The Science Behind Some Popular Phrases

Looking into the cat's and dogs expression, it traces from the given link to ;

Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,
Dead cats and turnips-tops come tumbling down the flood

Swift (quote above) seems to be alluding to the torrents of garbage flooding down the street, rather than rain. I s'pose it could be the source. Shame about those turnips. In 1710 there were probably far worse things flowing down the street.

Jack and Jill - Old Nursery Rhyme

Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down and broke his crown

And Jill came tumbling after.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Up he got

And home he trot

As fast as he could caper

Went to bed and wrapped his head

With vinegar and brown paper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those who ever wondered what vinegar and brown paper have to do with a severe blow to the head (or anywhere else), try this method of reducing bruising.

If you ever hit the wrong nail (Finger or thumb nail) when using a hammer, fill a cup with vinegar, malt or cider - it does not matter.

Place the injured digit into the vinegar, keep it there for several minutes.

There will be no swelling, pain quickly goes, and in 10 minutes or so, you will be able to use that damaged digit once again, without any pain.

Bruising is minimised.

So...When vinegar is placed on a damaged part of the body, and retained there for several minutes, as in the case of Jack's head, the fastest method of recovery is to get it immersed in vinegar as soon as possible.

Remedy was given to me by old Scots cable jointer, some 50+ years ago, it has never failed me, or others who use the remedy.

Kind Regards....

Interesting regarding remedies. I once learned of a remedy for extremely infected sore throats (this was back in the mid-1960s). I was in hospital for 9 days in excruciating pain unable to eat. I later found the remedy used after all the various available anesthetics proved worthless for treating the pain. It was considered an old wives tale remedy and I subsequently located it in a local telephone book. It used a crushed Aspirin and a teaspoon of baking soda mixed in 1/2 shot-glass of water.

The following bit of rhyme sounds more plausible ;

The 'blue moon' expression itself is old and dates back to mediaeval England. For example, a work by William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester, the Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse, 1528, which is more commonly known by its first line, Rede me and be nott wrothe, For I say no things but trothe included a reference to a blue moon:

"Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true."

A blue moon was a synonym for absurdity - considered to be as likely as the moon being made out of green cheese. This imagery was called on in John Frith's exhaustively entitled essay A pistle to the christen reader; the reuelation of antichrist: antithesis wherein are compared togeder Christes actes and oure holye father the Popes, 1529

"They wold make men beleue... that ye mone is made of grene chese."

I haven't checked the above (hoax stories abound), but it sounds good (apart from the moon not beeing made of cream cheese). Maybe it's a red-herring.

A blue moon would then be meant as an event that happens rarely such as may be seene (me olde Englifh is not up to fcratch) upon occasion through fog laden smogs (or smog laden fogs) and volcanic eruptions...........

Idiots, on the other hand, were men of ancient Greece who held no political office.

_{my two bits worth}

I like portmanto portmintox ptrmantua joined-up words ! It's all ludicrous, a bit like the thread about "is the Galaxy milky" (or some such) - it can't really be anything else.

Ah, well then......you'd be perfectly at home in our parliament which sits in a town called Acronymityville.

ps we Canucks have just been blessed with a gov't of which the Separatist party (le Bloc Quebecois) just got to run the whole damn country (don't ask). Tis not bizarre, tis a comedy comprised of listening to the flushing of toilets when our parliament is in session. We call it gov't........it can't be anything else either.