The ginger thread

[munik]

Ok, here's the origin, as best as I can remember from a story related to me by word of mouth:

 

During english colonial times colonies needed fertilizer taken to them to help out the farms there. Then, as it is now, the cheapest and most common form of fertilizer was cow manure. So, it was transported to the colonies by boat, as were most supplies. It was dried out and packed into bales, because dried out manure was much lighter and easier to move. Now, boats back then weren't always the tightest, and the boat would often take on water in the bilge (still happens today). These boats were cargo boats, so the hold was full of stuff, all the way down to the bilge. This cow manure would get wet, and then begin to emit methane gas, as manure does. Being that it was the hold of the ship, the gas would be trapped inside. This was discovered one day as someone went down into the hold at night, carrying his lantern. The lantern flame ignited the gas, which in turn caused quite a big explosion, scuttlling the ship. The manure needed to be near the top deck, up away from the bilge and the collecting water. So, to prevent this type of accident from claiming another ship, all pallets of manure were clearly marked with a sign. It was an acronym, as common phrases happen to be shortened down in nautical ways, but this is what the sign was, acronym in bold:

 

Ship High In Transport

 

And this is how we came to have the common and colorful explicitive we have today. If the story is even true.

[SkinWalker]

I've made lots of British friends over the years and knew that about 'ginger-haired' teasing.... I never understood the teasing part (why, that is), but I figured it was much the same as being teased about wearing glasses and such as a kid in the States.

 

One of the other colloquialisms that, when I first heard it years ago, absolutely caught me off guard was the Brit term for cigarrette. I remember very distinctly being asked by my new bunk-mate, "wanna' fag?"

 

I simply remained quiet for a few seconds... blinked a couple of times without expression, and said, "no... not my thing."

 

"Good for you, mate. Bloody bad habit these things." Then he lit up.

 

I still slept with one-eye open!

 

Oh, and Darth G.: if they took all that to PM or a Hotel room, we would've missed all that wonderful entomology.