My dear friend and faithful reader Big Mama sent this very informative essay to me the other day, and I feel compelled to share it with the rest of my faithful readers. Neither one of us can totally vouch for it's validity, but we both agree that it makes perfect sense to us. So we believe it's true, and I guess that's all that matters. I did some quick research and found this to be true.
Today, we examine the origin of the phrases "piss poor" and "didn't have a pot to piss in." Back in the day, people used urine to tan animal skins. Urine was used to dehair the skins, tan the skins, and make the skins supple. Urine contains formic acid and uric acid, which are used as preservatives. And when urine is left to stand, amonia is formed. When the hides are left to soak in the urine, the amonia breaks down the hide and dehairs the skin. But I digress. So family members used to pee in a pot and then once a day the pot was taken and sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor". But worse than that were the really really poor folks who couldn't even afford to buy a pot; they "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.
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1 comment:
And here I didn't think you paid any attention to what I send LOL
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