Black Friday - Free PDF File

Rooftop Reviews is pleased to announce that there is now a full, chronological listing of every article posted here since March 29, 2009; which is the actual birthday of this blog. It runs about 69 pages long and grows longer with each day. Which; of course; makes it too long to post.

It runs the gamut from our first, non-illustrated book review of “The Sugar’s In the Bottom of the Cup”, a memoir set in San Francisco of the early 1900’s, and goes on to reviews of music, a 30 chapter auto-biography of myself, some short stories, poetry, a bit of politics, and everything you can possibly think of in between. There are even a few guest columnists in the mix, ranging from Stuart Sokol’s cab driver story to a few crew members reminisces of the Coast Guard  Cutter Cardigan, which used to sit in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, near where I grew up. I've interviewed a few interesting people and even made some close friends along the way. Not a bad job, though it doesn't pay well at all. As a matter of fact; it doesn't pay at all!

If you would like a copy of this list just e-mail me at robertrswwilliams@yahoo.com and I will wing a PDF copy of the index right back to you free of charge. I don’t expect many takers, but the offer stands. The next logical step is for me to begin the laborious process of creating an alphabetized Index, a task which I am not looking forward to. This table of contents is the start of that endeavor. With about 1700 postings; and some 5,000 pages of writing; to review, it will take a bit of time.

I never even thought that I would be doing this blog for a long period of time, and although it has a limited following, which is currently down to about 150 people a day, from 59 different countries, I have really enjoyed doing it. Sometimes I get ready to give up on it, but then I get an e-mail from someone who just read something I wrote months, or even a couple of years ago, which touched them in a special way.

I've had notes from the children of my elementary school teachers; and other people whom I’ve never met that ran across something I wrote about their parents, who owned a local store where I worked as a kid; and even some authors and a couple of bonafide stars. My all-time favorites are from Ernest Borgnine and Olivia DeHavilland, which are both framed and hang in my den.

At any rate, starting about the 10th of December I will be posting some of my favorite Christmas postings from the last 4 years. It’s mostly a collection of holiday movie reviews, some unusual Christmas music and a few assorted stories, including something new about my Uncle Irving and the Fat Man.

As always, it’s a pleasure to write these posts, and an even greater pleasure when you respond to something which I have written. So, keep the e-mails coming. I prefer them to comments as they allow me to be more expansive and personal in my responses. But, either way, I always answer each and every one. Remember, if you do comment anonymously I can only reply beneath your comment, so you have to check back.

Well, no matter how you may have landed here, thanks for stopping in. About 30% of the people who do find their way to this page return, and I look forward to their visits every day. Thanks!

Old Adages and Schoolmates - Courtesy of Steven Parker

I get lots of e-mails, and with them come a lot of forwards, most of which are political, and some even offensive. But there are some gems out there which I share from time to time on this blog. This gem comes; once again; from my old Junior High School classmate, Steven Parker, who got it from Marlyn. the two of them seem to have access to an unlimited variety of these things, all of which are several cuts above the usual stuff people forward. This one explains the origins of some very common idiomatic expressions. Hope you enjoy it. All thanks due to Steve for sending it!

Where did the expression "Piss Poor" come from? Well, it's an interesting history.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot.

And then once it was full 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" and were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature Isn't  just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500's:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children.

Last of all the babies.

By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.

Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.

When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.

 Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.

This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings

could mess up your nice clean bed.

Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.

That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.

Hence the saying, "Dirt poor."

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery. In the winter when wet, they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing.  As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.

Hence: a “thresh hold.”

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.

Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.

Hence the rhyme: “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon."  

They would cut off a little to share with their guests. And then they would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.

Hence the custom “Holding a wake."

England is old and small and the local folks 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, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So 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."

And that's the truth.

Computer Wars and Snail Mail

My computers are down. Well, not down, just not doing what they are supposed to be doing. And it's frustrating.

So I have to look back and remember how it was when I was younger. Take the picture here for example. I'm mailing a letter to my Grandmother Marcus in California. The year is 1957 and I'm in Brooklyn, corner of Kings Highway and Bedford Avenue. It will take 5 days for that letter to reach Los Angeles. And another 5 days to get a reply, if she wrote back right away. Long distance calls were way too expensive then and reserved for important occasions like illnesses or holidays.

So I guess I'm just trying to put all the frustration in perspective. I have lived in an age where we have progresssed from dropping pieces of paper into metal boxes on the side of the road to sitting in a comfortable chair and hitting the SEND button. Pretty remarkable. And the photo is pretty cool, too.