To Chance Your Arm is to take an uncalculated risk, where the outcome is completely unknown. A blind bet, if you like. There are several suggestions for the origin of this saying, one being that military men, whose rank was displayed in the way of stripes on their sleeves, would take battlefield risks, which could …
The earliest reference to ‘colours’ as a means of identification can be traced back to the English navy, who adopted the term in 1706 to describe their flags of identity. Since then, we have regularly used expressions containing the term, such as to Nail One’s Colours to the Mast. a We will often hear this …
The famous bandleader vanished without trace en route to entertain Allied troops in 1944, but what happened to him? At the end of the 1930s, just as the Second World War was breaking out in Europe, Glen Miller’s band introduced America to the new, unique style of brass-band music they had been working on for …
To Chance Your Arm is to take an uncalculated risk, where the outcome is completely unknown. A blind bet, if you like. There are several suggestions for the origin of this saying, one being that military men, whose rank was displayed in the way of stripes on their sleeves, would take battlefield risks, which could …
From the Author of the Internationally Bestselling Books – Red Herrings & White Elephants, What Caesar did for My Salad, Shaggy Dogs, Pop Goes the Weasel, They Laughed at Galileo: The Things That Your Teachers Didn’t Know, or Didn’t Want You to Know. Money for Old Rope – Part Two, is the second ‘best of’ …
Although many traditional pub names came about hundreds of years ago and need a bit of explaining, the world’s most famous bar is called, quite simply, Harry’s Bar, which sounds straightforward enough but there’s a quite a story behind it even so. The name has caught on, too: every Harry’s Bar you walk into throughout …
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. The real Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon used by the Royalist forces during the English Civil War of 1642 to 1651. Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle …
Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush; Here we go round the mulberry bush, On a cold and frosty morning. This is the way we wash our clothes, Wash our clothes, wash our clothes; This is the way we wash our clothes, On a cold and frosty morning. This …
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush: Nursery Rhyme History Read More »
The Blind Beggar – Thirteenth-century earl who went from riches to rags There are very few Blind Beggar pubs in Great Britain, which is not too surprising as it’s hardly the most appealing of names. Except to goths and bikers, that is: the Blind Beggar pub in Edinburgh is devoted just to them. The original Blind …
There is only one public house by this name, on Broadwick Street in the heart of Soho, and it commemorates a local doctor, one John Snow (1813–58), who managed to save thousands of lives through his quick thinking. In the mid nineteenth century, London had a vast and growing population and yet no proper sanitation. …
