Boy oh boy… do I love history. It may be passé…. but it often times makes me say… “You have GOT to be kidding me.” Like when you hear about someone trying to tow an ATM machine out of a bank….. albeit recent history… BUT it happened in the past.

At any rate… there have been lots of notable “pasts” in our past. Some of them so significant…. that phrases were designated to mark the event.

So tonight….. I am serving up a few. On a silver platter. It seems appropriate.

How about the word…. Diehard. It has some pretty morbid origins. Well… besides Bruce Willis. You know…. it typically refers to someone with a strong dedication to a particular set of beliefs. But here is the twist.

The term “diehard” originally had a series of much more literal meanings. Way back in the 1700s… the expression described condemned men….. who struggled the longest when they were executed by hanging. I am not kidding.

The longer they hung there…. alive…. the harder they died. Diehard. ( Just remember… no noose is good noose. )

Now here’s another. When someone gives you “the third degree”…. you KNOW you are in for long or arduous interrogation. Like it or not.

But. The saying came about some time ago…. from the Freemasons. They are a centuries-old fraternal organization. You see….. before a member can get in to the higher ranks of the “club”…. he must undergo rigorous questioning and examinations…. before becoming “third degree” members, or “master masons.” Third degree.  (Sidebar. Do you think Freemasons use free mason jars?)

Finally… I am not suggesting you do such. But let’s talk about “painting the town red.” The phrase owes its origin to one legendary night of drunkenness, and we can thank ….. the Marquis of Waterford for it. Yes. In 1837…. that boy from Waterford —a known lush and mischief maker—led a group of friends on a night of drinking through the English town of Melton Mowbray.

They went on one heck of a bender that night. They vandalized Melton Mowbray ….. knocking over flowerpots, pulling knockers off of doors and break-in the windows of some of the town’s buildings. (It SEEMED like a good idea at the time….)

To top it all off, the mob literally painted a tollgate, the doors of several homes and a swan statue with red paint. Yep. That Marquis. Always quick on the draw with a paint brush.  Do you think they called him Marquis Mark?

At any rate.. there you have it. If you paint the town red, and some gives you the third degree about it…. be a diehard…. and stick to your original story. Tell ’em you “red” it here.

“Very deep, very deep is the well of the past. Should we not call it bottomless?”  –  Thomas Mann