A fun way to review history, continued:

 

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the

loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

 

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would

sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the

road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid

out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather

around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the

custom of holding a "wake."

 

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to

bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a

"bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25

coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized

they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string

on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the

ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard

all night (the graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could

be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."

 

And that's the truth...