Among the many urban myths circulating on the internet is a document called 'Life in the 1500s' that began as an anonymous email message and has since found its way onto countless websites that take it as legitimate history. Among other things, this list of alleged facts about Renaissance life purports to give the origins of numerous English expressions, such as 'raining cats and dogs', 'chew the fat', and 'dead ringer'. Unfortunately, although there are a few kernels of truth in the message, most of it is completely false. Whether it was an intentional hoax or merely the product of someone with a good imagination and poor research skills, it has misled a lot of people into mistaken etymological beliefs.
Take, for example, the claim that in the 1500s people were often unintentionally buried alive, as evidenced by scratch marks on the insides of coffins that were later exhumed for some reason. On hearing such stories, public fear of being buried alive allegedly resulted in a new method of burial in which a string was tied to the wrist of the departed and fed through a hole in the coffin all the way to the surface where it was attached to a bell. Were the person to awaken, the slightest arm movement would ring the bell, alerting someone to dig them up. Hence, so the tale goes, the origin of the expressions 'saved by the bell' and 'dead ringer'.
Thats a lovely and plausible-sounding story, but it happens to be untrue. The expressions 'saved by the bell' and 'dead ringer' have entirely different origins. And the whole business of coffins being designed with warning bells? That was certainly not part of life in the 1500s. Not at all. Not even close. It didnt happen until the 1800s.
so years ago you guys had that split with forstella ford (one of like four records for which i owned a turntable), and it had a song called "faking appendicitis." first of all, this is liek one of my all-time fav songs; but i wanted to share that i was once in the hospital for months with some mystery illness. at one point i was accused of just that: faking appendicits. nevertheless i no longer have an appendix. meaningless story. PEACE
