Stephani Stephenson on thu 30 oct 03
Subject: janet/a story please/queen's china
Mel Wrote: tell us why we do not turn over the queen's china
.........?
Steph wrote:
unofficial and unauthorized version passed down to me by
'forepawers'
Reverend Aimless 'Thumbs' Stephenson and Maggie Mac 'the
Thwacker' MacMahan
who where shipped over the pond and for good reason
My understanding is that to turn the Queen's china
was a far greater offense than simple rudeness.
It was considered a seriously seditious and rebellious act.
To do so was to , symbolically, tantamount to
"raising one's rump" at the queen
an especially dangerous thing to do at the Queen's table.
We now use the phrase 'raise a rumpus' or 'raise a ruckus',
but this is where the phrase originated,
referring to the act of turning over and tilting up
the backside of the Queen's china.
The idea that the Royal 'backside' might be of interest or
worthy of scrutiny....
was an insult of the highest degree
and
was enough to cause a person to
have their head served up in a turreen (oops sorry, that was
Royal France)
or have the person shipped off in chains
to what is now Canada, Americas, Australia, and other
wild and unmannered parts of the world
That is why we now have such an overpopulation
of bottom tipping, rumpus raising, backside groping
potters now inhabiting these regions.
Now i must excuse myself from the table
my tongue seems to be stuck in cheek.
Stephani Stephenson
steph@alchemiestudio.com
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