SomedayQuilter: Books

Cash on the Barrel Head

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:10:55 GMT

Here's an entry from Why You Say It by Web Garrison:

Cash on the Barrel Head

Many a frontier saloon consisted of a lean-to-shed, a couple of barrels of whiskey, and three or four stools. With barrels standing on end, a plank lying on top of them made a great counter. When the barkeeper had no sturdy plank, he was likely to use the top of a barrel as his counter.

With payment in advance the rule of the road, a patron wanting a drink was often told to put his coins on the barrel head. Failure to comply meant that, for at least one customer, the house suddenly went dry.

New fiscal devices mean that a purchaser can now offer a personal check, credit card, money order, securities, or traveler's check. No matter which is offered, anyone who pays before delivery is compared with yesterday's tippler and said to have put "cash on the barrel head."

Back to Square One

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 06:54:26 GMT

Here's another entry from Why You Say It:

Back to Square One

Especially during a group activity, it is common for someone to propose a return to square one. That is shorthand for suggesting: "Let's scrap all we have done, and start over."

Not a bad way to express the notion of giving up and making a fresh start. For the expression took shape during the pre-electronic era in which board games of many kinds were in use. Several widely popular ones involved moving tokens in response to the throw of dice or drawing of a card. At the beginning of a contest, all tokens were placed at the same starting point---square one of the board.

A proposal about going back to square one meant scrapping the on-going game and starting a new one.

Caught Red-handed

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:20:22 GMT

Here's another entry from the book Why You Say It:

Caught Red-handed

A common felony of the past involved the butchering of another person's pig, sheep, or cow. Under legal codes that prevailed for generations, possession of freshly killed meat did not constitute proof of guilt. Only a man caught with the blood of an animal on his hands was sure to be convicted.

It was a waste of breath to plead for mercy after having been caught red-handed. That happened frequently enough for the expression naming guilt to survive long after most folk ceased to raise their own meat. Now we use it to indicate detection of an act of stealth---whether or not a law is violated.

Why You Say It

Tue, 30 May 2006 09:21:02 GMT

There is a very picturesque little town in central Oregon called Sisters. It derives it's name from some mountains nearby and any new buildings that go up have to keep to the old west type of look. It's home to a wonderful outdoor quilt show each July and lots of wonderful little shops. In a shop called The Hen's Tooth, I picked up a fun book called Why You Say It. The subtitle is The Fascinating Stories Behind Over 600 Everyday Words and Phrases and the author is Webb Garrison. There are so many words and phrases that we use everyday and don't really think about where they came from. It can sometimes be pretty interesting or funny when you find out how the word or phrase originated. For instance -

Get the Sack

These days, an assembly line worker or an executive who gets the sack may receive severance pay plus a printed explanation.

As early as the 17th century, cloth bags were in literal rather than figurative use. Craftsmen and artisans provided their own tools as a rule, storing them in a sturdy sack.

When an employer was ready to dismiss a worker, it was common to hand him his tool sack. No explanation was necessary; the gesture meant "Put your tools in the sack, and get going."

As a result of this practice, a person who wouldn't know a drill from a tailor's needle is said to "get the sack" when fired from a job.

While some of the entries are from centuries past and may surprise us, others are more recent and make sense to us because we are aware of it's origin or the event that inspired the phrase.

Now, of what use this information will be to me I have no idea, but it's fun to pick up once in awhile and read a few.

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Sun, 23 Apr 2006 22:34:16 GMT

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