[Boerseun]

As a spinoff from the Quirky Science thread, here's one on History!

First one:

The fruit symbols on slot machines are there because they were initially designed as 'vending machines' to get past the law! And what you got was different fruit-flavoured bubblegum! And the symbols have stuck till this day.

[Turtle]

The phrase "just joshing you" comes from a guy named Josh plating the new US nickel in 1883 with gold & passing them off as $5 gold pieces. The original coin didn't have the word "cents" on it, just the Roman Numeral V. They stopped production & added "cents". Josh got off with a stern look as he never asked for change or otherwise said "here's five dollars".

[Boerseun]

The term "Black-balling" somebody, or "Being Black-balled", comes from an old Freemasonry practice when electing new members.

Current members would elect a new member by throwing either a white or a black ball in a box, and the new guy become a member based on the difference between white and black balls in the box. In some Lodges a single black ball would be enough to disqualify a hopeful candidate for membership, hence the term "He got Black-Balled".

Told you - history is cool!

[anglepose]

the word "salary" comes from salt wich was used to pay roman slaves as money it was on a programme i was watching today

[Qfwfq]

Uhm, I thought it was the soldiers!

[Darnok]

During the depression, banks first used sellotape to mend torn currency. haha

[Darnok]

and karate actually originated in India. haha

[Michaelangelica]

A silly site

http://www.brainyhistory.com/

m

[Freddy]

The phrase, "lock, stock, and barrel" comes from the parts of the British musket, the Brown Bess.

["Kal"-ee-'for-nyah]

the doctors mob of 1788 was the first riot in american history.

[Buffy]

Up to the mid-20th century, it was illegal for a woman to wear pants in New York: the offense was "impersonating a man."

Fond of kilts on guys,
Buffy

["Kal"-ee-'for-nyah]

It snowed in the Sahara desert on February 18, 1979.

[Turtle]

Looking forward to next Halloween & a go at this!

freedictionary.com said:

Snap-dragon (also known as Flap-dragon, Snapdragon, or Flapdragon) was a parlour game popular from about the 16th to 19th centuries. It was played during the winter, particularly on Christmas Eve. Brandy was heated and placed in a wide shallow bowl; raisins were placed in the brandy which was then set alight. Typically, lights were extinguished or dimmed to increase the eerie effect of the blue flames playing across the liquor. The aim of the game was to pluck the raisins out of the burning brandy and eat them, at the risk of being burnt. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) describes it as "a play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy and, extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them". According to an eighteenth-century article in the Tatler magazine, "the wantonness of the thing was to see each other look like a demon, as we burnt ourselves, and snatched out the fruit." Snap-dragon was played in England and the United States (Blain (1912) suggests that in the United States it was played at Halloween instead), but there is insufficient evidence of the practice in Scotland, or other countries.

read more>
http://encyclopedia....com/flap-dragon

[Michaelangelica]

Turtle said:

Looking forward to next Halloween & a go at this!

read more>
http://encyclopedia....com/flap-dragon

You would need to be an upper middle class family to afford the brandy & the fruit.
Where beards banned?

[eric l]

Freddy said:

The phrase, "lock, stock, and barrel" comes from the parts of the British musket, the Brown Bess.

I thought the expression came from the Harper's Ferry Arsenal, in the days of the"war between the states". According to what I learned, this was the first instance where the locks, the stocks and the barrels came from different suppliers for each item. But I can not trace back my source.