Where Did That Come From? Sept. 16th 2009

Omar the Tent Maker

So today my mother, a.k.a. "The Newsbuffer", and I were discussing Big Brother the season finally. I have it taped and she didn't want to give anything away but she hinted that Julie Chen the host, who is VERY pregnant and about to POP, kinda shocked her. Julie is usually so impeccably dressed and always so Cute, even pregnant. She always makes things look easy and neat. The Newsbuffer tells me that her outfit for the first time ever during her whole pregnancy finally looked like one made by "Omar the Tent Maker." Well I feel for ya Mrs. Chen. We all know what its like to get to the last stages of pregnancy and not give a "HOOT" what we look like at that point in time. For all we know she was in early stages of labor. *shrugs
While my Mom is telling me this, my brain stops on "Omar the Tent Maker." I begin to wonder if there really was an Omar? Was he a famous tent maker? Was this fictitious Omar famously known for his tent designs? I got myself to googling.

There was in fact an "Omar the Tent Maker". Although he was a fictitious character in a Movie of the same title. The movie was put December 1922 and was a "Silent" Picture. A little side note, according to Imbd, Boris Karloff played Imam Mowaffak. Say that 3x's fast.

Movie Details
his film about Omar Khayyam, author of The Rubaiyat, was adapted from the stage play by Richard Walton Tully with mixed results. It shows Omar (Guy Bates Post, who also played the role on stage) as a student in love with Shireen (Virginia Brown Faire), the daughter of his teacher. The couple marry in... secret, but the Shah (Noah Beery) has heard of Shireen's beauty and carries her off to his native land. When she turns down his advances, she is imprisoned. Shireen gives birth while she is locked up and the Shah orders that both she and the baby girl be thrown off a cliff. They are saved, and the child is handed over to Omar, but Shireen is sold into slavery. It takes seventeen years for Omar and Shireen to be reunited. During that time, their daughter grows up (to be played by Patsy Ruth Miller), and falls in love with a Christian slave. Those who bought tickets to this picture hoping for The Rubaiyat were disappointed, as only a few snatches of poetry appeared in the title cards. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Starring Guy Bates Post, Virginia Brown Faire, Nigel de Brulier,

Director James Young

Released By First National

This has been another edition of Where Did That Come From? Hope you enjoyed it. Any and all comments are welcome.

"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
In medieval times baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

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This has been our 1st Post of "Where did that come from?". Now, what the heck does that mean when your mother says that to you? I don't fricken know!! Usually when this is uttered to me, I smile and nod indicating that I understand, all the while thinking what that would look like with a baby falling out of a dirty tub. When in truth, I don't know. Thankfully I can only remember one time it was said to me by my mother. Next time...I will be armed with such knowledge that I shall stun her into forgetting what she was speaking of in the first place. LOL

After googling it. (man that sounds dirty) I have however come up with some answers. It is a version of a German proverb. It was first written in a book by Thomas Murner. (1475-1537) His satirical book had a chapter in it titled "To throw the baby out with the bath water" {Are you snoring yet? Because I am about to.} Basically the meaning, put in simpleton terms, "Not to throw out the good with the bad" Which is the good or the bad, I think is up to personal preference.

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I want to thank Wolfgang Mieder of the University of Vermont for his article on this phrase and how it became Americanized. You can see the article here.

Pain in the Neck!

Image via Wikipedia So yesterday, I woke up with this HORRIBLE pain in my neck. I must have slept wrong. I think it started because I was reading to my 15year old daughter a couple chapters of a book over the phone. I was reading the chapters not from a book, but from the internet. I was holding the phone with my shoulder while reading, 2 very long chapters of "Midnight Sun" by Stephanie Meyers. My daughter, who lives with her Dad in another state, is OBSESSED with the Twilight series. I believe she has read the whole series at least 3 times now in the past 2 months. In all fairness though, I am the one to blame for the obsession and the way I held the phone. I went to bed right after our phone call. Then who knows what happened.

Have you ever wondered where some of our sayings have come from? For example; "Pain in the Neck". I always have thought about sayings through the years. In this case that phrase is fairly simple to figure out where it came from. Other times though it is difficult to sort out. I of course ask my mother. Mom's are supposed to know EVERYTHING right? Well, now that I am in my 30's and have kids of my own, she felt the need to let me know, that phrase is actually a lie. Of course now my jaw drops. My own sweet mother admitting to "LIEING"!! What other crimes has she committed in the past? Is she even "MY mother"? (Again another fine example of my overactive imaginnation at work, folks. Don't be alarmed for she is in fact my mother.) I can not however vouch for any crimes she may or may not have commited. *giggles

Now because of my grand pain in the neck, I have decided on a new series of posts, I will be posting every so often. It will be called, "Where did that come from?". I wanted to post yesterday and cry and whine about my neck. Then I didn't. I want to try to think of the positives in things. For me this is just that positive. Oh, by the way, my neck feels better but still sore. I can at least move more to the right and look up and down now. LOL