Newer Than They Think / Proverbs And Superstitions

• "The greatest thing since sliced bread" implies that sliced bread is an old, old concept. Pre-sliced loaves have been around only since 1928: See the astounding announcement from Modern Mechanics!
  • It should be noted that the concept of slicing bread (or at least tearing it with your hands) is as old as bread itself. The saying is referring to pre-sliced bread — loaves that were sold having been already cut into consistently-sized slices by a machine. This was, in fact, a massive innovation.
  • Abe Simpson recalls, in his childhood, his father talking about America as if it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, adding that "Sliced bread had been invented the previous winter." Given that article's publishing date and Abe's record in World War II, the comment was probably much more accurate than the writers intended.
  • The phrase itself came about as soon as the 1930s; when it was originally used, it meant the "greatest new thing in a series of wondrous new technological developments". It would be like saying how something is the "greatest thing since the iPod" or "greatest thing since HDTV" today. The fact that the phrase stuck around longer than its cultural context is just one of those happenstances of history.
    • These days the expression can be used with a touch of irony, underlining how ordinary sliced bread is now, as if to say, "This thing is not as great as it seems" by comparing it to mundane, pre-cut bread loaves.
  • On the other hand, it underlines how much sliced bread was loved in America when it arrived- Bill Bryson, born in 1951, never saw an un-sliced loaf before he flew to Belgium in his twenties- "never even considered it a possibility."
  • Oddly enough, the bread slicing machine wasn't a good idea in itself, alone, when it first appeared- a lack of modern packaging meant it went mouldy too fast to be practical. It was only when it was followed by cellophane that made sliced bread great at all.
• The myth that England will not fall until the ravens leave the Tower of London came from the 1800s at the latest, since the earliest reference to ravens being there at all isn't until 1885. It didn't become popular until WWII (when, apparently, the ravens did leave).
  • Prior to the ravens, the king's fate was supposedly linked with the lions kept at the menagerie at the Tower — Richard II fell fatally ill after one died.
  • There is also the idea that Gibraltar will stay British while there are Barbary macaques there. In reality nobody gave a damn about the monkeys until WW2 (to the point nobody knows for sure *when* the first monkey arrived there to begin with), when the population had coincidentally dwindled to 7 and was about to die off, requiring the introduction of several new animals from North Africa. Nowadays, the Barbary macaque is near extinct in North Africa but a pest in the Rock. Maybe it's time to return the favor.
• The idea that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day is an invention of the 19th century, although the separate ideas that Friday and the number 13 were unlucky are older than that.
  • According to a special about them on the History Channel, when the Knights Templar in France were rounded up as heretics on Friday, October 13, 1307, the infamous superstition began as a result.
  • In most Spanish-speaking countries, the superstition is actually Tuesday the 13th, with the popular explanation that Tuesday (martes) is named after the Roman god of war, violence and bloodshed (as a matter of fact, the proverb Martes, no te cases ni te embarques ("On Tuesdays, don't marry or embark") traces back to medieval times). The Jason movies are sometimes retitled accordingly (until the recent reboot, that is).
    • The same is true for Greece, with the popular explanation being that Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) fell on a Tuesday (29th of May, 1453). 13 was traditionally seen as a bad number, since 12 was a holy/harmonic number in ancient Greece while another account attributes this to there being thirteen men present at the Last Supper (with Judas Iscariot as the unlucky thirteenth).
  • While the idea of Friday the 13th being unlucky has gained popularity in Russian-speaking countries, before that, being born on a Monday was considered to be extremely bad luck.
• "The Curse of the Bambino", referring to the 1920 trade of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees having a detrimental effect to the former team, was first referenced in 1990, meaning that it was believed for only 14 years before it was "broken".
• Robert F. Kennedy attributed the curse (which is one if you think about it) "May you live in interesting times" to the ancient Chinese. There is no record of such a saying in China, and the curse in question can only be traced back to 1936.
• The proverb of the camel's nose is an invention of the mid-19th century Victorians, not Arabs.
• The first record of the proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" dates to an 1884 political treatise by Gabriel Manigault, who adapted it from a Latin expression dating to 1711. It was not well-known until the 1950s, when the Cold War made it a guiding principle of American foreign policy.
• The saying "Be the change you want to see in the world" is first recorded in a 1974 book chapter by educator Arleen Lorrance; it was never said by Mahatma Gandhi.
• The saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" derives from neither the Bible nor Shakespeare; it is actually a corruption of a line from William Congreve's 1697 Restoration Comedy The Mourning Bride, which reads as follows:
  Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
• "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" sounds like it is centuries old, but was only popularized in 1904, by fruit scientist J.T. Stinson at the World's Fair in St. Louis.
• A widely-circulated quote, often attributed to ancient Roman orator Cicero, says (with some variations), "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. The end of the world is near." However, the earliest known variant of this quote dates only to 1908, and the alleged source changes nearly every time it reappears, being variously cited as Assyrian, Egyptian, Chaldean, etc. Most likely, the quote is a modern invention.
• The saying "[There's] always a bigger fish" sounds traditional, but was actually coined for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999).
• The saying "Cross that bridge when you come to it" should be ancient, right? Nope. It was coined by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for his 1851 narrative poem The Golden Legend.
• "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is first attested in a 1917 article by dietitian Lenna Cooper for Good Health, a magazine controlled and funded by Kellogg for the purpose of selling their breakfast cereal.
• The saying "The beatings will continue until morale improves" is often said to have originated in World War II or earlier, but its earliest-known use dates only to 1989. The earliest variation that is reasonably close is "all liberty is canceled until morale improves", dating to a 1961 one-panel comic in the US Navy publication All Hands.
• The saying "The best things in life are free" first appeared in the song of the same name in the 1927 musical Good News.
• The saying "To the victor belong the spoils" may sound ancient. Surely it's translated from Latin or something? Nope. It was actually first said in 1828, by American senator William L. Marcy, referring to the victory of Andrew Jackson in the presidential election 1828.

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