Quickies....did you know...............................
*that biscuit literally means twice baked?
*that pretzels were shaped by a medieval Italian monk to represent arms folded in prayer?
*that hardtack is a sea biscuit, baked with only flour and water for preservation on long ocean voyages?
*that zwieback is German for twice baked?
*a 'tidbit' is any morsel of food or information that is small and tasty. It combines tid, a fold word from betide or tidings which means "chancing across good fortune" and bit which is a pronunciation of bite or "a small amount."
May 7/10 Big Book of Answers #2
Why do
we..................................................................call
a predictable trial a "Kangaroo court?"
The
expression "kangaroo court" come out of Texas in the 1850s. It meant
that the accused's guilt was predetermined and that the trial was a mere
formality before punishment. Kangaroo was a Texas reference to
Australia, a former British penal colony where everyone had been guilty
of something, and so if a convict
were accused of a new crime, there would be no doubt of his guilt.
04/21/10
the Big Book of answers #2
What is a
"dead ringer'?........................................................
Ringer comes
from horse racing in the nineteenth century. Sometimes an unscrupulous
owner would run a poor horse in a number of races to develop long odds
against it winning. When a major race came around, the poor horse would
be replaced by a good horse that looked exactly the same called a "dead
ringer," and people in the know would gamble a lot of money on it and
enjoy a big win.
A more ghoulish, but firmly discounted,
explanation of dead ringer is that it refers to someone who had been
accidentally buried alive, which wasn't all that uncommon in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but was fortunate enough to have a
string tied to his wrist that was attached to a bell. If he pulled on
the string, the would ring, and a grave digger would come and dig him
up.
Mar.15/10
The Big Book of Answers #2
