DIY Techno-hacksOld hard drive platters make wonderfully good drinks coasters - they look dead smart and expensive and you've stopped people reading your old data into the bargain.
Have you taped all your remotes together, peep-show-style? Have you wired your doorbell to the toilet? What enterprising DIY have you done with technology?
Extra points for using sellotape rather than solder.
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chthonic, Thu 20 Aug 2009, 12:30)
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ActuallyI haven't been able to find any sources which would bear your etymology out. More logically something was said to fall by the wayside when it literally fell by the side of the way. One suspects that before the 19th or 20th C carts weren't really systematically weighed to ensure health and safety for all concerned.
(, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 5:25, 1 reply)
Itwasn't for health and safety (duh!), it was for taxes, and predates the 19th century by a long way. It's also of similar origin for "to get away Scot Free" - taxes were levied on those that didn't have enough land to grow bramble for the building of sea defences (it was considered impervious to sea water), if you failed to pay the tax or grow bramble, your ear was cut off. If you lived outside the boundries that needed to pay towards the sea defences you were said to have gotten away "Scot free" as the tax was imposed by Lord Scot in the 15th century, the same Lord that imposed the tax on the weight in the carriages of trade goods through the same area - I'm not going to mention the area as it's where I live (I'm the local historian for the preservation society - again, which I'm not going to name as it would make it too obvious).
I'm pretty sure he wasn't known for his stance on health and safety issues - I mean, where would he get a knife sharp enough to have someone's ear cut off?
If you didn't have enough to pay the tax, the cart was confiscated until you did - or simply confiscated forever depending on the contents.
It was possible to pay the tax in advance - many people did this so that they wouldn't get stopped and weighed. This backfired as most carts were stopped regardless of advance payments. Many were found to have a weight in excess of what they had paid for. When asked where their load was they were said to reply "it fell by the weigh side".
It's mentioned in a book I have here, and is mentioned frequently in the Russel Thorndike novels that are based around this time - with the correct spelling of "weigh".
(, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 7:52, closed)
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