[Magdalen] Nature goes tee hee

[Heather Angus]

Holy cow! I had no idea about the gruesome origin of "handbasket." Now I
suppose I'm going to be inclined to avoid it, as I tend to avoid other
awful phrases whose meaning has fortunately been mostly forgotten in the
gloomy mists of time, such as: "a basket case," "caught red-handed," "had
him over a barrel," and even "drank the kool-aid."

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 5:39 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

> A method of removing bodies, the predecessor of the body bag. I've
> seen photos of them from the Civil War era.
>
> If you and your family were too poor for a casket, or if you didn't have a
> family member or friend with wood and simple hand tools, the whole
> outfit was dumped into a grave.
>
> One of my friends' brothers was a finish carpenter and he hand-made their
> father's casket, Took him forty-eight hours and, I'm told, helped him
> through the grieving process.
> -M
>
>
> On Friday, November 21, 2014, Don Boyd <thedonboyd at austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
> > Our Listbrother James has opined "This thread is gone to hades in a
> > handbasket, so...."  and I wonder about the origin of this saying.  Is
> > "handbasket" somehow significant (I've never heard the word except in
> this
> > 'gone to' context)?  Or has it survived because of the /h/-/h/
> > alliteration? There are times, this morning being one, when I enjoy
> > contemplating such trivialities as this.
> >
> > Don in Austin
> >
> >
> >
> >
>