At what time actually can the sun be said to be over the yardarm?
Just askin’.
One thought on “Question”
I have been quite fond of evoking yardarms after a grueling day when I was ready to move on to something more relaxing.
I also like the phase Harry S. Truman used to invite people for a drink, back in the days when Prohibition was a recent memory. “Well boys,let’s go strike a blow for liberty.”
SUN IS OVER THE YARDARM – “(time for happy hour to begin). This expression is thought to have its origins in an officers’ custom aboard ships sailing in the north Atlantic. In those latitudes, the sun would rise above the upper yards – the horizontal spars mounted on the masts, from which squaresails were hung – around 11 a.m. Since this coincided with the forenoon ‘stand easy,’ officers would take advantage of the break to go below for their first tot of spirits for the day. The expression washed ashore where the sun appears over the figurative yardarm a bit later in the day, generally after 5 p.m., and the end of the workday.”
From “When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There’s the Devil to Pay: Seafaring Words in Everyday Speech” by Olivia A. Isil (International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, McGraw-Hill, 1996)
And didn’t Winnie The Pooh sometimes say that he was feeling a little “eleven o’ clock-ish” when he wanted some honey?
I have been quite fond of evoking yardarms after a grueling day when I was ready to move on to something more relaxing.
I also like the phase Harry S. Truman used to invite people for a drink, back in the days when Prohibition was a recent memory. “Well boys,let’s go strike a blow for liberty.”
And now, since apparently your Google must be broken, is an explanation about the sun and yardarms, courtesy of:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/15/messages/458.html
SUN IS OVER THE YARDARM – “(time for happy hour to begin). This expression is thought to have its origins in an officers’ custom aboard ships sailing in the north Atlantic. In those latitudes, the sun would rise above the upper yards – the horizontal spars mounted on the masts, from which squaresails were hung – around 11 a.m. Since this coincided with the forenoon ‘stand easy,’ officers would take advantage of the break to go below for their first tot of spirits for the day. The expression washed ashore where the sun appears over the figurative yardarm a bit later in the day, generally after 5 p.m., and the end of the workday.”
From “When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There’s the Devil to Pay: Seafaring Words in Everyday Speech” by Olivia A. Isil (International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, McGraw-Hill, 1996)
And didn’t Winnie The Pooh sometimes say that he was feeling a little “eleven o’ clock-ish” when he wanted some honey?