Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/14

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Subject: [Leica] codswallop
From: Johnny Deadman <john@pinkheadedbug.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 11:23:19 -0500

on 2/13/01 8:20 PM, Henry Ambrose at digphoto@telalink.net wrote:

> What is codswallop anyway?

As far as I know it was a patent medicine in Britain in the late 1800s/early
1900s. I think it was a kind of cod liver oil or something that purported to
be good for you (and no doubt tasted vile) but actually had no effect
whatsoever. Anyways, as a result Cod's Wallop as it was known colloquially,
became a kind of byword for stuff that was supposed to be good but wasn't,
if you see what I mean. It's all a load of Cod's Wallop!

I know this because I made a film about the foundation of the British
National Heatlth Service to celebrate the 50th anniversary, and one of our
interviewees was an extraordinarily old pharmacist who knew all about the
stuff. (The coming of the NHS put a lot of patent medicines out of business,
but the pharmacists did very well).

This has been a public service announcement.

- -- 
John Brownlow

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com