A wee bit of Historical knowledge for YOU.
Early aircraft throttles had a ball on the end of it, in order to go full throttle the pilot had to push the throttle all the way forward into the wall of the instrument panel. Hence "balls to the wall" for going very fast. And now you know the rest of the story.
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During WWII, U.S. Airplanes were armed with belts of bullets which they would shoot during dogfights and on strafing runs. These belts were folded into the wing compartments that fed their machine guns. These belts measure 27 feet and contained hundreds of rounds of bullets. Often times, the pilots would return from their missions having expended all of their bullets on various targets. They would say, I gave them the whole nine yards, meaning they used up all of their ammunition.
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Did you know the saying "God willing and the creek don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the U.S. To return to Washington . In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Because he capitalized the word "Creek" he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.
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In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)
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As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October). Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term 'big wig'. Today we often use the term 'here comes the Big Wig' because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.
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In the late 1700's, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The 'head of the household' always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the 'chair man.' Today in business, we use the expression or title 'Chairman' or 'Chairman of the Board.'
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Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told, 'mind your own bee's wax.' Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term 'crack a smile'. In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt. Therefore, the expression 'losing face.'
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Ladies wore corsets, which would lace up in the front. A proper and dignified woman, as in 'straight laced' wore a tightly tied lace.
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Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the 'Ace of Spades.' To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't 'playing with a full deck.'
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Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to 'go sip some Ale and listen to people's conversations and political concerns.’ Many assistants were dispatched at different times. 'You go sip here' and 'You go sip there.' The two words 'go sip' were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term 'gossip.'
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At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in 'pints' and who was drinking in 'quarts,' hence the phrase 'minding your 'P's and Q's'.
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One more: bet you didn't know this! In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem....how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a 'Monkey' with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make 'Brass Monkeys.' Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled.. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey; Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.'
Monday, May 29, 2017
Saturday, May 27, 2017
DRAINING THE SWAMP
Title: Draining the Swamp is Messy. May 14, 2017
By Michael Master (author of Save America Now, Rules for Conservatives, The Birth Famine)
Our home is in a community of 2,000 homes located on the intercostal in North Carolina. Everything lives here. Alligators, Water moccasins, Rattle snakes, Sea hawks, Egrets, Giant blue herons, Mosquitoes… blood sucking Mosquitoes. We’ve watched from our back porch as dolphins chased sail boats and motor boats up the intercostal and watched the moon rise over the ocean to cast its glow over the intercostal.
When the community decided to drain the swamp in the center of the community, it was a big deal.
Draining the swamp was messy. The swamp was about 10 football fields, about 6 feet deep, with lots of creatures living in it. It was a dangerous swamp, not one that you would walk or swim in. You would not dare sit next to it in the dark of a moonless night, if not the snakes, then the mosquitoes would eat you alive.
As the water level decreased, the creatures were exposed. As the water level disappeared, all that was left was 3 feet of yucky black mud and the roots to dying cypress trees.
The fish, snakes, frogs, rats, and birds were all stranded in the yucky mud.
Those creatures of the swamp fought for their lives as the swamp disappeared. The fish flopped around in the black mud looking for some water for life. The frogs croaked incessantly all night while their young pollywogs were stranded lifeless at the top of the black mud. Snakes slithered in every direction in the black mud in search of food. The rats that live in hollows all along the water abandoned their nests while the birds that feed off the swamp creatures also abandoned the area.
Finally, the mud dried out. No more snakes. No more rats. No more fish. No more frogs. No more mosquitoes. And no more birds that feed off those creatures of the swamp.
That same thing is happening to the political swamp in America. Trump is draining the swamp. His picks for his cabinet are all swamp drainers. Yeah, 3 are from Goldman Sachs. 3 of 23. Practically all of his cabinet have executive experience (military, or government, or private sector)
… and it is the executive branch, now isn't it?
The mud is becoming visible as all the creatures who live in the swamp are fighting for their lives. Government employees at the IRS, EPA, and Education are flapping in the mud like dying fish. The lobbyists are slithering here and there looking for government funds like the snakes in the mud ...
especially those who wrote Obamacare. The liberal media cartel is chirping and croaking all the time like frogs trying to reverse the draining.
The tax and spend politicians are dying off like the blood sucking mosquitoes. The political appointees of Obama are fleeing DC for other jobs like the birds who lost their meal tickets. And the information leakers like Comey and Lynch are looking for new places to nest like the rats that left the swamp.
Soon, all that will remain will be the dying institutions like public education as the dying cypress trees of our society.
Everyone who lived off the swamp is praying for rain. Election rain so Democrats might win some elections from Republicans since the Democrats suffered such horrible defeats during the 8 years of Obama. Impeachment rain so the professional politicians can get rid of Trump as the swamp drainer.
Low approval rating rain so the media can claim they were correct about Trump. Virtual rain, fake rain, so pundits can claim that Trump is not making any progress even though the results say the opposite.
Draining the swamp is messy, muddy. But the mud will soon dry. Democrats just lost special elections in Arkansas and Omaha after sinking millions into them. Democrats might grab an election here or there in places like Georgia where the demographics are changing to black communities, but not without millions and millions of campaign money ... and Democrats cannot afford to do that for all the elections in 2018. Democrats must defend 23 Senators in 2018 as compared to 10
for Republicans and Democrats must win 25 seats in the US House from Republicans and then win back 900 state legislative seats and 14 governorships. If Georgia is an example, that will cost Democrats hundreds of millions to try.
SCOTUS will be rendering its decisions about Trump executive orders just before the 2018 elections ... and more than likely, SCOTUS will rule against the Obama appointed judges who live in the lower court swamps. SCOTUS will help Trump.
Comey is gone. Lynch is in trouble. Clinton is back in trouble. The Clinton Foundation donors are talking. Clapper and Yates both said that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians.
Schumer is gasping for rain like one of those stranded fish. His Republican swamp buddies like McCain will abandon him as he dies … a rat leaving the swamp even though they shared an apartment together. His Wall Street swamp buddies cannot help him. The Washington Post and The New York Times and CNN and NBC are all trying to seed the clouds. But none of it is producing enough rain to help Schumer stop Trump from draining the swamp.
Draining the swamp is loud. Listen to all the hysterical liberal media cartel who are trying to make it rain in order to save the swamp where they live. Chanting. Lies. Rain dances. But no real rain is coming. Only fake rain. The swamp will soon be dry. And when it is, then the next task to make America great again can begin.
By Michael Master (author of Save America Now, Rules for Conservatives, The Birth Famine)
Our home is in a community of 2,000 homes located on the intercostal in North Carolina. Everything lives here. Alligators, Water moccasins, Rattle snakes, Sea hawks, Egrets, Giant blue herons, Mosquitoes… blood sucking Mosquitoes. We’ve watched from our back porch as dolphins chased sail boats and motor boats up the intercostal and watched the moon rise over the ocean to cast its glow over the intercostal.
When the community decided to drain the swamp in the center of the community, it was a big deal.
Draining the swamp was messy. The swamp was about 10 football fields, about 6 feet deep, with lots of creatures living in it. It was a dangerous swamp, not one that you would walk or swim in. You would not dare sit next to it in the dark of a moonless night, if not the snakes, then the mosquitoes would eat you alive.
As the water level decreased, the creatures were exposed. As the water level disappeared, all that was left was 3 feet of yucky black mud and the roots to dying cypress trees.
The fish, snakes, frogs, rats, and birds were all stranded in the yucky mud.
Those creatures of the swamp fought for their lives as the swamp disappeared. The fish flopped around in the black mud looking for some water for life. The frogs croaked incessantly all night while their young pollywogs were stranded lifeless at the top of the black mud. Snakes slithered in every direction in the black mud in search of food. The rats that live in hollows all along the water abandoned their nests while the birds that feed off the swamp creatures also abandoned the area.
Finally, the mud dried out. No more snakes. No more rats. No more fish. No more frogs. No more mosquitoes. And no more birds that feed off those creatures of the swamp.
That same thing is happening to the political swamp in America. Trump is draining the swamp. His picks for his cabinet are all swamp drainers. Yeah, 3 are from Goldman Sachs. 3 of 23. Practically all of his cabinet have executive experience (military, or government, or private sector)
… and it is the executive branch, now isn't it?
The mud is becoming visible as all the creatures who live in the swamp are fighting for their lives. Government employees at the IRS, EPA, and Education are flapping in the mud like dying fish. The lobbyists are slithering here and there looking for government funds like the snakes in the mud ...
especially those who wrote Obamacare. The liberal media cartel is chirping and croaking all the time like frogs trying to reverse the draining.
The tax and spend politicians are dying off like the blood sucking mosquitoes. The political appointees of Obama are fleeing DC for other jobs like the birds who lost their meal tickets. And the information leakers like Comey and Lynch are looking for new places to nest like the rats that left the swamp.
Soon, all that will remain will be the dying institutions like public education as the dying cypress trees of our society.
Everyone who lived off the swamp is praying for rain. Election rain so Democrats might win some elections from Republicans since the Democrats suffered such horrible defeats during the 8 years of Obama. Impeachment rain so the professional politicians can get rid of Trump as the swamp drainer.
Low approval rating rain so the media can claim they were correct about Trump. Virtual rain, fake rain, so pundits can claim that Trump is not making any progress even though the results say the opposite.
Draining the swamp is messy, muddy. But the mud will soon dry. Democrats just lost special elections in Arkansas and Omaha after sinking millions into them. Democrats might grab an election here or there in places like Georgia where the demographics are changing to black communities, but not without millions and millions of campaign money ... and Democrats cannot afford to do that for all the elections in 2018. Democrats must defend 23 Senators in 2018 as compared to 10
for Republicans and Democrats must win 25 seats in the US House from Republicans and then win back 900 state legislative seats and 14 governorships. If Georgia is an example, that will cost Democrats hundreds of millions to try.
SCOTUS will be rendering its decisions about Trump executive orders just before the 2018 elections ... and more than likely, SCOTUS will rule against the Obama appointed judges who live in the lower court swamps. SCOTUS will help Trump.
Comey is gone. Lynch is in trouble. Clinton is back in trouble. The Clinton Foundation donors are talking. Clapper and Yates both said that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians.
Schumer is gasping for rain like one of those stranded fish. His Republican swamp buddies like McCain will abandon him as he dies … a rat leaving the swamp even though they shared an apartment together. His Wall Street swamp buddies cannot help him. The Washington Post and The New York Times and CNN and NBC are all trying to seed the clouds. But none of it is producing enough rain to help Schumer stop Trump from draining the swamp.
Draining the swamp is loud. Listen to all the hysterical liberal media cartel who are trying to make it rain in order to save the swamp where they live. Chanting. Lies. Rain dances. But no real rain is coming. Only fake rain. The swamp will soon be dry. And when it is, then the next task to make America great again can begin.
ADULT FAIRY TALE
Once upon a time there lived a King who had the most beautiful daughter.
But there was a problem. Everything the princess touched would melt.
No matter what:
Metal
Wood
Stone
Anything she touched would melt.
Because of this, men were afraid of her. Nobody would dare marry her.
The King despaired. What could he do to help his daughter?
He consulted his wizards and magicians. One wizard told the King, 'If your daughter touches one thing that does not melt in her hands, she will be cured.'
The King was overjoyed and came up with a plan. The next day, he held a competition. Any man that could bring his daughter an object that would not melt would marry her and inherit the King's wealth.
THREE YOUNG PRINCES TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE.
The first brought a sword of the finest steel. But alas, when the Princess touched it, it melted. The prince went away sadly.
The second prince brought diamonds. He thought diamonds are the hardest substance in the world and would not melt But alas, once the Princess touched them, they melted. He too was sent away disappointed.
The third prince approached. He told the Princess, 'Put your hand in my pocket and feel what is in there.' The Princess did as she was told, though she turned red. She felt some thing very hard. She held it in her hand.
And it did not melt!!!
The King was overjoyed. Everybody in the kingdom was overjoyed. And the Prince married the Princess and they both lived happily ever after.
Question: What was in the Prince's pants?
M&M's of course! They melt in your mouth, not in your hand. What on earth were you thinking?
But there was a problem. Everything the princess touched would melt.
No matter what:
Metal
Wood
Stone
Anything she touched would melt.
Because of this, men were afraid of her. Nobody would dare marry her.
The King despaired. What could he do to help his daughter?
He consulted his wizards and magicians. One wizard told the King, 'If your daughter touches one thing that does not melt in her hands, she will be cured.'
The King was overjoyed and came up with a plan. The next day, he held a competition. Any man that could bring his daughter an object that would not melt would marry her and inherit the King's wealth.
THREE YOUNG PRINCES TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE.
The first brought a sword of the finest steel. But alas, when the Princess touched it, it melted. The prince went away sadly.
The second prince brought diamonds. He thought diamonds are the hardest substance in the world and would not melt But alas, once the Princess touched them, they melted. He too was sent away disappointed.
The third prince approached. He told the Princess, 'Put your hand in my pocket and feel what is in there.' The Princess did as she was told, though she turned red. She felt some thing very hard. She held it in her hand.
And it did not melt!!!
The King was overjoyed. Everybody in the kingdom was overjoyed. And the Prince married the Princess and they both lived happily ever after.
Question: What was in the Prince's pants?
M&M's of course! They melt in your mouth, not in your hand. What on earth were you thinking?
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Retired Person's Perspective
Retired Person's Perspective1. I'm not saying let's go kill all the stupid people. I'm just saying let's remove all the warning labels and let the problem work itself out.2. I changed my car horn to gunshot sounds. People move out of the way much faster now.3. You can tell a lot about a woman's mood just by her hands. If they are holding a gun, she's probably very unhappy.4. You know that tingly little feeling you get when you really like someone you've just met? That's common sense leaving your body.5. I don't like making plans for the day. Because then the word "premeditated" gets thrown around in the courtroom.6. I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes 1,500 days in a row.7. I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.8. Dear paranoid people who check behind shower curtains for murderers: If you find one, what's your plan?9. Everyone has a right to be stupid. Politicians just abuse the privilege.
Old age is not as bad as I thought. It's a good feeling when you feel happy just to wake up in the morning.
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Tuesday, May 2, 2017
THE SAVANNAH LIGHT
The Savannah Texas Tower was constructed and placed in operation in 1964, and was built to be an automated light, controlled by the personnel at the Tybee Island Light Station.
A foreign-flagged freighter, the Singapore container ship Neptune Jade, struck the tower in November 1996. The collision sheared off and destroyed the entire structure. A buoy marked the wreckage until a salvage company was contracted to retrieve the wreckage off the ocean floor for scrapping.
A foreign-flagged freighter, the Singapore container ship Neptune Jade, struck the tower in November 1996. The collision sheared off and destroyed the entire structure. A buoy marked the wreckage until a salvage company was contracted to retrieve the wreckage off the ocean floor for scrapping.
Monday, May 1, 2017
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