There are lots of blog posts and the moment with ancient laws and surprising facts, one of which concerns the phrase, mind your ps and qs. Apparently, when a fight broke out in a pub and there was a danger of glasses being knocked over the landlord told his customers to mind their pints and quarts - or mind their ps and qs.
Whilst researching A BOOK ABOUT PUB NAMES I came across another derivation. When drinkers bought beer on credit the landlord chalked up the number of pints and quarts "on the slate". Unscrupulous landlords weren't averse to adding a few extra chalk marks so "mind your ps and qs" could actually be a warning to customers to check the bill.
Instead of buying beer on the slate, London market porters once had their consumption notched onto a strip of leather or tab. Hence "running a tab". It's also thought to give us the expression "strapped for cash".
Lots more drinking-related expressions are explored in A BOOK ABOUT PUB NAMES, just one of the chapters giving the history around beer, brewing and drinking. Bryce Eddings of About.com has enjoyed reading it recently and has given it a great review. "I would heartily recommend this ebook to anyone with an interest in beer history and breweriana. The stories of the signs as well as a plenitude of very nice pictures of many of them are endlessly fascinated."
Why not follow the link to the book's sales page http://www.lulu.com/content/1926998 and see whether you agree?
Elaine Saunders www.completetext.com
1 comments:
I happened to run across your insightful post on Chris Hoddapp's Freemasonry for Dummies. While in fair Albion, I've encountered more than one Freemason's Arms, and "A Friend at Hand" (which featured two right hands joined on its sign) but no others.
The Goat is not a Masonic symbol, although popular imagination would have it so.
Some symbology to look out for: the ashlar, the skirret, a book and a sword, valleys, hills, eyes, anchor and ark, incense, and of course the square.
I'd be interested to hear more should the inclination strike you. If you leave a comment on my blog, it will not be visible.
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