[TheForge] blacksmiths and beer

Tue Sep 3 21:16:01 2002

And here I thought "minding your p's and q's" came from the print shop.
I worked for five years at a living history museum.  Most of it as the
village smith and some of it as the printer.  Since set type is mirror image
of the print, p and q became mirrored images.  The type was also set upside
down to make it easier to read when setting. So when setting type you had to
mind your p's and q's because it was very easy to mix them up.

When type came in small drawers, capital letters where in one drawer and
small letters in another ( called cases).  When the drawers where properly
set into the cabinet capital letters sat above small letters.  Hence upper
and lower case letters.  These cases where eventually replace with a larger
drawer with all letters, puntucation numbers, etc. Every drawer followed the
same pattern (except icon type). You could learn to pull letters in setting
type similar to touch typing on the keyboard.  I eventually got pretty good
at it.

Since we are having a go at old expressions.  "Sleep tight and don't let the
bed bugs bite" Comes from having a rope support under your mattress (stuffed
with straw with bugs included).  Every night you would make sure all the
ropes where pulled tight so the mattress would have minimum sag.

Peter @ fatraccoon

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of lama
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 7:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [TheForge] blacksmiths and beer

"Beer Trivia"
It was the accepted practice in Babylonia 4,000 years ago that for
a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his
son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer,
and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called
the "honey month" - or what we know today as the "honeymoon"
Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or
finger into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast.
Too cold, and the yeast wouldn't grow. Too hot, and the yeast would
die. This thumb in the beer is where we get the phrase "rule of thumb"
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England,
when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind
their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the
phrase "mind your P's and Q's".
Beer was the reason the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. It's clear
from the Mayflower's log that the crew didn't want to waste beer
looking for a better site. The log goes on to state that the passengers
"were hasted ashore and made to drink water that the seamen might have
the more beer" After consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they
called aul, or ale, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often
without armor or even shirts. In fact, the term "berserk" means "bare shirt"
in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.
In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the
navy's rum. Needless to say, the sailors weren't too pleased and called
Admiral Vernon, Old Grog, after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore.
The term "grog" soon began to mean the watered down drink itself. When
you were drunk on this grog, you were "groggy", a word still in use today.
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the
rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used
the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle", is the
phrase inspired by this practice.

dave m "That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

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