'losing face.'
*******Ladies wore corsets, which would lace up in the front. A proper and dignified woman, as in 'straight laced'. . Wore a tightly tied lace.
*******
Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the 'Ace of Spades.' To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't 'playing with a full deck.'
*******
Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to 'go sip some ale' and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. 'You go sip here' and 'You go sip there.' The two words 'go sip' were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term 'gossip.'
******* At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in 'pints' and who was drinking in 'quarts,' hence the term 'minding your'P's and Q's '
******* One more and betting you didn't know this!
In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen.. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a 'Monkey' with 16 round indentations.
However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make 'Brass Monkeys.' Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled.
Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey.. Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.' (All this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you.)
If you don't send this fabulous bit of historic knowledge to any and all your unsuspecting friends, your floppy is going to fall off your hard drive and kill your mouse.
No comments:
Post a Comment