I’m sure most families have standard phrases they use with one another, inside jokes that others might not necessarily get. One of my family’s is from the 1968 musical version of Oliver Twist. There’s a scene, in Fagin’s lair, where… Read More
On Monday I blogged about debtors’ prisons, which people often confuse with poorhouses, the subject of today’s cheery blog. Debtors’ prisons and poorhouses were not the same thing, but were equally dismal places.
Poorhouses, or almshouses, existed in England from… Read More
Since ancient times, salt has always been highly valuable. Roman soldiers were paid at certain times with salt—their salarium—from which we get the word “salary.”