Weird, but interesting!

[Trevor S 2,003]

I've seen this with the letters out of order, but this is the first time I've seen it with numbers.

A good example of a Brain Study - If you can read this OUT LOUD, you have a strong mind.

And better than that - Alzheimer's is a long, long way down the road before it ever gets anywhere near you.


7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!
1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY
W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17,

B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15.

In addition, if you can read the following paragraph, you have a strong mind, too. Only 55 people out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.

Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

[carni 10,094]

Mrnniog Tvoerr,

Vrey Itnrseentig, ctlniarey wkoe me up!

Gaert Sfutf!

[Cliff Ton 10,488]

Scary for the first few seconds; then you realise it's actually quite easy.

[darkazana 1,736]

Are all pstos to be lkie tihs tehn?

It's all very wlel but the atuocrrocet kepes cahgnnig the wrdos back!

[Trevor S 2,003]

Jeez......Seems we have found the second language of Nottstalgians womenfolk...

At least you and I, Cliff Ton, are still normal...............................

[catfan 14,793]

Pe3se 0f plizs

[Trevor S 2,003]

You've got a bit of a lisp there, catfan..

[FLY2 10,109]

Some of the posts on here have been like that !

[benjamin1945 16,206]

hwta uoy amne?

[Michael Booth 7,364]

I wish I could take this to my schoolteacher and prove to him that I was right.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I thought I was on facebook for the minute.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

If you don't know where you are I suggest you go for a lie down.

[loppylugs 8,429]

Now why my dog understands every word I say he only hears the first and last letters.

Now that was wierd, I didn't put that icon there it just appeared. Think I'll go back to bed.

[tomlinson 879]

7y9^0gvlPsA (Dyslexia)

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

It can't be difficult. I was able to do it.

[... 1,411]

At last someone that writes proper,

[Trevor S 2,003]

Us older people need to learn something new every day...Just to keep the grey matter tuned up.

(Even if you're young, this is still interesting.)

So, let us begin......Where did "Piss Poor" come from?....Interesting history.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot.

And then once it was full, it was taken and sold to the local tannery...If you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...they "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, 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 they still smelled pretty good by June.

However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.


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 and 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!"


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 (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.

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 floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor."

The wealthy 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 and more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside.

A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a "Thresh hold."

(Getting quite an education, aren't we?)

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 death by lead poisoning.

This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.


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 the "Upper crust."


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

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 holding a "Wake."


England was 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, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had ben 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."

And that's the truth.

Now, whoever said history was boring!!!


And remember, inside every older person is a younger person wondering, "What the heck happened?"


Smile, it gives your face something to do!

[carni 10,094]

That was so interesting Trevor."Have you got any more"?

[darkazana 1,736]

I discovered one of the reasons the ladies withdrew from the dining table after a meal to the with-drawing room - later known as the drawing room - was not only so the men could smoke, play cards etc, but because in the course of the evening the men would need to relieve themselves, and to do this without disturbing their entertainment the chamber pot was brought out from a small cupboard and passed around under the table, it was then returned to its cupboard until the staff removed it when they had left the room.......Nice!

[carni 10,094]

We live approx 5miles from Boscobel House (Of King Charles11 Fame). So after joining English Heritage last year, when there was a discount offer on! We can visit as many times now as we like. Every time we go, we learn something new. Last week, as we were being shown one of the tables there, the Guide explained the reason why the table top was the same width as the legs.( No over hang). This was so that whilst playing cards, you couldn't hide your hands under the table to cheat. Hence the saying..... All Above Board! If it's good enough for King Charles? Sorry if I have mentioned this before from an earlier visit, I think it's part of the general tour information!

[Chulla 4,946]

#16

PROPERLY, PROPERLY! not proper! Thync befour yew right.

[Chulla 4,946]

I don't know whether this is the right thread, but here's something that is really weird and wonderful; and true.

Years ago I knew a man at RR Hucknall, where I worked, named Bill, in his sixties. He told me a story of when he was a little lad and was taken to see his grandma, who was not well. He and his mother went into the bedroom where they saw grandma sitting up in bed. Next to her was granddad, who also wasn't very well. After a while Bill left the room and began to walk down the stairs. As he did so the front door opened and in walked his aunt. She said to him " Have you been to see grannie?" and took him back upstairs. They entered the bedroom and he saw grandma lying there - she had just died. Slumped across her was granddad, who had also just died, most probably of a broken heart.

As an example of the ending of a life-long devotion, that one takes some beating.

[StephenFord 866]

Re #16 and #21 - shouldn't it have been "At last someone WHAT writes proper" ?

[DAVIDW 1,690]

Further to Trevor S's origins of sayings , some more from a book I am reading at the moment .

These are mainly nautical :

TAKEN ABACK-this is from the sailing ships era . When the wind suddenly changed and the sails flattened against the mast a ship could suddenly slow or even be driven backwards...."aback"

HAVE SOMEONE OVER A BARREL- medieval times when a person was found unconscious in the water , standard practice was to drape them over the side of a barrel to try and clear their lungs . Meant that as person was unconscious they were reliant on others to save him .

BITTER END- Old sailing ships had the anchor fixed wood/iron bollards called "bitts" . Coloured rags were tied to the anchor rope near its deck end to show there wasn't much rope left when letting out the anchor if the water was too deep . The part between the rag and the bitt was called the bitter end .

GOES BY THE BOARD -the board is another name for the side of the ship . Anything that fell off the side of the ship and was lost forever had "gone by the board"

HAD YOUR CHIPS - could be a gambling meaning but some believe that one of the perks of working in a dockyard was being able to take home off-cuts of timber known as chips . If some abused the perk and tried to take too many the foreman may tell them they have "had their chips" and couldn't take any more .

CUT AND RUN - if a sailing ship was under sudden attack whilst in harbour , waiting to draw up the anchor might be time consuming so the quickest escape was to chop through the rope with an axe and run with the wind .

TO BE AT A LOOSE END - this was to give bored sailors something to do on a slow trip . Sailing ships had hundreds of ropes and if they frayed at the end could unravel . So to keep sailors occupied they would be assigned to bind up all the loose ends .

ON THE FIDDLE- sailors plates had a raised rim round the edge called a fiddle to stop food falling off in high seas . If one sailor had food piled up on the fiddle he might be suspected of taking more than his fair share .

FIRST RATE- Henry V111 organised the navy sailing ships by size on a scale from one to six . The smallest were 6th rate and the largest and best armed were "first rate"

FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE - nothing to do with an animal but is to do with the Horse Latitudes either side of the Equator , Often known to be a place a weak winds . In that situation it was called the "dead horse" and despite much effort movement on the water was painfully slow .

[Trevor S 2,003]

Japan - some interesting facts:

These practices set a high standard for their young people . . . . .

* Japanese children clean their schools every day for a quarter of an

hour with teachers. This led to the emergence of a Japanese generation

who is modest and keen on cleanliness.

* Any Japanese citizen who has a dog must carry special bags to pick

up dog droppings. Hygiene and their eagerness to address cleanliness

is part of Japanese ethics.

* A hygiene worker in Japan is called a "health engineer" and can command a

salary of USD 5000 to 8000 per month and, a cleaner is subjected to written

and oral tests!!

* Japan does not have any natural resources and they are exposed to

hundreds of earthquakes a year, but this has not prevented its becoming

a major player on the world stage.

* In just ten years Hiroshima returned to what it was - economically vibrant -

before the fall of the atomic bomb.

* Japan prevents the use of mobile phones in trains, restaurants and indoors.

* First to sixth primary year Japanese students must learn ethics in

dealing with people.

* Even though among the richest people in the world, the Japanese do

not have servants. The parents are responsible for the house and children.

* There is no examination from the first to the third primary level because

the goal of education is to instil concepts and character building.

* If you go to a buffet restaurant in Japan you will notice people only eat as

much as they need without any waste because food must not be wasted.

* The rate of delayed trains in Japan is about 7 seconds per year!!

The Japanese appreciate the value of time and are very punctual to minutes

and seconds.

* Children in schools brush their teeth (sterile) and clean their teeth after a

meal at school, teaching them to maintain their health from an early age.

* Japanese students take half an hour to finish their meals to ensure proper

digestion because these students are the future of Japan .

The Japanese focus on maintaining their own culture.

The Japanese might have lost the war, but they are in charge of their own country and destiny.

Something to think about......