what I have learned today.

[citoyen]

I tend towards the view that a backpack doesn’t need instructions. I mean, it’s a backpack - how hard can it be?

That’ll learn me.

[grams]

OH MY FREAKING GOD IT’S A WHISTLE!!!

My recently-purchased Decathlon has one of those. It didn't come with instructions. I've had to make do with YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnAFuM4w_50

[ian]

Quite weirdly, I discovered my backpack has a whistle too. Yesterday. Though I've only had it for a month or two.

It also has instructions on what to do in an avalanche and attract mountain rescue. I'm not sure it's necessarily specced for SE England.

[T42]

No such luck here, but while rooting about the bottom shelf of our wardrobe for my most recent rucksack I discovered 5 forgotten dressing-gowns, my 1990s hiking boots, a pair of Scholl's clogs, the shoes MrsT wore to go on our honeymoon 50 years ago, a Hama slide sorter and a bunch of old coat-hangers. And four other rucksacks.

[citoyen]

Further proof that I'm always the last to know...

Queen Anne is dead

[Tim Hall]

Falling down an internet rabbit hole inspired by Canardly's trip here I found that the phrase pour encourager les autres was coined by Voltaire in Candide, in relation to shooting an Admiral from time to time.

[T42]

Further proof that I'm always the last to know...

Queen Anne is dead

 

The Duchess of Richmond, said to be the model for Britannia on coins, was accompanied by her stuffed pet parrot.

And I bet her hubby said "kill and stuff the confounded thing, I can't stand the racket".

[citoyen]

The Duchess of Richmond, said to be the model for Britannia on coins, was accompanied by her stuffed pet parrot.

And I bet her hubby said "kill and stuff the confounded thing, I can't stand the racket".

But what did he say about the parrot?

BOOM! and indeed BOOM!

[T42]

Boom indeed.  What I remember about Queen Anne with an E is that she swore not to change her small-clothes until something or other was won, and as a result all the ladies of the court ended up wearing brown undies.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Calais?

[T42]

Calais? I thought that Mary had it engraved on her heart - or "callous", according to Sellar & Yeatman.

[Mr Larrington]

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

[“No. No, not that” – Ed.]

The beastly French retook Calais in 1558.  One of our Great Universities had a society dedicated to the invasion and reconquest of France but I think it would have been on the news if they'd succeeded.

[Canardly]

You could once bend or fold a sixpenny piece by hand. Drinking beer all day would cost less than sixpence, hence going out on a bender.

[citoyen]

You could once bend or fold a sixpenny piece by hand. Drinking beer all day would cost less than sixpence, hence going out on a bender.

Hmmm... citation needed, as the kids say.

[robgul]

You could once bend or fold a sixpenny piece by hand. Drinking beer all day would cost less than sixpence, hence going out on a bender.

Hmmm... citation needed, as the kids say.

It is probable - I'm old enough, just, to remember silver threepenny pieces* (in use before the many-sided brass looking type, pre-decimal) and although a little smaller than the then "modern" sixpence they were very soft and could just about the bent if you pressed them with your bare hands across a hard edge of some sort - they were high-content if not solid silver.  [I do believe I have one, unbent, somewhere in my box of treasures]

* I'm not sure that they were legal tender when I saw them - that would have been in about 1953/54

[citoyen]

I don’t doubt that bit. It’s the notion of this being the origin of the phrase “going on a bender” that sounds dubious to me.

Not least because according to my understanding of the phrase, a “bender” lasts *several* days rather than just one.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A “bender” is a prolonged, irresponsible, and dangerous bout of drinking and took its name from the patrons of London, England, alehouses during the 1850s.

To promote drinking, it was common for a tavern to offer patrons all they could drink for a tuppence a day, so sixpence was good for three days.

The sixpence coin, which was worth about a quarter, was nicknamed a “bender” because if it wasn’t phony it could be easily bent.

Since this bendable coin guaranteed three days of libation, the subsequent binge became known as a “bender.”

https://zippyfacts.com/why-is-a-binge-drinking-spree-called-a-bender-and-where-did-the-term-come-from/

http://The origin of the use of the term "bender" to refer to an extended bout of drinking alcohol is not certain. Some historians think it may refer to the act of bending one's elbow to take a drink, while others believe it is associated with the phrase "getting bent out of shape."

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-bender-67956

And so on, et cetera.

[citoyen]

Both highly reputable websites, and bastions of impeccable research, I’m sure.

[Canardly]

You could once bend or fold a sixpenny piece by hand. Drinking beer all day would cost less than sixpence, hence going out on a bender.

Hmmm... citation needed, as the kids say.

https://www.royalmint.com/stories/collect/coin-nicknames/

[Cudzoziemiec]

Beer token – commonly used but often assigned specifically to the £2 coin, as when it was introduced a pint of beer in Britain commonly cost around £2.

Never heard that used for £2 specifically, just as a facetious reference to money in general.

[Kim]

Beer token – commonly used but often assigned specifically to the £2 coin, as when it was introduced a pint of beer in Britain commonly cost around £2.

Never heard that used for £2 specifically, just as a facetious reference to money in general.

Was standard terminology amongst my PSO cohort, and I still use the term, in spite of not drinking BEER.

ETA: I've just asked barakta, and she also understands "beer token" to mean a £2 coin, but cites their then-unusual 'token-like' appearance.

[Mr Larrington]

Whereas when I was a Penniless Student Oaf the £5 note was a drinking voucher.

[ian]

I've given up with scepticism and opted to believe the first story I read on the internet for everything.

But yes, in my day, the £5 note from a favoured ATM was the standard denomination of drinking token. I remember the super-strong beer served in the Augustus John on the Liverpool Uni campus was a princely, if awkward, £1.05 a pint – though if you got past four of them in an afternoon you'd probably wake up in Bootle at 8 pm to an irate bus driver. The 80p you had left was enough to get you back to Tuebrook though you'd need another ATM visit for the kebab purchase.

You could save money by undertaking in a foul pastime known as Addlestone's cider, which was 90p a pint but honestly, you'd always spew eventually, quite often through your nose.

[Cudzoziemiec]

When did beer actually cost £2 a pint or thereabouts? It's quite possible I was out of the country, whenever it was!

[Kim]

When did beer actually cost £2 a pint or thereabouts? It's quite possible I was out of the country, whenever it was!

February 2001, apparently.  https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/czms/mm23

By that graph, BEER was about £1.90/pint in summer 1998 when the tokens were first introduced.