PINCH and a Punch for tomorrow, folks, and as we endure the last day of summer (predicted top of thirty-flamin-five degrees) it’s nowhere near illuminating to think about the origin of that tradition.
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As kids, my brother and I used to finish up black and blue through vigorous violent assaults on each other.
But it seems we missed other traditional responses. Apparently in some houses if you loudly declare White Rabbit! Before the assault, it must be halted.
And some allowed a counter-attack while crying out: A flick and a kick for being so quick.
Where did this ritualised domestic violence come from?
Some say it was to do with witches. You neutered their powers with a pinch of salt and then punched them while they were weakened. Sounds unlikely.
Some Americans claim it came from a tradition begun by George Washington who gave his native American friends a pinch of salt in a cup of fruit punch. Hmmm.
In our family, the P&P tradition continues except we do it by SMS. Phones and devices starting binging and bonging about 5am.
Dry times
But is it hot?
Not really. In February we’ve notched an average maximum temperature of 31.7 degrees, just a tad over the long-term February average of 29.4.
Our hottest February day was 37.7, a long way below the eyeball-searing 45.4 on February 7, 2009: Black Saturday.
But we suspect we feel it was a hot month because of this stat: normally we could expect 34.9mm of rain, and this past month just over a quarter of that – 9.6mm!
Tram talk
DTM has been involved in a couple of meetings about our trams in recent times, and during less than sparkling moments, we find ourselves internally pondering why trams are called trams.
Guess what? It has nothing to do with the splendid old carriages and carts trundling along the streets. It’s to do with the rails they run on.
A “tram” in the 16th century was the shaft of a barrow. The carriages ran on two of these trams or beams.
