For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
Peter-pence
Rome-scot
Chimney-money
Hearth-tax
Smoke-money
Hearth-money
From my weekly posting of World Wide Words. (I have very eclectic tastes and find off-beat things so interesting - I like to think of myself as 'Cutting Edge'!!! but know that I'm about the only one out here on this edge!! )
Now don't any of you beat me to QUOCKERWODGER! My 7 yo voice calling - I saw it first!! LOL
wordseditor@WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 582 Saturday 5 April 2008
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent each Saturday to at least 50,000 subscribers by e-mail and RSS
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448
http://www.worldwidewords.org US advisory editor: Julane Marx
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A formatted version of this newsletter is available
online at http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/txyr.htm
I regret to say they are not Bobbie ..... all sound delightfully Dickension though !
Mini Hugs , Ruth
I've not heard of those terms, maybe I'm too young!
Saying that we used to have a maid by the hearth. A fold up clothes horse that mum used to put terry towelling nappies and knickers on to dry by the fire.
AAARRRGGGHHH............Bobbie - I'm fighting desperately NOT to get drawn into another website!!!!!!
But QUOCKERWODGER - doesn't that conjure up images? Would make a great challenge - everyone make a quockerwodger bear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm off to bed - bet I have some STRANGE dreams!
huggies
Maria
Maria, did you look it up??? I'm trying to picture how to engineer a young, miniature, needle felted (any breed) bear strung like that. ...
I can't quite get my head around jointing the limbs as separate sections, so they'd all splay out differently every time and not just drop as if 4 legs were knocked out underneath.
Bobbie - you got me - I REALLY was going to bed, but after musing on the Quockerwodger, I HAD to look it up.........
looks like a case for wobble joints - is that the right term???????? Here they are called Wakkel .........and I learnt all my bear stuff in Germany...........
sweet dreams!
huggies
Maria
Here's what went with this title:
QUOCKERWODGER
"I knew the toy as a child," wrote the Rev John Carl
Bowers from Brooklyn NY. "It's a marionette whose limbs and body parts
are loosely connected by loops of string, the whole suspended from
a single string attached to the head. Jerking that single string
causes the marionette to flail about in grotesque and unpredictable
postures; it's not 'controlled' as we understand a puppet to be.
The amusement is in seeing what extremes of posture your jerking
can generate.
Hotten's description matches my recollection - note
that he refers to jerking 'a' (single) string.
Forcing the puppet into grotesque postures also accords well with the political meaning."
And as a sidelight:
ROYAL NAVY If you are a serving or former RN member and would like
to help me with a language question, please send an e-mail with the
subject line "Royal Navy" to wordseditor@worldwidewords.org.
The only one I have heard of before is Hearth Tax. I have come accross it when researching records on line to help me trace my family tree. I think it was a tax levied probably in the 1600's according to the number of fireplaces you had in your house, I think they also had a similar thing at one time taxing the number of windows( on the outside of some very old houses you can see where windows have been bricked up to reduce the tax that had to be paid) The reason I found it was because there must have been a district register of those that had paid(or not paid) the tax due on their houses.
Tiny Hugs,
Gail
Well I'm a true Brit and I don't think I've ever heard of any of them...sayings much older thank myself |I guess!
Hugs, Jane.
I have a one that was passed down in the family. Hugs, Jan
They were all methods of taxing, precursors to our current income/personal property/estate taxes.
Now I want to hear, Jan - what did your family use????
And yes, you could make it move by jerking the string, but my father showed me how to really play with it. Sit on one end of a fairly long thin piece of wood (we used a wooden yarnstick), hold the puppet by the string just so its feet rest on the other end of the stick. Gently tap the stick. The stick hits the puppet's feet and makes it dance. The harder and faster you tap, the wilder the puppet dances....legs and arms flaying. Hugs, Jan
I'll have to try to find it. No telling which trunk it's in. This may not be right, but to the best of my recollection, it was put together with eye screws at shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. Don't quote me on that until I check it out. Hugs, Jan
Correction.....yardstick..NOT yarnstick. <g> Hugs, Jan
LOL - YARNSTICK - a Freudian slip for sure!!??
Yes, I too remembered one my folks made (all of our toys for 7 kids), with the same screw eyes for joints.
It seems like it was a Pinocchio-knockoff, before the awareness of TMs and ©s...... Disney's movie probably came out then - mid- to -late 40s / early 50s?
Think this one is earlier. My Dad was born 1905 and he had it as a child. Hugs, Jan
I've only heard of one. But Now I'm just curious about the others.
Parts/States/Counties in the US also have different tax structures: we were visiting in far Northern Maine and saw a number on in-town houses that had their Tyvek© Wrap in place, but still missing the siding on one of the 4 sides.
It was explained that if the house was still "in progress" it would be taxed lower.
It's a good thing for artists that our WIPs aren't levied against. Tho it might cause us to complete more of them.