A shamble was a bench where butchers used to set to sell meat from. In time the street where meat was sold often became known as the Shambles. (This street name survives in many towns today). However because butchers used to throw offal into the street, shambles came to mean a mess or something very […]
The phrase BITES THE DUST – comes from Ancient Greece This phrase comes from a translation of the epic Ancient Greek poem the Illiad about the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. It was poetic way of describing the death of a warrior. REVIEWS: The exhilarating action & subplots keep the reader in constant […]
The idiom: Chip on your shoulder means being angry about something that happened in the past. A ‘chip’ can be defined as a piece of timber, or wood. Depending on the amount and size, timber can be quite heavy, and oftentimes people carry heavy things on their shoulders. The phrase appears to have originated with a 19th […]
The phrase to WEAR YOUR HEART ON YOUR SLEEVE means you are displaying your emotions to everyone. This phrase could have derived from the custom at middle ages jousting matches. Knights are said to have worn the colours of the lady they were supporting, in cloths or ribbons tied to their arms. However, it was […]
From the 1850’s to the 1930’s, more than 250,000 orphans from New York City and Boston were sent westward. The train made many stops along the way as married couples picked out the boy or girl they wanted. Michigan was one of many middle western states to take in 12,500 children from 3 to 16 […]
Amazing film from 1956 of an eyewitness of the Abraham Lincoln Assassination. The panelists on this show were, left to right (in order of appearance): Bill Cullen, Jayne Meadows, Henry Morgan, and Lucille Ball. The host was Garry Moore. Samuel Seymour was only five years old when he saw President Lincoln assassinated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB4LNKNDhS8 A Milwaukee Sentinel […]
Did you know that…. In olden days, proof of ownership of large animals that roamed freely in the woods was difficult made. The farmers slit or notched their animals ears to identify them. Thus the meaning of the term “Earmarked” WHERE DO I START? Hints and Tips for Beginning Genealogists with On-line resources
Mad as a hatter is not from Alice in Wonderland like I once thought. Mad as a Hatter comes from the fact that in the 18th and 19th centuries hat makers treated hats with mercury which became a hazardous occupation. This was known to have affected the nervous systems of hatters, causing them to tremble […]
Face the music means to accept the unpleasant consequences of one’s actions. The source of the phrase is not clear. Some believe that ‘face the music’ originated from the tradition of disgraced officers being ‘drummed out’ of their regiment. A second popular theory is that it was actors who ‘faced the music’, that is, faced […]
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart disappeared in 1937 on an attempted round-the-world flight. People have been searching for her remains and her plane ever since A recent news report announced that a piece of riveted aluminum found in 1991 may likely be from her plane. Sophisticated imagery, not available […]
