Rotary Club of Wynberg
Vol: 66 Issue: 10
PRESIDENT
Date: 18 September 2014
EDITORIAL
Jackie James 072 673 0545
SECRETARY
By President Jackie James
Rob Murphy 083 726 7060
Where did that saying come from?
TREASURER Mike Schreiber 021 689 4466
EDITORIAL BOARD Barry Cleveland 021 788 6781 Karen Overbosch 082 574 5952 String Smith 021 715 0838 Mervyn Wetmore 084 585 6055
Have you wondered about the expressions we use on a daily basis and how they became such a widespread part of the English language? Here are some explanations: Burning the Candle at both Ends In the days before electricity clerks to wealthy people would work late into the night and used a candle to light their work. To make more light they would light both ends of the candle but the candle would burn out twice as fast. So the term came to mean someone who would work hard but wear themselves out. Butter someone up An ancient Indian custom involved throwing balls of clarified butter at statues of the gods to seek favour. Caught red handed This saying originated because of a law. If someone butchered an animal that didn’t belong to him, he had to be caught with the animal’s blood on his hands to be convicted. Being caught with freshly cut meat did not make the person guilty. Codswallop In Bury St Edmonds England in 1876 Hiram Codd designed a method of sealing fizzy drinks bottle using a glass marble sealed into the bottle neck against a rubber seal. His bottle was an instant success and became known as a Codd. The Wallop part comes from an early name for beer and beer drinkers would sarcastically call the soft drink bottle a CoddsWallop. Hence the name was used for any that meant rubbish. Dirt Poor The popular belief is that this saying came from medieval Britain where the poor people’s houses had dirt floors, whereas rich people had stone or wooden floors. There is no evidence to support this belief. In fact it is more likely that this saying comes from the Depression Years in the USA where Plains Farmers lost everything except the dirt they stood on, hence the saying he is Dirt Poor. Eat Humble pie During the Middle Ages, the lord of a manor would hold a feast after hunting. He would receive the finest cut of meat at the feast, but those of a lower standing were served a pie filled with the entrails and innards, known as “umbles.” Therefore, receiving “umble pie” was considered humiliating because it informed others in attendance of the guest’s lower status. Give the cold shoulder Although giving someone the cold shoulder today is considered rude, it was actually regarded as a polite gesture in medieval England. After a feast, the host would let his guests know it was time to leave by giving them a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of beef, mutton, or pork. Rule of Thumb The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
Saved by the Bell Comes from the Boxing world where a losing fighter would be saved from defeat by the bell sounding for the end of the round. There are ideas that this came from the 17th to 18th century where notable citizens were afraid of being buried alive so hooked up a rope to the coffin at one end and a bell at the outer end and if they woke up in a coffin they could ring the bell. There were many devices patented for such a thing so it would have been plausible to use such a phrase. Sources:http://list25.com/25-common-sayings-and-where-they-came-from/ http://www.dbeintennessee.com/Sayings.html
MEETING OF 11 September 2014 Attendance
For our meeting at Die Duine Primary school we had a good turnout Summary for the meeting: Apologies:
7
Absent:
5
Present:
15
Make ups:
0
Total attendance: 56%
Visitors It was great to have the following visitors visiting at one of our schools with us: Petra Neilon, Keela O’Driscoll, Odd Henning and Wencke Hovstad
Fellowship Announcements
Happy Birthday to David Barnard who celebrated his birthday on Sunday 14 September 2014
Slots
President Jackie reported the following: There is a Rotaract potjie competition on Saturday 13 September. Constantia Rotary Club is collecting books so if you have any please bring them to the club. The calendar on the web is updated and you if you have a speaker you can book the date there. Just click on the date block and you will be able to see if the date is available or not. The clubs finances need to still be approved which we will do on 18 September 2014 Snapshot survey was a great source of information. Most people are happy with communicating via e-mail but that at times there was just too many e-mails send. It was just suggested that when you reply to an e-mail do not reply to all on the e-mail but only to the person who send the e-mail. Those who said NO did not give any suggestions or reasons so if you would like to make them please feel free to let President Jackie know. David sent a sheet around for a fellowship braai at 35 Starke Road on 24 September at 5pm. If you have not put your name down as yet please let him know. David also asked if we would be prepared to help with people traffic on 31 Oct/1 Nov at the CTICC. This is in aid of Santa Shoebox collection. Odd Henning Johannessen from Karmøy Club came to visit and send everyone the best wishes from Barry and Val Cleveland who was visiting Norway. His club would like to come and visit us in march 2015 and he suggested that we come and visit them before he retires.
Wynpress
Page 2
Jackpot
The jackpot remained untouched. Please join us on Thursday you will have another chance to win BIG!
President’s quotes “An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.” Agatha Christie
GUEST SPEAKER:
As we have been privileged to be at De Duine Primary School the Principal Mrs Margo Kievits first took us for a guided tour through the new school buildings. She then told us a bit about the school that is 40years old. How the children reacted on moving to the new school buildings and shows us some photo slides on the opening of the school. The school was built with 70% of the labour force coming from the local community which included the parents. She said it is so nice to see the parents coming into the school showing how proud they are of it and the biggest change to the school will the 4 grade R which will enrich the children’s lives that will start their grade 1 at the school
GOING FORWARD Duty Roster DUTY
18 September 25 September Todd
Sergeant
2 October
9 October
Schreiber
Van Eeden
Attendance Officer
A O’Driscoll
NO
A O’Driscoll
A O’Driscoll
Wynpress Editorial
James
MEETING
Munday
Murphy
Minutes for Wynpress
Smith
ON
Wetmore
Cleveland
Overbosch
THURSDAY
Smith
Wetmore
Van Eeden
REPLACED
Van Niekerk
Van Wyk
Murphy
BY
A O’Driscoll
Overbosch
Schonegevel
SOCIAL
Smith
Schreiber
International Toast
Vivian
BRAAI
Wetmore
Barnard
Speaker Introduction
Danckwerts
ON
N/A
TBA
Van Wyk
24 SEPTEMBER
Compilation of Wynpress Door Duty Grace Loyal Toast
Speaker Thanks
Programme
Thu Sep 18 Sat Sep 20 Sun Sep 21 Wed Sep 24 Thu Sep 25
Wynpress
Vivian
Bruce Probyn on Principals Academy Interact Workshop World Peace Day Social Bring & Braai (1700) Dave Barnard’s place No meeting Page 3
Thu 25 to Sun 28 Sep RYLA Thu Sep 25 Bellville Rotaract: Barnyard Theatre Fundraiser Thu Oct 2 Business meeting Mon Oct 6 Wynberg Rotaract meeting Thu Oct 9 ‘Me Meeting’ - Dirk du Plessis Thu Oct 16 Speaker tbc (Polio??) Sat Oct 18…Sun Oct 19 District Mini Conference Swellendam Mon Oct 20 Wynberg Rotaract Wed Oct 22 Joint Meeting: DG visit (location tbc) Thu Oct 23 No meeting: DG visit 22 Oct Fri Oct 24 World polio day Wed Oct 29 Joint club social: I-core: Cape Town Society for the Blind Thu Oct 30 No Meeting (meeting on 29 Oct) Mon Nov 3 Wynberg Rotaract meeting Thu Nov 6 Business meeting: election of Board for 2015-2016 Thu Nov 13 Normal meeting / Quiz evening (tbc) Mon Nov 17 Wynberg Rotaract Thu Nov 20 Dave Barnard on the Battlefields. Thu Nov 27 Social: Rotary Foundation / International (location tbc) See the WRC calendar for full details. Like us on
,
(@wynbergrotary) and visit the Rotary Club Wynberg website to keep up to date
TAILPIECE For those of you who are old enough to remember, enjoy remembering. For the rest - it’s a history lesson!! Very surprising how time and memory has taken its toll. Have things really changed this much in our time? EATING IN THE UK IN THE FIFTIES Pasta had not been discovered. Curry was a surname. A takeaway was a mathematical problem. A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower. Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time. All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not. A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter. Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our main course. A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining. Brown bread was something only poor people ate. Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green. Coffee was Camp, and came in a bottle. Cubed sugar was regarded as posh. Only Heinz made beans. Fish didn’t have fingers in those days. Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi. None of us had ever heard of yoghurt. Healthy food consisted of anything edible. People who didn’t peel potatoes were regarded as lazy. Indian restaurants were only found in India. Cooking outside was called camping. Seaweed was not a recognised food. “Kebab” was not even a word never mind a food. Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold. Prunes were medicinal. Surprisingly muesli was readily available, it was called cattle feed. Pineapples came in chunks in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one. Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it they would have become a laughing stock. The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties .. was elbows!
Wynpress
Page 4