Penny for a spool of thread,
Penny for a needle,
That's the way my money goes...
Pop, goes the weasel.
Noddy24 wrote:The original benches were backless--probably logs that you had to fell yourself with your bare hands and burnished bodkins.
You ain't likely to be fellin' no trees with a bodkin, burnishd or otherwise . . .
Noddy24 wrote:Many thanks, all. The surveying angle would account for the authority I associate with a "benchmark".
But why a "bench"?
Does "bench" mean something besides a seat without a back?
My understanding <in a dim memory of an organizational behaviour course 20+ years ago> is that the original bench was a workbench, and that benchmarking was marking the bench when you were making measurements against it. i.e. you want 20 sticks 'this long'. once you've got the first one, you make a mark on the workbench - and measure the other sticks against it.
General (10 matching dictionaries)
bench mark : Encarta® World English Dictionary, North American Edition [home, info]
bench mark (benchmark) : The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus [home, info]
bench mark : Infoplease Dictionary [home, info]
bench mark : Dictionary.com [home, info]
bench mark : UltraLingua English Dictionary [home, info]
Bench mark : Online Plain Text English Dictionary [home, info]
bench mark : Rhymezone [home, info]
BENCH-MARK : 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica [home, info]
bench mark : WordNet 1.7 Vocabulary Helper [home, info]
bench mark : LookWAYup Translating Dictionary/Thesaurus [home, info]
Set--
If a Good Woman is standing behind the lumberjack with sweet words and brandishing a burnished bodkin....she's risking decaffination.
ehBeth--
I had a very hazy notion that a bench mark might be used for measuring cloth.
Letty--
Over the years I've seen a lot of speculation about the lyrics for "Pop goes the Weasel". Language has its own archaeology.
I thought decalfination was bovine abortion . . .
the bench was a rock highpoint or a bridge onto which a permanent bench mark was assigned.
"pop goes the weasel" is a counting song to wind yarn using a skein winder. This tool looks like a windmill which, internally contains a series of interconnected cog wheels and a wooden splint called "the weasel" When the gears moved around 81 full turns , which caused the final gear to make one full turn(81 was the calculation of {Sigma" (n=81) ,piXD}= one skein of 64 english yards (+/-) 14. {Nobody had a correct measure, we have about 8 skein winders and they all have different dimensions) SO. Whenever the final cog made one revolution to the top of the counting post it plinked this splint with a large flattened peg which caused the splint to make a loud "Bang" or "pop". So , you could just wind a way making up all sorts of nonsense verses (but , for the time, some were quite newsworthy)It was the rhymes that would keep you singing till the pop came up and you hadda tear off another skein. Remember the song "ring around the rosey". It had a cute message of horror also
The swifts and niddy noddies did the same thing except swifts were gizmoed up with pile driving weights called "monkeys' and were set up to run by overshot water wheels.
I beleieve that the line that 'the monkey thought twas all infun , had to do with accidents that were caused by the weights dropping off and smashing hands in the old yarn mills)
Monkeys had all sorts of uses in preserving and distributing energy based on elevation and weight.
Withot looking up further in my wifes textile history books, Im now tapped out here.
Farmerman--
I'm impressed. Thank you.
Letty wrote:Well, Mathos, if you'd quit flirting with that Brit, I might just sit on a bench in the park with you some delightful night.
When no one else can understand me....
Your always there to lend a hand in everything I do. xx
:wink:
You really are a dear, my dear, and you are fun. We forgot about bench press.
Well they do assist in the development of various arm, shoulder, chest and back muscles.
The only problem with getting involved in this type of past time is if it becomes competetive. Then the fancy diets loom into view, followed by steroids and other drugs of ill repute, GHB comes to mind.
However, the end results could be to one's advantage, had one for instance decided he may wish to become Governor of California for example.
Personally, Luscious Lips Letty, I could show you how to have much more fun on a bench.xx
Laughing, Mathos. Arnie did admit to taking steroids. You're a good sport, Brit.
He's quite a guy, totally retarded, his films are a hoot ! He wants to cut gas emission in CA and drives around town in half a tank! He like to grope the women, quote " It was only a harmless bit of fun"
If I walked down Oxford Street groping women, I would be incarcerated very swiftly. Not made Mayor of London for instance.
He would make a great President I am sure.
Well, Mathos. I know that the man should have stayed in the movies where he could be bad and get by with it.
Sorry, Noddy. Didn't mean to turn this into a political thread.
Mathos wrote:He would make a great President I am sure.
Can't happen without amending the constitution . . . not too bloody likely . . .
Mathos, are you and spendius all right? check in at Steve's thread, ok?
Letty--
Once you put backs on benches and people get comfortable, then people start to settle in and feel at home.
