Re: Nel's Jumble Sale..bits and bobs and odds and sods..

[nelix]

You have more friends than you think. Human bodies are home to a variety of parasites, many of them associated with pollution, like dirty drinking water....Say hello to some of them

The face: Triatomine bugs also are known as "kissing bugs." They tend to feed on people's faces while they're sleeping. A bite can cause Chaga's disease, which can cause serious heart and stomach illnesses and is actually a growing problem in the United States..



Also in your gut: The good old tapeworm. A parasite of many stories. Including how they've been used to help people lose weight. Snopes.com, an urban myth debunking site, lists the tapeworm diet pill story as "undetermined." Either way, it's a good idea to cook your meat thoroughly...



The hookworm, which lives and dies in your small intestine and feeds on your blood. You can become infected by walking barefoot or swallowing contaminated soil...



But while we're on parasites: The big picture singles out us. We're a parasite of sorts, says Carl Zimmer of Columbia University. Many of us are a burden on our "host," Planet Earth. Deep ecologists believe that all forms of life have an equal claim on existence. Humans are only a part of nature, and not necessarily the most significant part. Think about that for a bit....

[nelix]

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor...

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof.

When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (the straw left over after threshing grain) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entrance way - hence a "thresh hold."

They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite awhile, -- hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers (a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl). Often trenchers were made from stale bread that was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, "the upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up hence, the custom of holding a "wake."..Well I never!!

England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell.

Thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered "a dead ringer." And that's the truth...You live and learn

[clansman]

[dolly]

Really interesting facts Nel !!!!

very true . Clans

[Winston]

That was a really interesting post Nel............I love reading about stuff like that, thanks X

[nelix]

I'm glad you enjoyed reading guys xxx Its quite an eye opener when you see how folk lived hundreds of years ago..And its always nice to know where sayings came from..

[Guest]

Omg nel! The parasites


& the stew in the pot for days aww



Amazing how they just got on with it, must have been hard not having much back then, how lucky we are,

Great facts I like

[Winston]

Did you know that the stock pot was called a 'Marmite'?

[nelix]

No winny, I didnt know that..How come then Errrr. not how come I didnt know but...oh you know what I mean

[nelix]

Comes in handy sometimes

[Olay]

OHHH Ive forgotten what was there now Ive come to post.

Erm
Surfing the net.
Time flies.
Banana skin.
Frog in her throat.
Didnt know what the lad in the bin was? Was he 'wasted'?

[nelix]

The bin one is what I forgot..still cant remember.. The banana one is...you are what you eat! well done though Olay x

[Olay]

Oh nooooooooooooo, I wont sleep now. Lets pretend the answer is 'wasted'... go on, say its true.
OR he's a bin man?

[nelix]

Yeah!! thats it Olay........not

[nelix]

Oh gowd!