Unimportant Interesting Stuff

[pmagrady]

Rule of Thumb

The earliest citation comes from Sir William Hope’s The Compleat Fencing-Master, second edition, 1692, page 157: "What he doth, he doth by rule of thumb, and not by art."The term is thought to originate with wood workers who used the length of their thumbs rather than rulers for measuring things, cementing its modern use as an inaccurate, but reliable and convenient standard.

It is often claimed that the term originally referred to a law that limited the maximum thickness of a stick with which it was permissible for a man to beat his wife, but this has been discredited. Although British common law before the reign of Charles II permitted a man to give his wife "moderate correction", no 'rule of thumb' (whether called by this name or not) has ever been the law in England.

GOLF

The Scotts spelled it "goulf"

[OReely]

A bit of nautical jargon since this is a boating forum. "It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". The origin of the term has kind of gotten lost since there are no tall ships plying the seas with a full complement of armament anymore. Cannon balls were stacked at the ready on a device made of brass. When it got really cold the brass would shrink more than the iron balls. The balls would then fall from the stack. The device was called a monkey.

Now you know it has nothing to do with metallic primates.

[Grunt]

I actually saw one of my students in Gym this week lick his elbow. It IS possible.

[auguste]

A most enjoyable read

Thanks

[davepen]

Not to be a bummer or anything, but a lot of those "facts" are false.