Thanks for all the encouraging responses. So here is another one to chew on.

On special occasions they would slaughter a hog. That didn't happen very often. So when company came over, they would bring out a slab of bacon and hang it up to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off some of the bacon to share with guests and they would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Happy Future, jim

-- Jim Raymond (jimr@terraworld.net), January 28, 2002

Answers

I, too love these phases.

Soldiers stationed at various forts would, in the Spring time, would cut new spruce boughs to replace the old stuffing in their mattresses and that would be called "sprucing up". They would also tighten the ropes on their cots and that became "sleep tight".

Keep 'em coming.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (aka Dianne in Mass) (Trevilians@mediaone.net), January 28, 2002.

where did "wheres the beef" come from ?

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 28, 2002.

Stan:

Where's the beef probably came out of a Madison Avenue ad agency. Perhaps you are thinking of the expression in the context of someone having a beef with someone else? One dictionary usage is slang for a complaint or gripe.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 28, 2002.

I know one: Salt used to be precious, for flavoring and more importantly, for preserving meat. When a piece of meat was low quality, they'd say it wasn't worth it's salt (that it'd take to preserve it.) That's where the phrase "not worth it's salt" came from.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), January 28, 2002.

See www.snopes2.com on debunking this myth - item on Life in the 1500s.

"Pigs: From Cave to Corn Belt" by Towne & Wentworth noted the gentry ate beef (and lamb) while the working man ate pork (and mutton). Probably the gentry also got the prime cuts of pork, such as the hams and ribs. For the working man (who brought home the bacon after work, since it would spoil quickly without refrigeration if not smoked or cured), it wasn't that bad of a deal.

"In the Middle Ages, the barons ate beef, while the yeoman waxed hale on pork. And it is still the "working man's meat" since it contains the finest quality of protein and provides the greatest energy value of all meats. In the average four-ounce serving, pork furnishes 402 calories; beef, 369; lamb, 367; fowl, 269; veal, 186; and fish, 177. If one must eat fat, swine flesh is quite as digestible as any. And it contains unsaturated ftty acids, beneficial to the skin and helpful in the treatment of certain forms of eczema. Pork also contains more thiamin (vitamin B1) than any other meat."

They also mentioned a competent stockman could produce three or more litters numbering eight or more piglets and have them up to marketable weight in the time it took to raise a single calf from conception to market weight.

Remember the episode of All Creatures Great and Small in which Dr. Herriot was pretty well forced into joining a farm family for dinner, which consisted almost totally of raw pork fat?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 28, 2002.

Also, salt was so valuable it was used as a medium of exchange. The Roman legions used to be paid (monthly, I believe) in salt. Salt, saline, they got their salary. So someone who was not worth their salt was not worth their pay.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 28, 2002.

Don: I believe the word salary is derived from soldiers or officials being paid in salt.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 28, 2002.

According to, Phrases, http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/76100.html May have originated from the English tradition that any couple who live together for a year and a day without quarrelling can claim a side of bacon (called the Dunmow flitch).

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 28, 2002.

Trevilians, As to your "spruce up" information, I wonder if spruce resins could be used to control bed bugs and/or mites? Found that; aspen-white spruce is preferred for non-feeding-bedding, by Moose, spruce boughs for bedding, is called ka'-wa-tê-kwi'-ak, in the Mailiseet vocabulary and research suggests that the close placement of resin ducts, in spruce trees, about 28 resin ducts per centimeter seems to inhibit some pest infestations.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 28, 2002.

My cattle love to rub their faces on cedar trees, perhaps for the same reason closets are lined with cedar. It might help keep away lice and flies.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 28, 2002.

Being a retired "Coastie", I have to tell you of the origin of the phrase "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". This dates to the 19th century, when black powder cannons and iron cannonballs were the armament of the day for warships. One problem was how to keep a supply of cannonballs close enough to the cannon to allow rapid reloading. The answer seemed to be a tray of sorts that would allow a pyramid of cannonballs to be kept close by each cannon, the bottommost layer held in depressions to keep them from rolling. That tray was called a "monkey", for reasons that I cannot devine. Problem was, if it took too much time between naval engagements, the iron monkey would grip the iron cannonballs with a layer of rust. Enter the brass monkey, which solved THAT problem. But as you engineers, and people who paid attention in high school physics know, brass has a different coefficient of expansion than iron. Hence, in very cold weather, the brass contracted at a greater rate and to a greater degree than did the iron cannonballs. When this happened, the cannonballs tumbled onto the deck, thus "off the brass monkey". And there you have it friends! Nothing to do with male genetalia! GL! Looking forward to other posts.

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), January 28, 2002.

Brad:

The term 'grease monkey' came from U.S. factories. At one time individual equipment was run off of overhead line shafts. They hired young boys to scamper around up there keeping the bearing greased. They became known as grease monkeys. Monkey wrench comes from its shape, which does look like a monkey viewed from the side.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 29, 2002.