Cricket’s Hearth

1. Rub the Wrong Way – The term goes back to colonial times and wide oak-board floors. Once a week, servants had to wet-rub and then dry-rub these floors. Seems simple? Well if it wasn’t done with the grain, it looked awful because streaks were made. To the owner, this was worse than not doing it at all as it was a real embarrassment to any company that came! So a servant was called clumsy or inept by their employer. Today the term means relates to anyone (cleaning floors or not) who irritates others by a clumsy word or action.

2. No Spring Chicken – New England chicken farmers discovered that chickens born in the Spring brought better prices than old birds that had gone through the winter. Sometimes farmers tried to sell the old birds as a new spring born chicken. Smart buyers often complained that a tough fowl was “no spring chicken” and so the term is used to represent birds (and even people today) past their plump and tender years.

3. Saved by the Bell – Many years ago, being buried alive was a common occurrence. So common in fact, people who were paranoid about such a fate were buried in special coffins that had a rope to pull from inside that attached to a bell above the ground. At night a guard was set to watch the graveyard and listen for any bells to ring, and thereby dig up the living person who rang their bell, thus the person was “saved by the bell.”

4. Show Your True Colors – Warships often carried flags from many countries in order to elude or fool their enemies. The rules of warfare stated that ships were required to raise their true national flag before firing. To get a closer advantage, a dishonest ship captain would falsely fly one flag until he was well within firing range and then hoist his real flag. Thus someone is said to “show his true colors” by deceptively acting one way to get what they want, but then show their true selves once they have received what they were after.

5. Cracked Up – During the Civil War, makeup mostly consisted of beeswax. Ladies had to partially melt the makeup beside the fire before applying it. Soon after it was on, the makeup would harden. If the lady laughed or smiled it would crack the makeup which made her face look like it was “cracking up.”

6. Nip It In the Bud – Horticulturists learned many years ago in order to produce good fruit a plant had to have a lot of the buds snipped off. This improved garden produce but was disastrous to the individual buds. It became proverbial that when a bud was nipped off it would definitely no longer produce any fruit. Today the phrase is used to refer to a sudden halt in any plan or project in which no further progress will result.

7. Wrong Side of the Bed – In ancient times, the left-side of the body or anything “left” was considered sinister, mysterious, dangerous or evil. Innkeeper’s pushed the left sides of the bed in each room against the wall so a guest had to get up on the right side of the bed. Today, people tend to center their bed in the room and do not bother to think about which side they are getting out of. The term “getting up on the wrong side of the bed” simply refers to someone who is irritable or clumsy.

8. Face the Music – When a soldier was being dishonorably discharged, he was given his walking papers and then forced to walk through the ranks of his fellow comrades while instruments played a special march for ousted soldiers. The ritual wasn’t fun but the soldier had to deal with it directly, thus he had to “face the music.”

9. Putting on the Dog – After the Civil War, lap dogs were a social status symbol among the wealthy. (Even today – look at how Paris Hilton goes around with ‘Tinkerbel’ all dressed up) Back then, French Poodles were the main symbol of wealth. So anyone who was being flashy was said to be “putting on the dog.”

10. Spill the Beans – This phrase is based on an old voting system by the Greeks where they used a voting bag. Members of the group would drop either a white bean (yes) or a dark bean (no) into a bag to vote on a new member. When a clumsy person (or possibly drunk) accidentally dropped the bag showing all the beans (votes) it was said that he “spilled the beans” thus revealing the secret votes to everyone.

11. Hell on Wheels – This phrase goes back to the days of the Wild West. When the transcontinental railroad got started thee was a lot of open land between towns. Opportunists after the money of those men working on the railroad in these open spaces simply rented flatcars and turned them into mobile brothels and gambling casinos. Religious leaders considered such activities the work of the devil and said anyone who participated in the activities offered on these cars were doomed for hell. Thus, these flatcars with prostitutes, gambling and drinking were called “hell on wheels.” Today the phrase is used to describe a reckless driver or a compliment for a very energetic person.   

 12. Fork It Over – This term originates from England when peasants had to pay their landlords (Noblemen) rent in silver. When they didn’t have any silver, then they had to pay their rent from their crops. Shrewd rent collectors would decrease the market value of the crops just before the rent was due in order to get more. The peasant would then shovel his crop into a wagon with a pitchfork and grumble about the unfairness. Today, rather than a pitchfork, we just use our hands and “hand over” our rent money or what ever we are paying (and grumble about the price). 

And a just description of the deep freeze we are having in Ohio . . . 

13. Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls Off a Brass Monkey – On a war ship, the cannon balls would be stacked in a pyramid shape. The base where the cannon balls were stacked upon was made of brass and was called a monkey. When it got cold out on the high seas, the brass would contract, causing the stacked balls to fall off their base, thus it was “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.”

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