The "Did you know" thread.....

[Greenman]

Did you know that the term for being in prison 'doing bird' is rhyming slang for 'bird lime'=time. In Victorian times bird lime(bird excrement) was smeared on walls to make them slippery and difficult to climb.

And the term being 'left in the lurch' was to be abandoned to the mercy of a mob. A 'lurch' was an 18th century cahed wagon, in which prisoners were paraded on their way to jail.

The term NONCE or a sex offender came from an acronym that originated in Wakefield Prison in the 1900s from the phrase Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise because this was a way to protect such prisoners from an attack by other inmates.

Source: The Criminal Alphabet by Noel 'Razor' Smith (an ex con himself)

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Did you know that the term for being in prison 'doing bird' is rhyming slang for 'bird lime'=time. In Victorian times bird lime(bird excrement) was smeared on walls to make them slippery and difficult to climb.

Actually GM you're WAY off beam with this-'birdlime' has nothing to do with bird excrement-its a sticky substance used to trap birds (which might of course lead to a certain reaction from the bird when it realised the situation...

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdlime

I have my doubts that smearing this on walls would be an effective deterrent-probably more likely to improve climbability given the typical Victorian prison architecture I'm familiar with.....

[Greenman]

Dr Pepper-I am quoting directly from the book source I mentioned at the end of my piece and as this chap has done his time in prison, 33yrs to be precise. It is reasonable to assume he knows what he is talking about, so basically don't shoot the messenger okay.

Others from his book-taken from the Daily Mail who published these yesterday:
A slang term for prison is chokey, which was the punishment block where offenders are held in isolation -derived from the Hindu cauki, a lock up.

A dragger is a professional car thief. It is derived from the Romany word drag and was coined in the days of horse-drawn carts, when an animal dragged its load along the road or 'main drag.'

I like this one. Hundred Yard Hero: Anyone who bravely hurls insults at police from a great distance. Source: The Criminal Alphabet by Noel 'Razor' Smith NOT me

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Dr Pepper-I am quoting directly from the book source I mentioned at the end of my piece and as this chap has done his time in prison, 33yrs to be precise. It is reasonable to assume he knows what he is talking about, so basically don't shoot the messenger okay.

Others from his book-taken from the Daily Mail who published these yesterday:
A slang term for prison is chokey, which was the punishment block where offenders are held in isolation -derived from the Hindu cauki, a lock up.

A dragger is a professional car thief. It is derived from the Romany word drag and was coined in the days of horse-drawn carts, when an animal dragged its load along the road or 'main drag.'

I like this one. Hundred Yard Hero: Anyone who bravely hurls insults at police from a great distance. Source: The Criminal Alphabet by Noel 'Razor' Smith NOT me

Actually shooting messengers is great sport-but I DID give the reference to my point-a point which you seemingly ignored-once again 'birdlime' has nothing to do with bird excrement-which you stated. 'Doing bird' may well have a link to bird lime-that wasn't the point of my criticism.

As for the author having done 33 years-well all that tells me is he was a VERY slow learner....and didn't learn the lesson!....

[Greenman]

NO I didn't ignore it I was merely stating that this was nothing to do with anything I had found, it was taken from the article in the Daily Mail by this Razor chap promoting said book. I for one, when I read it found that hard to believe, but you would think that the paper might have checked thoroughly before extracts were printed. Just goes to show you, never believe everything you read in papers. Here are a few more:

April: Rhyming slang - and April Fool is a tool or weapon. These are readily at hand in jail. Darts and spears can be made from tight rolls of newspaper, sharp enough to blind and coshes can be fashioned out of anything from batteries in a sock to a bar of soap in a pillowcase-OUCH!! I seem to recall that device(snooker balls in a sock) was used in the film SCUM by young Ray Winstone.

Borstal: Derives from the first juvenile prison, just outside the village of Borstal, near Rochester in Kent.

CHIMPS-Nickname for Police Community Support Officers. It stands for Completely Hopeless in Most Policiing Situations - sounds plausible?

Hijack-Originally from the Prohibition Era in America when gangsters would saunter over to a truck with a friendly 'Hi, Jack' to allay suspicions, before pulling their guns and swiping the cargo - again this sounds plausible.

[Greenman]

Roy Castle (I was lucky enough to meet during a recording of Record Breakers in the late 70s) born on this day in 1932 and who died of lung cancer in 1994, still holds the world record for the fastest tap dance - 1,440 taps per minute - which he did in 1973 on The Record Breakers show BBC1 and it remains unbeaten to this day. He broke nine world records including paragliding under all of London's bridges.

[sandhunter]

[Greenman]

Did you know that Camembert means 'pie chart' in French? I didn't until watching an episode of quiz show Decimate.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by tygrkhat40

Of course. To me ABC means the American Broadcasting Company, whereas to Estreeter it would mean the Australian Broadcasting Company.

That's right

Speaking of which, an idiot tried to broadcast some spam here earlier, so I banned them

So I did a quick count and, did you know as of about 2 hours ago, there have been approx 8900 users banned from VEF

[Jake Gittes]

Did You Know ???