Did you know ?

[Nikko]

Originally Posted by danielf

Or in Dutch even, where Thursday is Donderdag, and Thunder is Donder (lightning is 'bliksem').

There is an old Danish saying. I won't go into the etymology here, but it translates to something like 'Never eat a Kebab on Thursday'

Well given the donkey explanation, it will be kebab thursday = saw ass on friday

Originally Posted by Stuart W

The 'cat' was a cat-o-nine-tails used to punish men at sea. It was kept in a bag on the main mast as a reminder to the crew about harsh punishment.

It's an interesting theory, but see:

http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorl.htm#letcat

If you go around the HMS Victory (which, btw, is the oldest commissioned warship in the world as it's still on the British Naval Lists), they'll tell you that when a sailor was to be punished he would be given a length of rope to unbraid (which was made from three strands of triple wound rope, hence the nine tails) and that would then be used for his punishment.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours is from the same place!
Officers were not allowed to punish the crew directly as this would lead to mutiny, so instead they would order another member of the crew to issue the punishment.

Officers would not punish the crew because it was "manual work", something which a gentleman would not stoop to.

You must be hit by the 'cat' until you bleed, hence, you scratch my back instead of lacerating it, and I'll scratch yours when your punishment comes.

The cat would most certainly make your back bleed, but the punishment would not stop when you bled, the number of strokes was pre-determined by the crime you committed.

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

Did you know that the term ' Freeze the Balls of a Brass Monkey' is an old British naval term. The cannonballs (made of cast iron) where stacked in a pyramidal shape, and kept in place by a Brass Monkey. When the weather was really cold, the cannonballs would shrink and then fall out of place as the ship pitched on the ocean.

Unfortunately (and I'm sure someone's thinking of claiming I'm being pedantic or feeling it necessary to correct every slight mistake) but this is a perennial myth.

See http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm for details.

[iadom]

Originally Posted by Graham

It's an interesting theory, but see:

http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorl.htm#letcat

If you go around the HMS Victory (which, btw, is the oldest commissioned warship in the world as it's still on the British Naval Lists),

Interestingly, the Victory is to be repaired using oaks planted 200 years ago on the recommendation of Nelson himself. Lord Nelson urged that trees be planted in the Forest of Dean,Glos, in 1802 when he learned that many of its oaks had been plundered for charcoal. In a report to Parliament he said the trees should be replanted to provide timber for future warships. HMS Victory's commanding officer. Lt Commander Frank Nowosielski will visit the forest to collect the timber from two trees that have been felled.

Talk about forward planning.

[Russ]

Approximately every 6 months when the earth rotates on it's axis, North Korea becomes South Korea and vice versa, hence Bush's description of the "axis of evil".

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by iadom

Interestingly, the Victory is to be repaired using oaks planted 200 years ago on the recommendation of Nelson himself. Lord Nelson urged that trees be planted in the Forest of Dean,Glos, in 1802 when he learned that many of its oaks had been plundered for charcoal. In a report to Parliament he said the trees should be replanted to provide timber for future warships. HMS Victory's commanding officer. Lt Commander Frank Nowosielski will visit the forest to collect the timber from two trees that have been felled.

Talk about forward planning.

From Tuesdays Times:

May 18, 2004

By Simon de Bruxelles



IN AUGUST 1802 Admiral Lord Nelson toured the Royal Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, in search of timber for the naval dockyards and was appalled by what he found.
Not only had a large section of the forest been plundered by the charcoal-burning industry but the trees that survived were unavailable after a dispute between the timber merchants and the Admiralty.



Nelsonââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s flagship HMS Victory had had a refit two years before, which could not be completed because of a shortage of wood. Nelson made a secret deal with the timber merchants and recommended to Parliament the replanting of large areas of the forest to guarantee the supply of raw materials for the Royal Navy of future centuries.

But even his foresight could not have predicted that the saplings he had planted would be used to repair his own vessel 200 years on. Two great oaks have been felled in the forest to provide raw material for the restoration of HMS Victory in time for the 200th anniversary next year of the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. The ship attracts 350,000 visitors a year to Portsmouth historic dockyard and will be the centrepiece of the celebrations next year.

Nelsonââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s successor as commanding officer of HMS Victory, Lieutenant-Commander Frank Nowosielski, will use an original Royal Navy hammer to mark the timber as naval property.

Commander Nowosielski said: †œI think it represents the rounding of the circle. Nelson would have approved without doubt. Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m sure Nelson would be pleased that the oak he planted would be used in HMS Victory, his last ship.ââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ�

The Forest of Dean oak will be used to refurbish the †œapron kneeâ₠¬Ã‚Â� on one of the gun decks, acting as a buttress to the floor above. HMS Victory had a major rebuild in the 1950s after an infestation of death-watch beetle when shipwrights opted to use imported teak instead of traditional oak. Despite the infestation, some of the original wood survives.

Commander Nowosielski said: †œA wooden ship was only expected to last for 25 years so itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s surprising we have any of it left. We still have 20 per cent of the original wood.ââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� By the time of Trafalgar, the ship was already a veteran, just a year younger than the 48-year-old Nelson. Her keel had been laid down in 1759, although she was not launched until six years later. She first saw action in 1778 at the Battle of Ushant off Brittany. Her construction consumed 6,000 oak trees, equivalent to 100 acres of woodland. The two main types of timber used were †œgreat⠀ Â� oak for the straight beams and keel and curved †œcompassà¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚ ÂÂ� oak for her ribbing. Trees in the Forest of Dean were planted a specified distance apart to encourage their branches to bend upwards at the correct curve. In 1802 stocks of timber in the Royal Dockyards were at an all-time low after Lord St Vincent, the reforming First Lord of the Admiralty, refused to deal with timber merchants whom he accused of operating a cartel. Nelson, already a national hero, set off to investigate the situation. Accompanying him were the elderly Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma Hamilton †â€ÂÂÂ� Nelsonââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s mistress.

During a stay at the Three Cranes Inn in Chepstow, Nelson is believed to have secured agreement with the areaââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s biggest timber merchant which led to the delivery of enough timber to complete the refit of HMS Victory and other warships. Nelson was able to write to the Prime Minister from his cabin on board HMS Victory in May 1803: †œMy Dear Sir, I am at last afloat and shall sail at 4 oâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢clock to Brest . . .â₠¬ÃƒÆ’‚ÂÂÂ�

By 1808, three years after Nelsonââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s death, Parliament ordered the replanting of the Forest of Dean and today it has the largest area of old oak trees in Britain. The trees are still known locally as †œNelsonà¢ÃƒÆ’¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢ââ‚ ¬Å¾Ã‚¢s Oaksââ‚ ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ�.

[iadom]

I'll bet that there where not many Nowosielski's about in Nelsons time.

Originally Posted by Graham

Unfortunately (and I'm sure someone's thinking of claiming I'm being pedantic or feeling it necessary to correct every slight mistake) but this is a perennial myth.

See http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm for details.

Another myth cruely shattered.

Originally Posted by Pem

Days of the week are named after various things ;
Friday - Frigg - A God (ess ?)

Think that might actually be Freya - The Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty.

Originally Posted by danielf

Regarding the Gods, most of these are Viking Gods. As I remember from history lessons, Thor rode his cart across the clouds, and this made a bit of a racket. We call it 'thunder' these days. I.e the word thunder and thursday both derive from Thor.

You are correct about Thursday being named after Thor (or Thunor to the Germans). It is also true that he rode across the heavens on his Goat driven chariot. The thunder that he was famour for creating, was the sound of Thor striking mountain tops with his magical warhammer Mjolnir.

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

Think that might actually be Freya - The Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty.

I think you'll find that they're variant spellings of the same name. Many Norse gods have various forms in the the different Germanic languages, For example we have Woden (Anglo-Saxon, I think), Wotan (German), Odin or Odinn (Scandinavian, I believe). Then you have Heimdall, which is something like Heimdalr in Icelandic and also Loga (German) and Loki (Anglo-Saxon).

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

Think that might actually be Freya - The Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigg

It may be stated with a certain degree of truth that Frigg and Freya are the same but different versions. Freya became Frigg after she lived with the Aesir.

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by iadom

Interestingly, the Victory is to be repaired using oaks planted 200 years ago on the recommendation of Nelson himself. Lord Nelson urged that trees be planted in the Forest of Dean,Glos, in 1802 when he learned that many of its oaks had been plundered for charcoal. In a report to Parliament he said the trees should be replanted to provide timber for future warships. HMS Victory's commanding officer. Lt Commander Frank Nowosielski will visit the forest to collect the timber from two trees that have been felled.

Talk about forward planning.

On the other hand, all this replacement for various parts reminds me of Trigg's description of his road sweeper's broom; the same one that he'd had for 20 years. Of course, there'd been various new handles and broomheads over that period.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

You are correct about Thursday being named after Thor (or Thunor to the Germans). It is also true that he rode across the heavens on his Goat driven chariot. The thunder that he was famour for creating, was the sound of Thor striking mountain tops with his magical warhammer Mjolnir.

You're right. I had forgotten about the hammer.

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by yesman

Julius Caesar gave us our modern calendar with 12 months and 365 days. Originally there were only 10 months, running from March to December. The winter time didn't have any months.
Then they added two more, but you can still tell that there were 10 because, September (from the Latin septem)- means 7 (but now it's the 9th month). October (from the Latin octo) means 8 (but now it's the 10th month). November (from the Latin novem) - means 9 (and now it's the 11th month) and finally December(from the Latin decem) - means 10 (and of course now it's the 12th month.)

The changeover year that brought the calendar back into synch with the seasons had some humongous number of days in it. And, of course, he introduced the leap year. Unfortunately, the Roman senate managed to mess up it's first application; I forget the exact details.