Signatures Under the Weather
Kelly Croff wrote,
"I think you answered this before, but where did the term 'under the
weather' come from? Also, I heard someone say that an autographed item was
'hand signed'. Is the any other way to sign things???
In centuries past,
before people knew about germs and viruses, it was widely believed that bad
weather directly caused illness. So people who were sick and blamed it on the
weather would say that they were “under the weather,” meaning under the baleful
influence of the weather.
Automated signing
machines do a brisk business with politicians, businesses, organizations, and
other activities that require hundreds or thousands of signatures daily. The
machines cost a few thousand dollars, and most of them these days require a
flash memory card or a smart card to store signatures, which provides a degree
of security to the signer. Without the card, an unauthorized person cannot use
the signature.
Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts
Dictionary, 2nd edition
Listen to Mike’s
program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to
wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.
There is a collection of
podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio
button.
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