Oh dear, looks like I spelt ounces wrong! Also I think a cubit might be elbow to finger tips...what think ye? Why not take a private guided tour of London with me! Just get in touch on my website! joolzguides.com/ If you enjoy watching my films why not throw me a one-off contribution via paypal! www.paypal.me/julianmcdonnell Or if you want to chip in $1 or $2 a month you can support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/joolzguides

@prepperjonpnw6482

4 жыл бұрын

I have what might sound like an odd question but it’s actually a serious question. Ok here goes In your example of purchasing a length of lumber you describe a 2x4 that is 2 meters long. What I would like to know is this: what is the exact literal measurement of the 2”x4” part. Is it literally 2 inches by 4 inches? Cheers mate

@mikemckelvey7144

4 жыл бұрын

@@prepperjonpnw6482 If it's rough sawn timber it's 2"" by 4"". If it has been planed (PAR) it is slightly less.

@TomTobin67

4 жыл бұрын

What about Prat, Pillock & Plonker?

@ulrikschackmeyer848

4 жыл бұрын

And if a cubit is 'elbow to index fingertip' that would be the anglo-saxon (and contineltal) measurement of an 'ell'. Actually is is from the fingertip to the 'ell-bow'. Hence the name.

@dorothyrichter1680

4 жыл бұрын

Yes. A cubit is elbow to fingertips, a measure used in Biblical times (Noah was given the ark's dimensions in cubits). Hence, the nerve that causes you to "hit your funnybone" is called the cubital nerve.

The taunt, “how do you like them apples?!” Comes from WWI. The Brits had a mortar shell nicknamed the “toffee apple” because of its shape. They’d fire a round and say, “how you like them apples?!”

@Adam_s_Uncle

4 жыл бұрын

and btw, OK comes from 'zero killed'

@mr88cet

4 жыл бұрын

Adam1s1Uncle. Interesting: I’d heard that “OK” was originally a telegraph operator’s abbreviation for “open key,” meaning, “I’m not tapping the key, so it’s open for you to send a message.” So, a Telegraphy equivalent of “over” for 2-way radio operators.

@sillyr493

4 жыл бұрын

Gary Morrison 🤯

@mr88cet

4 жыл бұрын

Truthfully, it appears that, as with many short acronyms, quite a few phrases could reasonably claim to be where “OK” came from. I think I recall reading somewhere that the first usage of it was in the mid-1800s as an acronym for “all correct,” obviously using somebody’s very-odd spelling of that phrase. However, it’s not clear that that’s where it “caught on,” so to speak.

@AlkAliveLB

Жыл бұрын

Excellently logical

Being a born and bred Londoner, and London history being my great interest, I must say Sir Jools, thanks for another excellent video.

This is absolutely fascinating, taught English for 21 years including idioms and metaphors, what a damn shame this was not online at the time, great way of introducing them

"I'd like to buy some 2 by 4." "How long would you like it?" "Oh I'd like to keep it."

@richardsevern6156

4 жыл бұрын

4 x2 is a piece of soft cloth for cleaning rifle barrels. It came on roll 4 inches wide and when you rolled it out, it had a red lines across it spaced 2 inches apart. it was attached to a pull through ( a piece of stout cord with a weighted end that was dropped down the barrel from the breech end the you grabbed the weight when it popped out of the barrel. On the other end had a loop and the piece of 4x2 was threaded through it. and was pulled through the barrel.)

@christophercombs7561

4 жыл бұрын

@@richardsevern6156 2x4 is a standard size of generally pone timber the actual size is more like 1. 3/4 × 3 3/4 which i find frustrating then hard woods are measured by quarters of an inch which means you would think 4/4 od 4 quarter would be 1 inch thick lol you couldn't be more wrong 4 quarter is normally 15/16ths which means you need at least 5 quarter hardwood to get something 1 inch in final size

@richardsevern6156

4 жыл бұрын

@@christophercombs7561 I did not write about 4x2 to make you look a liar, it was just adding to people's knowledge. HavIng re- read my post it does look as though you were telling fibs. I can assure you I wasn't. I also know about 4x2 wood used in roofs and floor supports. Keep up the good work.

@richardsevern6156

4 жыл бұрын

@@christophercombs7561 I know of a hardwood that is measured in inches and fractions, ie. 1/16th, 1//32nd. The beauty of fractions is that you can get any measure you want. Try to find 1/3rd in metric measure! The hard wood is in fact Balsa. I made flying model aircraft when I was a youngster and bought it in imperial sizes. I am almost 80 years old and it is nice to be able to remember these facts. The difference between hard and soft woods depends on the tree shedding leaves or not. Ever greens, pines and such, are soft woods oak and such are hard woods.

@christophercombs7561

4 жыл бұрын

@@richardsevern6156 normally balsa isnt used in either mill or cabinetry also 1/3rd of an inch eh thats not normally a measurement on a ruler or tape 1/3rd would be like 7/32nds or 5/16ths

What is so great about your videos is that you do the opposite of most - you pack in fascinating details and historical anecdotes with clarity and brevity. So worth watching. It is the opposite of so many youtube videos in which people go on and on before they get to the point, if there is any. Thanks for taking the time and care to make them.

@Joolzguides

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks. That's kind of you. Yes, I wouldn't classify myself as a KZread Vlogger, which is what a lot of people are. Those vlogs are popular with a certain audience but I like to make films. I used to do that vlogging style when I was young but, alas, KZread didn't start working that way until I was an old git.

@deborahamy1225

Жыл бұрын

I agree, it is refreshing to learn things without all the usual unnecessary chatter. I understand that we should be patient with other types of presenting thoughts, and I am ok with that. It is healthy to get thoughts out and not keep things inside and to learn and grow in life, however I come across videos that tend to drone on and on before getting to a point, like they are just filling air time for themselves. I don’t know, I am not that much into a lot of social media so I don’t know if that is a normal thing or not. This video however, I am enjoying as well. God bless you and yours!😊

@larsfrandsen2501

Жыл бұрын

National treasure, is Joolz.

One part of this presentation reminds me of the old joke, "I went to the lumber yard the other day to buy some two by fours and the clerk asked me how long did I want them. I thought for a minute and replied, Well quite a while, you see I'm using them to build a garage!"

@alansalter1836

8 ай бұрын

😂😂

Just recently discovered Joolz' channel (now watching the back catalogue). Was born in Hammersmith in '53. Grew up in Harrow. Lived in Devon for over 30 years, but love 'virtually' walking about the greatest city in the world, with someone who knows a lot more about it than I ever knew! Especially like the famous people connections with pubs. Great fun - keep 'em coming! Top hole, old bean!

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you. I'm glad you can still vicariously enjoy London through me!

@Trillock-hy1cf

4 жыл бұрын

I used to work in London in the mid 69's for a couple of years, and it was fun. Having recently visited it, I found it a bit of a krap hole, plus all the stories that cone out of the city now, make me never want to go there again. Protesters, stabbists, terrorist attacks even more over crowded now, and mass gimmegration hasn't helped either. But I will keep watching your interesting videos about London...........from many miles away.......:)

"Breaking a leg" came from the days of Vaudeville shows. The performers that played those shows tended to be less than reliable, so management had to overbook talent on any given night. Come showtime, there would be too many performers for the show, but nobody knew who would actually get to perform, and, hence, get paid that night. The rule for when someone would get paid for a performance was that if a performer stepped out past the vertical drapes on the sides of the stage called legs they would get paid. Since management could pull an act right up to the moment before the performer stepped out from behind the leg and onto the stage, wishing someone to "break a leg" meant wishing for the person to make it past the curtain and on to the stage, thus ensuring that they would get paid that night.

@dannyrascalmusic

4 жыл бұрын

Gunslinging Bird Absolutely bang on! Thank you, you’ve saved me a bunch of typing.

@erikz1337

4 жыл бұрын

Germans say Hals- und Beinbruch (break a neck and a leg)

@annoloki

4 жыл бұрын

There are multiple competing explanations, and yes, they often do sound very truthy, but it is an oral tradition, so by the time people were writing down where they heard it, it had already spread, including having multiple origin stories. Believing one story over another is usually just a matter of taste, or which one convinced you first, or often, only knowing one of the explanations... someone told you it was true, and you believed them, and told other people it was true. It is, like the one mentioned in the video, "one possible explanation"

@annoloki

4 жыл бұрын

@@erikz1337 Apparently this is believed to be from the Yiddish "hatsloche un broche" ("success and blessing") from the Hebrew "hatzlacha u-bracha", apparently the Yiddish pronunciation is close enough to the German "neck and leg break" that German speakers, either mistakenly or jokingly, would repeat that. Probably, there were many different traditions in different countries, and when people heard that people in another country had one like one of their own, they would favour saying the one they had in common. So, lots of different people have a very similar "break a leg" traditions, each one with its own origin story, and it's the commonality that is responsible for the tradition surviving for us to hear about it now... because the uncommon ones didn't survive, ala "natural selection"

@ingriddubbel8468

4 жыл бұрын

@MegaStephie2010 explain to me how a play that was written between 1606 and 1607 was in Elizabethian times? She died in 1603.

A quarter pounder with cheese wouldn't sound as enticing when described as a 113.4 grams with cheese.

Cheerio, pip pip, bit of all right, sticky wicket, eh wot? You are a born entertainer, Joozl, and I can’t get enough of your delightful colloquialisms, history and fascinating facts. Do keep it up! 🇬🇧♥️🇺🇸

We don't use tommer (danish inches) anymore, but we still call timber 2x4 and 4x4 ect

thank you for giving me a good taste of english language i really admire the english so into tradition and proud and strong. I hope you are here for a long time i like to learn as much as i can about england and the humor...so funny i just appreciate ya

What a delightful, lively presenter of interesting historical language factoids!

You're a man after my own heart! Thank you

Thank you for your virtual tours, Joolz!

Love this channel. Great scenery with some history thrown in.

I love the idioms and the explanations to show a bit of the history and fun connected to them.

Is pay for a private tour with you, certainly I would if this is any indication of what to expect. My kind of cup of tea From Michigan 🇺🇸

Love this channel. Keep up the good work.

Superb as always Julian! Your research and presentation are greatly appreciated and entertaining.

Your channel is quite the breath of fresh air! Delightfully dapper as well. Cheers!!

What I can say but yet another excellent video about my favorite city. Many thanks and hope you'll carry on Sir Joolz!

In the USA, phone companies measure the distance of copper wire from the phone switch to the land-line phone in kilofeet.

Outstanding Young Man I Loved to See all of that! Thank You!

Always enjoyable and informative....A very jolly soul....Thumbs up!!!

Awesome jewels! I'm a Brit Living in America and enjoyed your video greatly. You are very knowledgeable and have an endearing personality. Keep calm and keep going. God bless.

LOVE these! Keep them coming!

Certainly educational. Thank you.

Interesting.Keep 'em coming.

Brilliant, thank you!

Absolutely Enjoyed the whole video. Bangers nd Mash

At last...break a leg explained. Thanks, Joolz!

Excellent storytelling my good man

Questioner: "How long were you in the army?" Spike Miligan: "5 foot 11"

Thanks for your excellent video

Great video sir, being a non native to English, quite informative video+ subtitles to understand better. Have a nice day !

Great video. Over here in America we order 4x2 by the foot. Except we call them 2x4s.

Really good video...again!

not just humerous, educational as well, GREAT JOB KEEP IT UP

Jools, thanks, you'e re an absolutely wonderful guide. Toodle pip!

The story of 'tawdry ribbons is such a good one..and tied to Ely Cathedral....

When I come to London again I am definitely looking you up

Good Day , mate Thanks !

Too funny & very informative! From Tennessee, USA!

Enjoyed it as usual.

Love the effort with your apparel

What a gorgeous stole/cloak thing on George III

Ta, Gov. Heard a lot of these but you make it sooo British. Well, t'is late, I'm off to the loo.🤓

Amazing video thanks so much

I know I've said this before, but Joolzie, Your little vids Absolutely MAKE MY DAY! I am from Louisiana, USA, and I Love history and facts,and your stuff is Right In My Wheelhouse...Thanks So Much For Your Research And Work in these vids! You Make It All Seem So Effortless....Cheers!

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Your'e very welcome. It's lovely that they're appreciated🙂

@shaunpierce4174

4 жыл бұрын

Right in my wheelhouse?

@alanmahoney167

4 жыл бұрын

@@shaunpierce4174 Right up my street as we say here in good old Blighty

Love it. In Australia we still use imperil to describe something in, it's a a couple of inches by 6 foot, but then measure it as 50 x 1800 mm. Electricans in Australia are the only trade to still use 7/64 thread for one particular fixing, everything is now metric unless retrospective fitting is required.

Hey I would rather keep your subscribers count until it reaches a million. Your hardwork would be paid off for sure... Love from India.

Just discovered you and your channel! Will tell all my Anglophile friends!

Another educational video! 📚👌 Thanks Jules! 😀

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers again Anton!

Well done! Looking forward to using the great information from your channel for our family visit in April!

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Great! Don't forget to say hi!

Jolly good show

V interesting show esp in his easy going manner

I’m sure in another 100 years or more these idioms will have changed their origins again. Through further misunderstandings and disagreements and research. Some will fall out of use altogether, and other new ones come in. Of which we’ll be discussing their origins in another 100 years. Fascinating.

@barbarawilliams7042

4 жыл бұрын

Just live your videos joolz your a very funny fella. Xx

Sir, could you please start using English transcripts below as it becomes easier to understand for the non-English speaking people. Your videos are quite fascinating and we, your international audiences really appreciate your hard work!!!

@Joolzguides

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I would love to but they just take so long. I just don't have time for it. The films take over a week to make and the transcripts take hours. I'd love it if someone did them for me!

Love your channel sir! I’ll be coming back to England for the first time in 40 years in 2018. I plan on spending a good amount of time in London after I’ve been to Essex to see the family. Hoping to pick up some of your shirts and what not while I’m there. Cheers

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Splendid. You will be very welcome!

Lovely!

Great work mate. Love it.

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers...despite the errors!

Very enjoyable.

I love every one of your videos!!!! I watch them multiple times lol I’ll be visiting next year so get ready to drag me around London Town for a few days lol I was born in the U.K. but my parents lost a bet with God and so were forced to move to the states where I’ve been stuck for decades lol. So I’ll be there visiting family for about a month and will definitely be making a trip into London. Cheers mate

Jus luv ur vids... 👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌

I'd appreciate any amount of this kind of videos. They entertain and help me learning and teaching ☺.

@Joolzguides

5 жыл бұрын

Oh, I tend to do them when I'm on my own..

@msantulova

5 жыл бұрын

@@Joolzguides Of course, thanks for warning. Yet experience and presentation are no lesser thing than expertise. Just today read that conservative thought likes experience better ☺.

@msantulova

5 жыл бұрын

@@Joolzguides Oh, you didn't mean to double check before teaching. I now understand what you mean. Please excuse me!

I walk a lot in my job Jules mainly in London and your marvellous videos make my walks so much more interesting. Will subscribe. You are a top chap. Toodle Pip.

@Joolzguides

5 жыл бұрын

Thank. That's great to hear!

Marvelous..!

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers! Don't forget to watch the others!

Favourite KZread channel at the minute 👌👍

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks Lee. Let' hope it gets me somewhere one day!

Interesting indeed.

Nice idioms

great stuff

Thanks

@Joolzguides

5 жыл бұрын

No problemo

love your info and presentation. From the prairies of Canada, and very familiar with some idioms from across your way. We Westerners when asked how far it is to somewhere use time as a measurement as in Oh, just an hour or so to where ever. Don't know how that started but it really gives weird looks from Folks from out of town. Will have to look up to see if I can find any info on why we do this . Keep it coming , love history and stories behind the sayings.

@w.reidripley1968

Жыл бұрын

With the Interstate Highway system in place, the usage has become universal; never even heard of somebody looking at you funny. There's a recent saying (and this one could be true of Australians also and I hope they take it up) that the Americans think a hundred years is a long time, and the English think a hundred miles is a long way.

In French, you wish each other "merde" which means "shit." Apparently, you wish bad luck in order to wish good luck.

@puirYorick

4 жыл бұрын

Merde is allegedly wishing for a full house which goes along with many horse-drawn carriages in the street and the piles of horse dung. The traces of merde clinging to patrons trousers and footwear became a smell indicating a packed house for the night's performance. Even if this is a total fabrication it is certainly a colourful story.

@ioodyssey3740

4 жыл бұрын

@@puirYorick colourful AND aromatic!

Excellent as always - would love to see some history about the largest borough in London - Bromley... good luck!

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

I'll try! My friend lives there. Actually that's where they moved the Psychiatric Hospital..also there's David Bowie of course.

Very fun video. Actors were a very superstitious lot, and wishing one "Good luck" was considered as a jinx (like you're inviting something bad to happen), so instead they would say something bad (break a leg) so that something good would happen instead. I think it had something to do with believing that evil spirits were out to sabotage them by doing our causing the opposite of their desires, so they tried to trick the spirits by wishing bad things for each other so the spirits would cause good things to happen in order to go against their wishes. (Hope that made sense.)

@w.reidripley1968

Жыл бұрын

And "The Scottish Play" -- apparently because too-careless sword fight scenes produced an impressive number of injuries among actors over the years, giving it an unlucky reputation. And this has eventually grown a quip among American actors of getting a meal at... the Scottish Restaurant.

Rail and tube tunnels also use body parts to describe the joints in a circle of cast iron segments, that form the support for the tunnel. So starting in the top of the circle you have the CROWN, followed by the SHOULDER JOINT the mid point of the tunnel is the GUTs, followed by the KNEE and FOOT joint. Then it gets confusing as each ring is staggered for strength similar to brickwork, but the checking engineer would still not the dimensions of joints as above.

Love your videos!! Any on Hyde park?

Funny people, the brits. Stuck in history and lovingly looking back to times when they were looking forward.

@peterebel7899

4 жыл бұрын

Doing so, they basically encounter themselves.

@ErnestoBrausewind

4 жыл бұрын

As an Austrian i can relate to that, what with the faded Empire - for us it is a century now and we're still not over it :)

@Heartwing37

4 жыл бұрын

Funny people the Yanks! Left the Brits in their past and created their own future!

@Heartwing37

4 жыл бұрын

Funny people, the Brits. Gave London away to Middle Easterners! 😂

@angrytedtalks

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, the Brits are funny; some of the very best comedians. Still making history and learning from the past as others should too.

Hope to see you in London soon :)

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Yes, don't forget to say hi!

Two by four lumber is itself a standardized thing, so it is called that even in other languages. Other imperial units are also still used in many countries unofficially, often it's meant as a kind of imprecise measurement: Gaining a pound of weight is better than gaining half a kilogram, it's about a mile to the station if you can't recall if it is closer to one or two kilometers, and Bob is "little under six feet" unless he is obviously short or it is important to know he is exactly 176cm, such as you are ordering clothes for him, or describing him to the police. Generally these things depend very much on situation and how easy the local word is to use. One of the most interesting old measurements I have heard of is the Finnish peninkulma, which was supposedly derived from how far you could hear the bark of a dog. Officially it is ten kilometers, but I imagine there would have been quite a lot of differences between how big hounds someone had and what kind of landscape and weather affected the distance you could hear them.

Surely u are a history teacher!

I love this stuff! I’ll soon be annoying friends and family with my new knowledge of trivia.

We still use a great deal of these British sayings/idioms here in the U.S. . There’s nothing we love more than something peculiar and british...

You should have sooooo many more subscribers Joolz old boy.. ripping stuff every time, thank you.

i love listen your brithist accent

I saw your 1st. And this one. Growing up in th 60's I have used a lot of the terms. In the USA..

Although most of us use the metric system, there are certain exceptions where imperial system rules now, and will for some decades to come: Tv and computer screens, wheel diameters, 2x4 or any other wooden beam, as mentioned in the video and of course in jeans.

@hlund73

4 жыл бұрын

4 by 2 doesn't actually measure 4" by 2". Jools was also only half right in saying it's sold by the meter too - standard lengths you can buy are 1.8m, 2.4m, 3.6m.... or 6,8 & 12 feet .

@joolz guides - as far as I know the 'leg' was the handle to get the screen on stage open and closed. and when the actors got a long ovation, they would come back to bow again and again, and the screen would be opened and closed... until the leg broke. so the meaning is "have a good show so you would get such applauses until you'll break the leg"

And Bob IS your uncle .... I love your info.. I miss England... Peace to you

@rich7447

4 жыл бұрын

How did you know my uncle was named Robert?

best channel!!

@Joolzguides

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks. It's getting there!

My Mother's favourite expressions during my Surrey childhood was, "Well! I'll go to the foot of our stairs." "Up in Annie's room, behind the clock." "Only God knows and he won't split"

I lived in England from 1991 to 2012 and never learned any of this! 😄👍💛

We say "2 by 4" here in 'Merica.

@stickytourbus

4 жыл бұрын

TheTarrMan I measured a 2x4, it’s not! My whole life is a lie! 😂 Liberty. Constitution. Republic.

@skagerraksoftware2642

4 жыл бұрын

@@stickytourbus It's 2" x 4" rough just, you get the planed version (dressed) shaved down by a 1/16th or so.

@peterebel7899

4 жыл бұрын

@@skagerraksoftware2642 ... like your life, dressed or undressed.

@randyralls9658

4 жыл бұрын

2x4 is 1 1/2" by 3 1/2"

@TheTarrMan

4 жыл бұрын

@@randyralls9658 Yea. . . . Didn't used to be though. Shame!

To add to your imperial system and how you discribed buying a board calling it a 4. By 2 then gave length in meters, I'm sure you already know but here in the states we still would use feet for the length. So we would ask for a 2 by 4 by 8 for instance or 2"*4"*8'

Joolz, Having had a youth filled with a father who worked in the theatre, I have to take issue with your "Break a leg" explanation. Whenever you go to the theatre, you will notice a frame which hides the curtains - the proscenium arch. The vertical sides are called the legs. If you were high enough in the cast you would move infront of the legs to take your bows. If the stars thougght you worth it, they would inviite you to "Break a leg".

The inch is from 3 barleycorns laid end to end. And 1 full US shoe size is 1/3rd of an inch.... or 1 barleycorn.

Frightfully entertaining!