Happy Birthday, [livejournal.com profile] ralph_lycanth!

May. 21st, 2008 10:12 am
the_gneech: (Party Guy)
[personal profile] the_gneech
For your present, here's today's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk):

audit ale


Extra strong ale supposed to be drunk when the accounts are audited.
—John Camden Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887


A special brew of ale, originally for consumption on Audit Day.
—Morris Marples' University Slang, 1950


Out of Hot Water


On this date in 1800, President John Adams pardoned three American citizens by decree who had been sentenced to death for hindering the professional dues of a tax collector. Richard Thornton's American Glossary (1912) elaborated on what came to be called the Hot Water War: "A name sarcastically applied to a riot in Pennsylvania which occurred in March 1799. Certain persons had poured hot water, or something equally unpleasant, on the head of the federal tax-collector, and were arraigned for treason." Although Adams was a lawyer by training, he had grown up the son of a farmer and had a more personal relationship with the use of pails. While president he once put his milking skills to good use, joining a "bucket brigade" to help put out a fire at the Treasury Department, near the White House.

Go, John Adams!

-The Gneech
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