Marilyn's Photos - Dec 8 2025 - For Christmas...It's an Air Wedge
It lifts a refrigerator. Can you imagine only $52.33 to lift 500 pounds? But can it carry the fridge anywhere? Its job is lifting, levelling, separating, and positioning objects like doors, windows, cabinets and appliances. It was invented in Denmark in 1993, so how could it take so many decades for me to find out about it? The original product is called the Winbag. It has been innovating since then, including the “smiley” version. And how did I finally find out about it? It took the New York Times pointing out this was its most clicked article to make me aware of this product. It seems there are quite a few readers similarly curious about this.
There’s another curiosity on my mind. I wondered how crap came to be associated with Thomas Crapper. It is the chance similarity of the words themselves. Crap originates with Middle English, from the French crape meaning chaff and Dutch krappe meaning to pluck off. It meant worthless matter or residue. When Thomas Crapper became famous for his invention, it just got associated with the excrement side - that was between the 1840s and 1890s. For some reason, children in school were allowed to use the word crap, but not the word shit. There’s a reason for that. While crap is associated with the toilet, the word shit became more than a neutral word meaning dung/diarrhea or feces. It has German and Dutch roots as well. It somehow transformed. It became vulgar and a swear word very gradually - it says between the 11th and 19th centuries. The Victorian era is the milestone moment of its fate as a profanity.
The Wikipedia entry shows its many uses and variations - so many! Go to Realife English and you can get a long list of expressions. It is HERE. The article concludes with more RealLife articles about swear words. And its final note is Posted in: Bad Words, Cultural Reflections
I went looking for “Shit Jokes” - the most jokes are retrieved with the word Poop. Here’s my favourite:
I ate four cans of alphabet soup yesterday... ...then I had the biggest vowel movement ever!
Here’s Santa with Millie last year - no pictures of Santa this year as I had a cold last Sasturday, so had to miss the visit.
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