Thread: Interesting History

Subj: Where did the phrase & piss poor come from?


Interesting History
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken and 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”



Ron Bibler
Excellenc/Home/Building Inspection Services
Santa Rosa California Home Inspection - Exterminating & Thermal Imaging
707-570-2000

Excellence Exterminating Co. Inc.
Termite Inspection | Pest Control | Fumigation | California - Santa Rosa - Sonoma County
707-570-2000
ronbibler@gmail.com

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I try to learn something new every day. I can stop looking for today.

Except for maybe the super bowl commercials.

Originally Posted by Jack Feldmann

I try to learn something new every day. I can stop looking for today.

You better keep looking for today Jack!
You really believe that Ron?

I read an article once about manure that was being shipped and couldn't get wet so the crates were stamped with the words "Ship High In Transit" - It seems the acronym caught on

There you go Jack.... I just took care of tomorrow for you too

Originally Posted by Ron Bibler

Subj: Where did the phrase & piss poor come from?


Interesting History
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken and 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”



Ron Bibler
Excellenc/Home/Building Inspection Services
Santa Rosa California Home Inspection - Exterminating & Thermal Imaging
707-570-2000

Excellence Exterminating Co. Inc.
Termite Inspection | Pest Control | Fumigation | California - Santa Rosa - Sonoma County
707-570-2000
ronbibler@gmail.com

The color yellow in paint was also made from cow urine. Urine was quite commonly used for pigment.

From the same source that penned, "Kilroy was here."

Originally Posted by Matt Fellman

I read an article once about manure that was being shipped and couldn't get wet so the crates were stamped with the words "Ship High In Transit" -

Sorry, Wikipedia says differently: "A popular belief is that the word s**t originated as an acronym for "Ship High In Transit", referring to the apparent need to stow manure well above the water line when transporting it by ship. This has been shown to be a myth"

Let's get this s**t straight

A few months ago I sent the "Ship High In Transit" email to one of my former Company Commanders who was an English teacher/author. His reply was basically the same as Wikipedia.

In the 1600's the toilets had pans under the seat to collect the waste, every so often there was a cart that would come around and collect the human waste to use in the production of black powder. How would you like to be the guy on the collections cart?

Colorado Springs Home Inspection
FHA 203(k) Consultant

"Garde Loo" is a term often heard in Old Edinburgh before the days of indoor plumming. Based on the French "Garde L'eau" (Watch out for the water), it served as a warning to those below that the contents of the chamberpot would soon be thrown from an open window. It is thought to be the origins of the colloquialism "Loo" for a toilet.

Originally Posted by Jerry McCarthy

"Garde Loo" is a term often heard in Old Edinburgh before the days of indoor plumming. Based on the French "Garde L'eau" (Watch out for the water), it served as a warning to those below that the contents of the chamberpot would soon be thrown from an open window. It is thought to be the origins of the colloquialism "Loo" for a toilet.

It sickens me that some of the populous of this earth still live like that. Open sewer running down the middle of the street. It sickens me even more that our not to distant ancestors used to live like that as well.

Life changed so much for man kind in such a blink of the eye span that it is frightening. Me thinks mankind is going to hit brick wall soon in advances due to knowing technically how to do something but physically not have the means.
I think it was John Glenn n an interview decades ago stating that we have the technical knowledge to travel 25 to the 5th power times the speed of light but do not and may never have the physical capabilities.

Originally Posted by Matt Fellman

I read an article once about manure that was being shipped and couldn't get wet so the crates were stamped with the words "Ship High In Transit" - It seems the acronym caught on.

There you go Jack.... I just took care of tomorrow for you too

That story is BS.
A shipping company would fill the hold of a ship with manure to transport to a bunch of starving piss poor pilgrims?
The word comes from German or Dutch -"schijtt" which roughly translates into English as "sh*t".
I know this because English people knew how to sh*t long before they learned to spell.

Ron's right. It's a fact, if you're really poor, you do not have a pot to piss in.

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Ron's right. It's a fact, if you're really poor, you do not have a pot to piss in.

Yeah, but if you are in the US, you have a big screen HD TV and cable!
I know this because I recently had a yard sale and could not give away my old working 32 inch old style TV.

So I guess fornication under consent of king is a myth too?

Originally Posted by John Kogel

That story is BS.

Ron's right. It's a fact, if you're really poor, you do not have a pot to piss in.

Or window to through it out of.

Very interesting. Here all this time I thought it meant having an enlarged prostate! Get it checked out guys. Us over 50, and then some.