Facts for July 8th

[skippy]

The belief that breaking a mirroe will give you seven years of bad luck originated in ancient Greece. The Greeks practised fortune telling from a subject's reflection in a bowl of water. If the bowl fell and broke during a reading, it meant disaster. The Romans limited the curse to seven years because the believed that was how long it took for human life to renew itself.

The word "bank" comes from the Latin word "banca," meaning "bench," over which medieval moneylenders did business in the streets on Venice.

The real meaning of the term "rule of thumb" is building or baking something through the knowledge of experience rather than a precise science, with the thumb being an instrument for a rough and improvised measurement.

Antigua and Barbuda are the countries with the smallest armed forces. The two countries have an estimated 170 active forces in total.

[T100]

Antigua and Barbuda are the countries with the smallest armed forces. The two countries have an estimated 170 active forces in total.


Hmm I think even canada could take em

[Back Country]

Originally Posted by skippy

The real meaning of the term "rule of thumb" is building or baking something through the knowledge of experience rather than a precise science, with the thumb being an instrument for a rough and improvised measurement.

You must have never seen the Boondock Saints

Great movie, siting atop my comp right now, check it out

[Back Country]

Originally Posted by T100

Antigua and Barbuda are the countries with the smallest armed forces. The two countries have an estimated 170 active forces in total.


Hmm I think even canada could take em

ill take 170 over 0 any day T

Even if they are fighting with coconuts and shell fish

ooo, and possibly baseballs, those island teams are always nasty. Take you out from behind a tree with those curve balls. Tell me, can you curve a hockey puck?

[revnecro1273]

Originally Posted by skippy

The real meaning of the term "rule of thumb" is building or baking something through the knowledge of experience rather than a precise science, with the thumb being an instrument for a rough and improvised measurement.

.

i am not sure about that one dude...i was told that the rule of thumb came out in England several hundred years ago and it was law that you could beat a daughter or wife with a stick that was the width of the person's thumb

[jrobie79]

Originally Posted by revnecro1273

i am not sure about that one dude...i was told that the rule of thumb came out in England several hundred years ago and it was law that you could beat a daughter or wife with a stick that was the width of the person's thumb

same thing i heard as well....

[cman]

Originally Posted by revnecro1273

i am not sure about that one dude...i was told that the rule of thumb came out in England several hundred years ago and it was law that you could beat a daughter or wife with a stick that was the width of the person's thumb

I have an ex wife I would love to do that too

wde

[Bobtheicon]

This has been said to derive from the belief that English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it is was no thicker than his thumb. In 1782 Judge Sir Francis Buller is reported as having made this legal ruling. The following year James Gillray published a satirical cartoon attacking Buller and caricaturing him as 'Judge Thumb'. The cartoon shows Buller carrying two bundles of sticks and the caption reads "thumbsticks - for family correction: warranted lawful!"

It seems that Buller was hard done by. He was notoriously harsh in his punishments, but there's no evidence that he ever made the ruling that he is infamous for. Edward Foss, in his authoritative work The The Judges of England, 1870, wrote that, despite a searching investigation, "no substantial evidence has been found that he ever expressed so ungallant an opinion".

It's certainly the case that, although British common law once held that it was legal for a man to chastise his wife in moderation (whatever that meant), the 'rule of thumb' has never been the law in England. Despite the phrase being in common use since the 17th century and appearing many thousands of times in print, there are no printed records that asspciate it with domestic violence until the 1970s. The false stories that assumed the wife-beating law to be true may have been influenced by Gillray's cartoon.

Even if people mistakenly believed that law to exist, there's no reason to connect the legal meaning with the phrase - which has been in circulation since at least 1692, when it appeared in print thus:

Sir W. Hope, Fencing-Master, 1692 - "What he doth, he doth by rule of Thumb, and not by Art."

That makes it clear that the origin refers to one of the numerous ways that thumbs have been used to estimate things - judging the alignment or distance of an object by holding the thumb in one's eye-line, the temperature of brews of beer, measurement using the estimated inch from the joint to the nail, etc. It isn't clear which of these is the precise origin and this joins the whole nine yards as a phrase that probably derives from some form of measurement but which is unlikely ever to be definitively pinned down.

[skippy]

Meaning

A means of estimation made according to a rough and ready practical rule, not based on science or exact measurement.

Origin

This has been said to derive from the belief that English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it is was no thicker than his thumb. In 1782 Judge Sir Francis Buller is reported as having made this legal ruling. The following year James Gillray published a satirical cartoon attacking Buller and caricaturing him as 'Judge Thumb'. The cartoon shows Buller carrying two bundles of sticks and the caption reads "thumbsticks - for family correction: warranted lawful!"

It seems that Buller was hard done by. He was notoriously harsh in his punishments, but there's no evidence that he ever made the ruling that he is infamous for. Edward Foss, in his authoritative work The The Judges of England, 1870, wrote that, despite a searching investigation, "no substantial evidence has been found that he ever expressed so ungallant an opinion".

It's certainly the case that, although British common law once held that it was legal for a man to chastise his wife in moderation (whatever that meant), the 'rule of thumb' has never been the law in England. Despite the phrase being in common use since the 17th century and appearing many thousands of times in print, there are no printed records that asspciate it with domestic violence until the 1970s. The false stories that assumed the wife-beating law to be true may have been influenced by Gillray's cartoon.

Even if people mistakenly believed that law to exist, there's no reason to connect the legal meaning with the phrase - which has been in circulation since at least 1692, when it appeared in print thus:

Sir W. Hope, Fencing-Master, 1692 - "What he doth, he doth by rule of Thumb, and not by Art."

That makes it clear that the origin refers to one of the numerous ways that thumbs have been used to estimate things - judging the alignment or distance of an object by holding the thumb in one's eye-line, the temperature of brews of beer, measurement using the estimated inch from the joint to the nail, etc. It isn't clear which of these is the precise origin and this joins the whole nine yards as a phrase that probably derives from some form of measurement but which is unlikely ever to be definitively pinned down.