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	Friday, October 29, 2004

Knowing Where its Coming From   ( tidbits) Here are some light materials after a week of heavy business and tech stuff... I was going over the October issue of Reader's Digest and noted with interest about  where the word "rule of thumb" came from.  It says that it actually came from an old English law that prohibits a husband from beating his wife with anything thicker than the thumb.... I threw it for discussion on an online social network called Ecademy, and a good friend, Englishman Jim Wade, refuted that the English really practiced it.  He pointed me out to a web site that showed that it was really an urban myth... but there WAS actually a medieval Welsh law that says you can beat your wife, but the stick should not be thicker than the middle finger, and no longer than a forearm, and no more than 3 blows, and never to the head.   Strictly, it should have been called the rule of the middle finger.  At any rate, it makes good reading, and you may want to check it out......   Aren't we glad we are more civilized now??? At any rate, it got me interested in certain terminologies, and did some readings.  Do you know that Bootleg CDs, which is what we in the industry call illegally transported or produced CDs actually refers to the original practice of someone carrying liquor in his boots to conceal it.  It was said that in the late 1800s and early 1900s, most whisky were illegaly consumed or transported using this "bootleg" plan. If you've been called cynical, you may also want to know the Cynis was a minor Socratic school founded by Antisthenes (c. 445-365 BCE), a follower of Socrates. The Cynics believed that living a virtuous life, which they also identified with living according to nature, is necessary and sufficient for attaining happiness. They disdained conventional values, such as wealth and social status, which they thought were opposed to living according to nature. 9:42:53 AM     comment []   trackback []