Where did Piss Poor come from?Interesting History

This was an interesting article send by one of my colleagues.. which I found interesting.. !!!

Urine used to be used to tan animal skins, so families would all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ..... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

So . . . get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share these facts with a friend.

Stress: Get it out... as soon as possible...

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked,"How heavy is this glass of water?"
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied,"The absolute weight does not matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

"And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass
of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it."

Leadership Lessons from Green Day

Last night I watched a documentary about the rise of Green Day. They have morphed into one of the world's most popular as well as influential rock bands, selling over 65 million records, filling stadiums in cities across the world and inspiring a whole new generation of musicians.
Here are the 5 business as well as personal leadership lessons we can gather from Green Day's ascent:

#1: Every dream starts off small.
Green Day started off called Sweet Children. They played to empty halls and few gave them any chance of being successful. However, their vision was larger than their doubts and they stayed the course like the best Leaders Without Titles always do. Amazing things happen when you stay in the game longer than anyone thinks you should.


#2: They out-practiced their competition.
The original members of Green Day came from broken homes. Parents were not around much. So most of their free time they practiced. Often they would write songs all day and play guitar all night. Like all genius-level performers, relentless practice over an extended period of time births extraordinary performance.

#3: They were well grounded.
After Dookie sold over 14 million copies, the members of Green Day reached superstardom. However, rather than succumbing to the seductions of success, they remained grounded. They started their families and they remained true to their roots. This has allowed them a longevity that so many rock bands never achieve.

#4: They understood the power of renewal.
After the success of their breakthrough album Dookie, Green Day toured the world relentlessly. But then after that - at the peak of their success - they took a complete year off. They spent time with their families. They pursued other musical projects. And they refilled their well of inspiration. Rather than burning out, this period of time allowed them to come back stronger and to continue having fun at their craft.

#5: They dared to innovate.  
The albums that followed their breakthrough release actually sold many less records. However, Green Day were willing to relentlessly innovate. The album they were working on before American Idiot came out was actually a mess in the sense that their master tapes were stolen. Many bands would have given up. However Green Day saw it as an opportunity to rewrite the entire album. They came up with an idea of a rock opera and released American Idiot. This became their biggest seller and 15 years after they started, they reached a whole new level of fortune.