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Fodder for history buffs

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Deozaan:
Yeah, reading through the original list sounded like someone had too much fun with some strange version of Balderdash.

They just didn't seem true to me. Glad mwb1100 could verify my doubts.

JavaJones:
Yeah, reading through the original list sounded like someone had too much fun with some strange version of Balderdash.

They just didn't seem true to me. Glad mwb1100 could verify my doubts.
-Deozaan (January 07, 2011, 05:03 PM)
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2nd that. My  BS alarm was going off. But we get the best of both worlds here, the fanciful explanations, and some real ones. :D

- Oshyan

tomos:
There was another very entertaining post in a similar vein here a short while back (was that from you too kyrathaba?)

Yeah, these are great fun, but I wouldnt actually believe any without some sort of research ;-)

the only one I checked was gossip:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip#Etymology
The word is from Old English godsibb, from god and sibb, the term for godparents, i.e. a child's godfather or godmother. In the 16th century, the word assumed the meaning of a person, mostly a woman, one who delights in idle talk, a newsmonger, a tattler.[4] In the early 19th century, the term was extended from the talker to the conversation of such persons. The verb to gossip, meaning "to be a gossip", first appears in Shakespeare.
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kyrathaba:
There was another very entertaining post in a similar vein here a short while back (was that from you too kyrathaba?)
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May have been.  I like sharing things that I find entertaining  :P

tomos:
I like sharing things that I find entertaining  :P
-kyrathaba (January 08, 2011, 10:03 AM)
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I love em, true or no :up:

In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted.  Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms.  Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more.. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.'   (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint)
-kyrathaba (January 07, 2011, 01:43 PM)
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^ That one reminds me of a story about the expression "chancing an arm" (to risk something)
two families had a feud. One eventually took refuge in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. They then wished to make peace, but were afraid for their lives if they ventured out; in consequence they cut a hole in one of the Cathedral's doors and put out an arm - the worst that could have happened was that an arm was lost. The hole is present to this day.-http://www.english-for-students.com/To-Chance.html
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unfortunately,
they end up by saying:
>> Sadly, the feud took place in 1492 and the saying is first recorded only in the 1880s

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