by mike January 07, 2004
by Mike January 15, 2004
by Mike January 19, 2004
by mike September 16, 2003
When sailors returned home from a voyage, they would be paid off in one lump sum. Most would then stay at shoreside establishments catering to sailors until their money ran out. When that happened, the owners ("crimps") would advance money so that the sailors could purchase more food, rum and "companionship" at that establishment at inflated prices.
For centuries, it was common practice to give a sailor one month's wage in advance when they signed on for a voyage. This advance was intended for the purchase of needed clothing and other gear before departure. Often times this money went to repay the crimps. By the middle of the 19th century, captains were paying the advances directly to crimps for providing crew, bypassing the poor sailor. Thus, most sailors would be working only for their food for the first month of a voyage.
This food was supposed to mostly consist of salt beef. Food provisioners, whenever they could get away with it (which was quite often), would substitute much cheaper and chewier salt horse for a portion of the salt beef. Even when salt beef was provided, some of it would have been in casks for years before being given to the crew to eat, making it as hard to chew as salt horse. It was quite usual for the crew to refer to their food as salt horse when it was bad, or dead horse if it was worse than bad.
So, for the first month the sailors were working only for their food, their salt horse, their dead horse. They were said to be "working off their dead horse," and were referred to as dead horses themselves. Flogging them to get them to work harder was a waste of energy. Thus, "you can't beat a dead horse" to get any more work done.
For centuries, it was common practice to give a sailor one month's wage in advance when they signed on for a voyage. This advance was intended for the purchase of needed clothing and other gear before departure. Often times this money went to repay the crimps. By the middle of the 19th century, captains were paying the advances directly to crimps for providing crew, bypassing the poor sailor. Thus, most sailors would be working only for their food for the first month of a voyage.
This food was supposed to mostly consist of salt beef. Food provisioners, whenever they could get away with it (which was quite often), would substitute much cheaper and chewier salt horse for a portion of the salt beef. Even when salt beef was provided, some of it would have been in casks for years before being given to the crew to eat, making it as hard to chew as salt horse. It was quite usual for the crew to refer to their food as salt horse when it was bad, or dead horse if it was worse than bad.
So, for the first month the sailors were working only for their food, their salt horse, their dead horse. They were said to be "working off their dead horse," and were referred to as dead horses themselves. Flogging them to get them to work harder was a waste of energy. Thus, "you can't beat a dead horse" to get any more work done.
by Mike January 29, 2005
A term used broadly and often inaccurately to define a person or group of persons whom embody the concepts of ignorance, racism, violence, alcoholism, and anglo-saxon ancestry. It is often used as a label on the poor caucasian working class. Many people are labelled "white trash" because of the clothes they wear and their appearance, regardless of wealth and standing. Many that use this term do not understand the lifestyles of those whom they deride and oftentimes neglect to see that many people in the poor white working class are actually very intelligent tolerant people who tend to like professional wrestling, cheap beer and NASCAR. Many others were born with mental or physical disabilities and are forced into the stereotypical "white trash" lifestyle by the opressive society of the united states which tends to ignore its lowest classes. If correctly applied, the term refers to people such as the military personnel who had a wonderful time playing fraternity pranks on the prisoners of Abu Ghraib prison, the corporate scum who build their big box department stores right across the road from mom and pop stores which are then forced out of business for the greater good of a couple of obscenely rich assholes at the top, idiots who write "dotheads are dirty" on the walls of gas station restrooms that are not even run by east Indians but people of middle-eastern descent yet they are too full of themselves to notice a difference, and especially Texan wannabe cowboys who carelessly overrun foreign countries without noticing the thousands of innocent lives that are constantly being ended and then having the nerve to say "GOD IS ON OUR SIDE!"
by Mike March 06, 2007
The way I feel sick when I am without Trang, alone or with other people. At this time it is not believed that trangitis is contagious.
Symptoms of trangitis include lonliness, loss of appetite, difficulty concentrating, and an inability to smile without thinking about Trang.
by Mike December 06, 2004