Elliot's Trackside Diner....JUNE 2013!!!!

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Hello.

Work has me tired again, but I may, thankfully, be getting used to it. Halfway through the work week on my end, so it's not all bad, just need to survive Wednesday and Thursday.

By the way, also got my dorm assigned to me at PennTech. It's in one of the really nice halls, Dauphin to be exact. They say that college freshmen aren't even guaranteed on-campus housing, so I guess getting my application before the start of my senior year REALLY paid off here.

P.S. There's nothing saying that I couldn't have an N scale layout. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

We've had some big storms going through here today and it looks like still some more to come. The forecast shows more thunderstorm activity tomorrow. I hope it clears out by Thursday afternoon or my father's wedding may be taking place indoors. Speaking of activity there's been no activity on the layout and none with the computers. I just haven't had the energy for it. Maybe tomorrow I'll change out the green screen monitor with an old Amdek Color-X RGB monitor. I'm also thinking about adding on a Duodisck drive and assigning it to slot two. The Franklin and Disk II drives are assigned to slots five and six.

I'm still sore from yesterday so it's time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

[galaxy]

Morning coffee in the diner...

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING!!!

Today is Wednesday, June 19th, 2013!!!

I will light the prayer candles at 10 AM for those in need...

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!!

 DOUBLE CROSS:

The colorful Meaning:

Illiteracy was common in the old days that when a person was asked to sign his name to a document, he would put an "X" or a cross as his signature, which was perfectly legal. Many times this was done under pressure and the party making the "X" had no intention of observing the terms of the contract.  Oral folklore stated that if a cross was doubled, that is, one was written over the other one, then the second one voided out the first.  The contract was then null.  So a double-cross often referred to someone who promised in word or writing, but changed their minds, or never even intended to obey the items they agreed to.

The more serious Meaning:

An act of treachery, perpetrated on a previous partner in a deceit

Origin:

The term 'double-cross' has been used in various contexts for many centuries, usually as a straightforward reference to the shape of two crosses, as in the architectural design of cathedrals for example. That meaning is unrelated to the current figurative 'cheating' usage of 'double cross', which dates only from the late 18th century.

To find the origin of the expression 'double cross' as it is now used, we need to look first at one of the many meanings of the noun 'cross'. From the mid 1700s, a 'cross' was a transaction that wasn't 'square', i.e. not honest and fair. The term was most often used in a sporting context, where a cross was a match that was lost as a result of a corrupt collusory arrangement between the principals involved. You might expect that a 'double cross' was a deceit in which two parties collude in a swindle and one of them later goes back on the arrangement, crossing both the original punters and his erstwhile partner in crime. Although that is the case, the term 'double' doesn't here mean simply 'two times'. 'To double' had long been used to mean 'to make evasive turns or shifts; to act deceitfully'. This derives from the imagery of someone doubling back over a previous route. This 'doubling' gave rise to the term 'double dealing', which has been used since the early 1500s to refer to someone duplicitously saying one thing and doing another, for example, a 'double agent'.

Given that, by the mid 1700s, the language included both 'cross' and 'double', it wasn't a great leap to introduce the term 'double cross' to refer to aggravated duplicity. Double crossing dealings are the precise opposite of those that are 'fair and square', but the two expressions do have one thing in common - they are both tautological. 'Fair' and 'square' both mean honest and 'double' and 'cross' both mean dishonest.

The earliest reference that I have found to 'double cross' in print is in David Garrick's 1768 farce The Irish Widow. The play centres on various practical jokes, and the phrase occurs as a play on words between two of the meanings of cross - 'marriage' and 'swindle':

Sir Patrick O'Neale: I wish you had a dare swate crater [dear sweet creature] of a daughter like mine, that we might make a double cross of it. Mr. Whittle: (aside) That would be a double cross, indeed!

The sporting usage was defined a few years later, in an early self-help tome, written by 'Two Citizens of the World' and 'Containing Hints to the Unwary to Avoid the Stratagems of Swindlers, Cyprians and Lawyers', i.e. How To Live In London, 1828:

"A double cross, is where a boxer receives money to lose, and afterwards goes in and beats his man."

A systematic policy of double crossing was given the UK government's official, if covert, sanction during the WWII. In 1941, MI5 set up a military counter espionage unit called The Twenty Committee, chaired by John Masterman. The naming of this unit clearly linked the double crosses of the Roman numerals for twenty (XX) with one of the unit's aims, which was to 'double cross' Germany by coercing German spies to become English double agents. The coercion was less than subtle; captured German agents were given an offer they couldn't refuse, i.e. feed false information back to Germany or be shot.

During the Cold War, following the publishing of Masterman's The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939-1945, in 1972, the terms 'double cross' and 'double agent' became much more commonplace.

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 70° with 100% humidity and patchy fog. Showers and thunderstorms likely.


Looks like the word for today is 'agasgá' which means rain. I may do some work on the layout later depending on how I feel. I already did some track removal on it this morning. I also added a Duodisk disk drive to the Apple computer and plugged it into slot two on the main board and I changed out the green screen monitor with an RGB monitor.  I don't mind saying I was a bit tired after that workout. If I get the chance later I'll go over to my fathers place and lay a quick cutting on the grass behind the house. However with the way the weather is looking that may be a pointless endeavor. Yesterday I was looking for something in the back of my van and I came across a box of 5.25" DS,DD diskettes still sealed in packs of twenty-five diskettes each. There looks to be five or six packs. When I have time I'll have to go through and format them and toss out the duds. There's always some duds even in a brand new package. I believe I picked these up at a flea market a couple of years ago.

Here's a couple of photos of this mornings layout work.

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee and an order of Biscuits and gravy please. Oh and could you double me up on my Korean Ginsing? Thanks. I think I’ll need it today (yaaawnn).

Sunny, with a high near 82.

Power went out for about 45 minutes yesterday afternoon. Went down with a POW! I’m a thinkin there’s one less squirrel in the world. No proof, just speculation.

I have no imagination. I mean I do if it’s spelled out so to speak such as reading a book. But I never could do a game without visuals.

V8 Dennis-  Springfield, is talking plastic bag tax. They have been for a while now. I’m not sure how this’ll work and I haven’t seen it yet, but they say it’s coming and I’m sure it is. I thought the first of this year but so far nothing.

Going back to bringing your own bag. Guess what goes around….  That’ll be difficult knowing how many bags I need for the stuff we buy. They should bring back paper sacks. Recycleable if you choose, or they’re recycleable as all sorts of things around the house. Or if not, they’re biodegradable.

Well, Brenda’s down. Came home from w**k early….like 5 -10 minutes. If it were me I’d a stuck out the 10 but hey, that’s me. We are out of lemon juice.... That means we can’t make Mom’s tonic and she’s pretty….. well upset’s not the right word, but it’ll do. I had to w**k last night so it sounds like she just wallered around on the couch coughing cause she didn’t feel like going to get some any further than the Casey’s. Guess I’ll be heading into town to get some lemon juice today. Best get a few other things as well. Out of Jalepeno poppers and something else....what was it?  Hm. Hope to stall the trip so I can get in for lunch at the Chinese buffet.  

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

 

EDIT: Order up folks! Breakfast seems to be on my tab this morning.

[MisterBeasley]

Good morning again!  It looks like we'll have a week or so of nice weather here in New England, with highs in the 70s to low 80s and comfortable sleeping weather at night.  I've got to get off my behind this weekend, though, and get a new air conditioner for the bedroom.

Wikipedia has a page for the original Adventure game:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure

 The article kicked in another memory.  The original author, Will Crowther, was married to Patty Crowther, an astronomy type who worked at the same place I did (Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts) but before my time.  She was an avid spelunker, and was credited with finding a link between two cave systems in the Appalachians that made them the largest connected system in the world.  It was her diminutive stature that allowed her to squeeze through the maze of twisty little passages and boldly go where no man had gone before.

Yesterday, I had an image in my mind of an explorer with an axe, along with a troll and some of the other adversaries, and the caption "Play Adventure on a computer near you."  I realized that it was the picture on a T-shirt I once owned.  It was so long ago, though, that even Google couldn't find it.

Plastic Bags - I love them.  I use them in the kitchen to line the small trash can under the sink.  They're free, so I don't have to go out and buy bags.  If they end up banning them, I'll need to buy bags, which will no doubt be more durable and therefore put thicker plastic into the waste stream.  For me, anyway, the throwaway bags from the supermarket are perfect.

[pascaff*]

  Morning All,

    Currently it is 51 with an expected high of 77 under partly cloudy and breezy skies.

    Did not get any layout w**k done yesterday, spent the day cleaning house and doing laundry.

    Have to go into Carson today to my house that my daughters live in. Seems to be a bad electrical switch in the bathroom and an electrician is coming over to fix it. As both daughters and son-in-law will be at work, and it is my regular day off, I got the Duty. Will stop at Radio Shack while there and exchange 1/4 watt resistors for 1/2 watt ones. I told my daughter the wrong wattage, so it is my fault and I admit it. So my day will be pretty well shot.

   Prayers to all in need.

    Paul

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Lots of sun and cool out here right now...all of 60F going to a high of 70F later on today..

Got a few things need done at the abode here..such as more...hopeless...garage cleaning and other such oddments...gonna see whether I can do this without coughing up a few pieces of my lungs

[howmus]

Mornin' folks!

Zoe, can i get a refill for my mug of Seneca Lake Blend Dark Roast organic fair traded coffee?  Thank You!

Plastic bags???  I think what I just ordered should tell most folks where I stand on those things...  I have been using the same canvas bags for close to 30 years now at the grocery store!  I have to tell most of the clerks about the store name on the bags as it got put out of business when Wegman's came to town a quarter of a century ago.  I wonder how many plastic bags I have avoided by just taking my own with me.  Not hard to do either.  Once a year or so I have to bag up all the little plastic bags I seem to accumulate from other places and take them over to the grocery store as they will recycle them and don't care where they came from.

The sun has put in a rare appearance here today....  Should be a good one for the solar panels.  Waiting for the dump truck to arrive with 5 yards of topsoil to fill in the holes from the hedge....  27 hours in a day just isn't enough time to get everything done...

The R&GV RR Museum has been restoring a Lehigh Valley Caboose #95100 we found in a scrap yard a year or so ago.  It had been sitting there for many, many years, and had never been cut up.  One of our members who is excellent photographer just sent us an email saying:  "The first new replacement steel side sheet was fit and welded into its final place on the east side of Lehigh Valley Railroad caboose #95100.    An incredible accomplishment and a real sign that this project is well on its way to completion!     My personal congratulations to all of the volunteers that brought us to this point.    From acquiring the car from the scrap yard and moving it here to needle scaling the exterior to paint removal on the inside to the steel work on the exterior, it has all added up to keeping this project on a really positive trajectory toward completion where LV #95100 will join PC #18526 and Erie C254 in operation on our museum railroad."

Here are some photos from last evening posted to our R&GVRRM Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rgvrrm/sets/72157634209876369/

Enjoy and have a great day!

73

[JeremyB]

Morning guys, I mean afternoon.

Ray : Yeah I use reusable bags also. Have been for a few years now.

Its a beautiful day out today. Went down and did some more rail fanning again but didn't see a train so just got a few a shots of some cars in the yard. Came back around 9:45 and cut the grass and the wife did the garden.

The thing that ruined it for me I was stung a hornet. Now I have been stung enough times in my life I have to say this one hurt and still hurts. He tried to get me again before I shooed him away. Its now almost three hours later and it still is stinging and my leg is sore from the hip down.

I am planning on working on the layout this afternoon as I have come in for the day.

[MisterBeasley]

V8Vega

The host of a computer radio show says the most often asked question is "My printer won't work

I'm a PC guy, but one of the best things I ever did was get my wife an Apple laptop, and the "come in to the store and ask questions" package.  I know nothing about Apple machines, so when she comes to me with "the printer won't work" I can shrug my shoulders.  Of course, I did have to put the printer in her car so she could take it to Apple so they could show her how to use it, but, after doing that only 2 or 3 times, she now can print things by herself.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I have been busy today. Working on the layout and the old Apple this morning then working outside.

This is pretty much the way the old computer will look once I have a proper table for it.

I formatted the equivalent of fifty 5.25" diskettes this morning and there was only one dud. I say equivalent because I have my drives (single-sided) set up so I can use both sides of a diskette. The diskettes are after all double sided and double density. It's a waste to use only one side.

Went down to my fathers place and did a quick cut on the back yard. It had already grown up a little over an inch since Monday! I want the grass short for the wedding tomorrow. Well I guess I'll take it easy the rest of the day. I'm pretty much wiped.

[blownout cylinder]

I have a couple of old canvas messenger bags we use here...

[Cederstrand]

Extra strong coffee in an UNDECORATED mug, please.

Have a good day all.

Cheers!  Rob

[galaxy]

blownout cylinder

I have a couple of old canvas messenger bags we use here...

I am turining INTO an old bag...and MOH is older than I am, so I already have an "old bag". {galaxy DUCKS}

I use cloth bags for two of the stores I go to as they don't give out bags. I get paper ones usually with a  few plastic ones for garbage pails...they all get palstic bags in them to keep the pails clean. The paper ones get the recycle paper in them and the shreeded documents for recycling in them. SO they all get used twice.

Well went grocery shopping this MA about kileld me adn got the free bread.

TOmorrow I get my spinal nerve injections and friday I get the tooth pulled. I will be in a world of hurt this weekend!!!!!!

Surf and turf for dinner tonight.

later

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

galaxy

I use cloth bags for two of the stores I go to as they don't give out bags. I get paper ones usually with a  few plastic ones for garbage pails...they all get palstic bags in them to keep the pails clean. The paper ones get the recycle paper in them and the shreeded documents for recycling in them. SO they all get used twice.

The Wal-Mart here is uses mostly plastic bags. They do have canvas bags you can buy.

[JeremyB]

Evening guys,

Jeff, you guys sure do have to stay on top of grass in Louisiana right? I can only imagine what it would look like if you left it for a few weeks.

Sting from the hornet has gone but is still a little tender, he got me good,lol. Just had a quick bite to eat and will continue work on the layout until American Restoration is on tonight.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JeremyB

Jeff, you guys sure do have to stay on top of grass in Louisiana right? I can only imagine what it would look like if you left it for a few weeks.

I'd need to buy a new deck belt for the tractor because it would burn up. Thick St Augustine grass is murder on them! Today even with the grass having only grown about an inch the clippings were over two inches deep.

[rdgk1se3019]

What is going on with the "Show Me" thread.......when I click on it ......I start to hear some kind of music...........is it just me?

[blownout cylinder]

galaxy

blownout cylinder

I have a couple of old canvas messenger bags we use here...

I am turining INTO an old bag...and MOH is older than I am, so I already have an "old bag". {galaxy DUCKS}

TOmorrow I get my spinal nerve injections and friday I get the tooth pulled. I will be in a world of hurt this weekend!!!!!!

Surf and turf for dinner tonight.

later

 

Some people call me an old hag but that is a different pickle of another sort!!

Be careful over the weekend!! Sounds painful!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Evening..

Well, the mess in the garage is...still...a mess. Every time I go in there it seems that a different form of mess showed up...sigh

Tomorrow will be the same thing as today...try to combat mess in the garage...maybe I should get more than one 50 cubic yard bin for all the 'stuff' in there...

[rdgk1se3019]

Since I got top of the page......here is my credit card.........eat up everyone!

[Packer]

Evening guys

Haven't been in here for a bit. My real job combined with my side job (weathering for some friends) has kept me very busy.

The Tallahassee show went very well, even aside from loosing count of how many kids were trying to touch my open autoracks. I didn't sell much, but I found a bunch of good deals. I picked up the following:
Athearn genesis F89F flatcar TTX brown, Walthers BN 3-bay PS2 covered, Undec P2K SD9 (with the parts bag from a GP7), Atlas BN standard coupla caboose, 2x Mckean UP centerbeams (the ones with all the labels applied from the factory), athearn RTR BN 40' trailer 2 pack, athearn RTR BN 45' trailer 2 pack, a stewart BN F9A shell, 2 life-like thrall door boxes, an MDC SCL waffle, some DW MU hoses (took forever to find), and some other things I'm probably forgetting. I sold my SOO SD40-2 and an Lifelike southern thrall-door box. I didn't want to sell the southern box (I bought it for a buck, body-mounted Kadees, metal wheels, and weathered), but one of the vendors was really after it. I sold it for $12... I only spent about $130, and I snagged the Walther's hopper and Genesis Flatcar for $35 together

After I spent my money I found a guy with a set of 6 Rapido passenger cars in amtrak phase 3, for $20 each, along with a micro-engineering 110' trestle for another $20. I have the number of the guy, and he said he'd hold them for me.

The other day a friend gave me 6 cars to weather, at $15 each. That'll put me most of the way to those rapido cars...

[kbkchooch]

Hi everyone!

Flo, since Dennis is buying, how about an 18 oz filet. a baked potato and a banana split smothered in fudge sauce (no nuts please) for desert! 

BTW Dennis, contrary to popular belief,,you're not crazy,,,there is a post in the "show me" thread that plays bad music. 

Had a strange happening yesterday. The counterweight strings came ot of Dannys bedroom window, so SWMBO has been propping it open with a piece of 2x4 (instead of telling me it broke) So last night she tells me. I looked at it, realized it was an Andersen window and told he I would look into it. So just for giggles, I put "how to repair an Andersen window" into Google

. Lo and behold, it brought up a video that showed just how to replace the counterweights!! Wow, it looks easy enough, I may have to try this! What will they think of next??

Ohhh,,, brain freeze from the ice cream (I eat desert 1st!),, be back later! 

rdgk1se3019

What is going on with the "Show Me" thread.......when I click on it ......I start to hear some kind of music...........is it just me?

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Hello. 

Spunky, our beagle, seems to be on the verge of dying since she is showing signs of her systems shutting down. She is cold, very limp, tired and had bloody gums. It's most likely from old age. She is, after all, 16-20 years old. 

Nothing done layout wise or collection wise. Nothing done on model aircraft either. 

[cudaken]

 Evening Dinners

 Flo, Beer pleases.

 Good day at work, while a little busy and no lunch break (had time to eat, never clocked in or out for lunch) I made some good extra money, should be right around $131.00.

 Still thinking about letting the Road Runner go, not sure what to do?

 Later, Confused Ken again.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Had a busy day and I'm looking forward to a quiet night. Tomorrow's the big day for my father and his bride to be.

No more work on the layout today.

It's time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow..

Some more wandering about in the forest.

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie, just a decaf please....

Aaaaahhhhh....  I am beat!  I moved about 1.5 face cords of firewood from the driveway on the side street to the back porch where I keep it for use during the winter.  The dump truck with the 5 yards of topsoil showed up right on time as I figured he would.  He didn't dare drive the truck back through a couple of holes where the hedge had been yanked out so the two piles of topsoil aren't exactly where I wanted them, but hopefully I will have help moving the soil to where we need it.  I may rent a walk behind little tractor with a blde to push most of it where needed.

Tonight was my Church's annual Strawberry Festival.  This has been going on for close to 50 years here in Geneva and is always attended well by the community.  We had lots and lots of strawberries left over, I bought 2 quarts to take home.  One will be frozen for later, and one will become strawberry shortcake sometime this week while my son from Chicago is home.  My old sound system worked fine tonight and it was good to find out I can get the whole thing loaded in the back of the PiP.  Did live sound for two groups using mics brought in by one of the groups and used the same set-up for the 8th. grade choir from the Middle School here in town.  The main reason for me to bring it was for the MC to be able to announce performing groups and the other things going on.  This event is the big reason I even keep the equipment...  There is a gentleman in our church who is close to 80 years old (if not already there) who used to own a local dairy.  He still has two freezers he saved from his store front.  He too has them still only for use at the Strawberry Festival.  This is the first year ever that we ran out of two of the 3 flavors of ice cream...  Big crowd tonight.

Tomorrow will be busy as I have to mow lawn, do grocery shopping, fill up the gas tank in the PiP (that time of month again...  I should get a 60¢ discount per gallon though on the fossil gunk, and then head out to the Museum for the monthly membership meeting and train ride....!  This tank should be the equivalent of a 900 mile tank if It was almost empty.  Should be getting 90 mpg by the time I fill it up tomorrow.

Have a great night, and my prayers for all in need.  Please keep my sister (Janice) in your prayers as the news so far is not very good...  The cancer has invaded her spine in two places as well.  She is getting a catheter put in Friday for Chemo.  They hope they can keep it in check for now....  Slow it down so too speak.

73

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good evening ..

Ray ....Prayers for your sister, Janice. The Chapel Car is coupled to the Diner. 

kbkchooch

Hi everyone!

Flo, since Dennis is buying, how about an 18 oz filet. a baked potato and a banana split smothered in fudge sauce (no nuts please) for desert! 

rdgk1se3019

What is going on with the "Show Me" thread.......when I click on it ......I start to hear some kind of music...........is it just me?

Karl .... That is a "Barry-Sized" portion...... We diners use the phrase, Barry-sized, as appropriate. It's named after Barry Blownout Cylinder who is a chow hound like no other. 

Vicent .... SOunds like a good train show!

Dennis B .... As Karl said, you are not crazy. The Show Me thread is not supposed to have prototype pictures. 

Rob .... Good to see you.

Ken .... Glad work was good.

Jake .... Sad about your dog, Spunky.

Jeremy ... A hornet. Ouch.

VB Dennis .... I don't think it is the job of government to choose types of bags used by shoppers. Don't they have real problems to solve? 

Paul ... Did you correct the electircal problem in the Carson house?

Jeff .... It's amazing to still ee those old computers. They work too. 

Galaxy .... You mean "Double Cross" is not a railroad crossing with 2 tracks? 

Mr. B .... I see the game is tied 5-5 last I checked. 

We have a house repair being worked on this week. There is a leak in the roof. 

Still no word on our theft loss. 

Been really busy with non-mrr-stuff lately.

[galaxy]

Morning coffee in the diner..

GOOD THURSDAY MORNING!!!

Today is Thursday, June 20th, 2013!!!

I will light the prayer candles and say  the prayers when I come back from my spinal pain injections...

MAKE it A Great DAY!!!

 GRAVE YARD SHIFT:

Meaning: A late-night/early-morning work shift

THe simple story:

All companies that work around the clock have a 'graveyard shift'.   It has nothing to do with graveyards or burial places.  Actually, any thick liquid was called "gravy", and  if you laughed till you cried you were called "gravy-eyed."  Lack of sleep lead to bleary eyes, and sailors who had to stay up on deck all night were often "gravy-eyed" from weariness.  When the term was used in pubs and other places on land, these people did not quite get it.  Because superstitions were so rampid at the time, they assumed it had to do with graves, being dead tired, etc.  So the seafaring phrase was reformed by the landlubbers to mean "graveyard shift."

Another version:  The "Graveyard Shift" is actually tied to the phrase "Saved by the Bell." First, to explain "Saved by the Bell": at one point, being buried alive was a common occurrence, so  people who were paranoid about such a fate were buried in special coffins that had a rope to pull from the inside that attached to a bell above ground. At night a guard was set to watch the graveyard and to listen for any bells to ring, and thereby dig up the living person from underground, 'saving them by the bell." The guard that sat watch overnight was said to work the "Graveyard Shift": the night shift at a graveyard.

Here's the real whole story:

This story is a cockamaimy tid bit, and while loathsome to do it, as there may just be someone who will take the following passage as literal truth, we will examin a reprint of the last (and quite possibly the least) paragraph of the collection of invented and untrue stuff that has been circulating on the Internet for some time, under the name of 'Life in the 1500s':

England is old and small and they 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, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought 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."

We will debunk the "saved by the bell" {which is actually mening boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round} and "dead ringer" {meaning 'exact duplicate' and came from a horse"ringer" who was a substitute} myths later, but now let's take a look at 'graveyard shift'. Given that the derivation of the phrases 'saved by the bell' and 'dead ringer' had nothing whatever to do with burials or graveyards, it might be thought that 'graveyard shift' could be dismissed without further investigation. That may be a little hasty. Those phrases may have had nothing to do with bells being attached to coffins to guard against premature burial, but such devices did exist and were occasionally used. Given that some people had sufficient fear of being buried alive to invest in such coffins, it is at least plausible that they would also have made arrangements for someone to monitor the grave so that their coffin's bell could be heard in the event of them ringing it. Nevertheless, and as usual with phrase etymology, plausibility and truth are only distant relatives.

The Graveyard Shift, or Graveyard Watch, was the name created for the work shift of the early morning, typically midnight until 8am. The name originated in the USA at the latter end of the 1800s. There's no evidence at all that it had anything directly to do with watching over graveyards, merely that the shifts took place in the middle of the night, when the ambience was quiet and lonely.

The earliest example of the phrase in print to be found is in the US newspaper The Salt Lake Tribune, June 1897:

The police changed shifts for the month yesterday. This month Sergeant Ware takes the morning relief. Sergeant Matt Rhodes the middle and Sergeant John Burbidge the graveyard shift.

The 'graveyard watch' version of the phrase was normally used by sailors on watch - hardly a group in a position to supervise buried coffins. The graveyard link was made explicit in this definition, offered by the American mariner Gershom Bradford, in A Glossary of Sea Terms, 1927:

"Graveyard watch, the middle watch or 12 to 4 a.m., because of the number of disasters that occur at this time."

One more nail in the coffin of folk etymology, let's hope, or do we still hear a faint bell clanking in the Internet graveyard?

 

Tomorrow we will examine "go off half cocked" so we may not go off half cocked in the future! {actually most of us never will}

 

[galaxy]

jeffrey-wimberly

galaxy

I use cloth bags for two of the stores I go to as they don't give out bags. I get paper ones usually with a  few plastic ones for garbage pails...they all get palstic bags in them to keep the pails clean. The paper ones get the recycle paper in them and the shreeded documents for recycling in them. SO they all get used twice.

The Wal-Mart here is uses mostly plastic bags. They do have canvas bags you can buy.

Here Wally world uses plastic and has the canvas bags you can buy too.

I meant ALDI grocery store and Price Rite grocery stores DON't give out bags, Where they DO give them out, I get a mix of paper and plastic for the paper recycle and the garbage. It is interesting to know we have "single stream recycle/garbage separation" capabilities, yet we still have to separate!

 I am all for recycling. I once lived on a {man made} island that we HAD to separate AND recycle ALL waste..the gooey food waste was put in the "landfill" and often control burned off at night.The recycled stuff was sold off island to be reused. Had to separate our glass by color-clear, brown, green,  into big truck sized bins at the dump. Ditto for newspapers and magazines. Ditto for boxes. Ditto for metal. Ditto for the plastic containers...by color..into truck sized dumpsters. Then the household gooey trash all went one place too. There was  a "miscellany" bin, but if you got caught by the dump guards just "dumping" all  your trash in there to avoid separating it, well you got  a hefty fine to slap you silly.

 I sometime take the canvas and mesh bags to the bag give away stores too as one gives 3 cents off per bag you reuse.Big whoop, but it works!.