silverheels2 Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Hi all: How many of us knew these? For sure I didn't. "Early aircraft throttles had a ball on the end of it, in order to go full throttle the pilot had to push the throttle all the way forward into the wall of the instrument panel. Hence "balls to the wall" for going very fast. And now you know the rest of the story." And During WWII, U.S. Airplanes were armed with belts of ammo, which they would shoot during dogfights and on strafing runs. These belts were folded into the wing compartments that fed their machine guns. These belts measure 27 feet and contained hundreds of cartridges. Often times, the pilots would return from their missions having expended all of their bullets on various targets. They would say, "I gave them the whole nine yards," meaning they used up all of their ammunition. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRJ_simpilot Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Well how be dammned. I love trivia so I'll file that away in the subconscious of my mind. I don't know the whole story but the saying "raining cats and dogs" came about because around the medieval times when people had grass roofs, cats or dogs would be on them trying to hide from the rain and fall off. The saying "fair to midland" was referring to a town in Midland or "the Midlands", England I guess. OOM errors? Read this. What the squawk? An awesome weather website with oodles of Info. and options. Wile E. Coyote would be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger1962 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 It's "fair to middling", from old-fashioned barometer readings. Good weather was labelled as "Fair", bad weather was labelled as "Foul". The word "middling" means between the two. Tim Wright "The older I get, the better I was..." Xbox Series X, Asus Prime H510M-K, Intel Core i5-11400F 4.40GHz, 16Gb DDR4 3200, 2TB WD Black NVME SSD, 1TB Samsung SATA SSD NVidia RTX3060 Ti 8Gb, Logitech Flight Yoke System, CH Pro Pedals, Acer K272HL 27", Windows 11 Home x64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger1962 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 (edited) It's been discovered that the old English expressions "blind drunk", "legless" and "paralytic" in reference to drunkenness are due to the effects of lead poisoning, believe it or not. In days of old, Cider was the most popular drink in England and when it was made using sour apples, a ball of lead would be suspended in the fermenting barrel until the lead was covered in white crystals, known as 'lead sugar'. This would sweeten the sour cider to become a palatable drink - but with a considerable lead content. The cider was often dispensed in pubs through lead pipes, adding even more lead content. Heavy drinkers would eventually lose their sight and suffer from paralysis as a result of the lead poisoning. The cure was to send them to the Spa in English towns such as Bath, Matlock and Harrogate, where the waters were thought to contain healing minerals which the patients would drink and bathe in daily - some were regular visitors, hence the expression "an old soak". This actually cured them after a week or two, and modern research has found that by drinking the waters and then bathing, the patients would afterwards urinate slightly more than they'd consumed, thereby gradually passing out the lead particles which were poisoning them. Any drinking water and pool would have had the same effect, the cure doesn't require mineral waters, some of which can have higher than recommended levels of natural radioactivity. Edited February 10, 2019 by tiger1962 Tim Wright "The older I get, the better I was..." Xbox Series X, Asus Prime H510M-K, Intel Core i5-11400F 4.40GHz, 16Gb DDR4 3200, 2TB WD Black NVME SSD, 1TB Samsung SATA SSD NVidia RTX3060 Ti 8Gb, Logitech Flight Yoke System, CH Pro Pedals, Acer K272HL 27", Windows 11 Home x64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Have read numerous aledged origins of "the whole nine yards"; including that it was the standard capacity of dump trucks years ago, and if the driver was to unload all at one site he would dump "the whole nine yards". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRJ_simpilot Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 It's "fair to middling", from old-fashioned barometer readings. Good weather was labelled as "Fair", bad weather was labelled as "Foul". The word "middling" means between the two. Looks like you're right. https://grammarist.com/phrase/fair-to-middling-vs-fair-to-midland/ Living in the U.S. that's how I've heard it. OOM errors? Read this. What the squawk? An awesome weather website with oodles of Info. and options. Wile E. Coyote would be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnuss Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 It's been "fair to middlin'" all my life, from Texas to Penna. Larry N. As Skylab would say: Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRJ_simpilot Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 I spelled it wrong.... OOM errors? Read this. What the squawk? An awesome weather website with oodles of Info. and options. Wile E. Coyote would be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrzippy Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 It's been "fair to middlin'" all my life, from Texas to Penna. It's also been " piss-poor to outstanding" most of my life! ;) Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
napamule2 Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 (edited) Since we are also talking about personal experieces.. . They said 'Cheer Up-Things Could Be Worse'. So I cheered up and, sure enough, things got worse! Chuck B Napamule Edit: Ok, how about: 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink' (....unless you whack him in the mouth!). Edited February 12, 2019 by napamule2 add prose i7 2600K @ 3.4 Ghz (Turbo-Boost to 3.877 Ghz), Asus P8H67 Pro, Super Talent 8 Gb DDR3/1333 Dual Channel, XFX Radeon R7-360B 2Gb DDR5, Corsair 650 W PSU, Dell 23 in (2048x1152), Windows7 Pro 64 bit, MS Sidewinder Precision 2 Joy, Logitech K-360 wireless KB & Mouse, Targus PAUK10U USB Keypad for Throttle (F1 to F4)/Spoiler/Tailhook/Wing Fold/Pitch Trim/Parking Brake/Snap to 2D Panel/View Change. Installed on 250 Gb (D:). FS9 and FSX Acceleration (locked at 30 FPS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
napamule2 Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 (edited) My previous post was not an idiom, so I am posting one here: 'Dressed (up) to the Nines'. (A taylor saying...seems like it takes nine yards of material to make a quality suit.) How's that? Chuck B Napamule Edit: A cat does NOT have 9 lives, but the idiom implies they do. Or, when one 'dodges a bullet' (as when, somehow, you escape the consequences expected after an event). Edited February 12, 2019 by napamule2 i7 2600K @ 3.4 Ghz (Turbo-Boost to 3.877 Ghz), Asus P8H67 Pro, Super Talent 8 Gb DDR3/1333 Dual Channel, XFX Radeon R7-360B 2Gb DDR5, Corsair 650 W PSU, Dell 23 in (2048x1152), Windows7 Pro 64 bit, MS Sidewinder Precision 2 Joy, Logitech K-360 wireless KB & Mouse, Targus PAUK10U USB Keypad for Throttle (F1 to F4)/Spoiler/Tailhook/Wing Fold/Pitch Trim/Parking Brake/Snap to 2D Panel/View Change. Installed on 250 Gb (D:). FS9 and FSX Acceleration (locked at 30 FPS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 ... 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink'.... Or, "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rohan_Nair Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 Eight hours from bottle to throttle ;-) Kick the tires and light the fires! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRJ_simpilot Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 It's also been " piss-poor to outstanding" most of my life! ;) That's pretty good. I'll have to remember that. OOM errors? Read this. What the squawk? An awesome weather website with oodles of Info. and options. Wile E. Coyote would be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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