Friday 23 September 2022

HELLS BELLS!


The exclamation 'Hell's bells' has been used in both the UK and the USA since at least the mid-19th century. The earliest example of it in print that I can find is from the weekly London sporting newspaper The Era, February 1840. The rather fanciful story concerned a character who had stolen his friend's partridges and replaced them with pigeons, claiming them to be ptarmigan:

"To be sure that's a ptarmigan - a sort of white grouse.
Ptarmigan be d----d. Hells bells!"


The expression came into common use in the first half of the 20th century and, in 1932, the Australian soldier Joseph Maxwell's used it in the title of the mémoire of his experiences during WWI - Hell's Bells and Mademoiselles. This title was echoed later by George Melly who published his experiences of the Royal Navy in WWII under the title of Rum, bum and concertina.

I like that explanation from The Phrase Finder and also the reference to "Rum, bum and concertina". Maybe I can use that in a comment on one of Robert's silly anti-LGBQT posts sometime.

The reason for this 'Hell's Bells!' post stems from a comment that Robert made on my 'Sex and Music' post:
That's funny - or, it would be if it was said in jest but, unfortunately Robert is serious. This is just another example of the infantile drivel he puts out after being fuelled by trite nonsense from the latest sermon at his Catholic church on Sunday. Really! Is this what the average Catholic Joe thinks or is it just Robert? If not I hate to think that these people leave the church to drive motor vehicles, bring up children, educate other people's children, clean our houses and vote. Are we safe?

Richard, whether reacting to Robert's comment, or any one of his other silly religious comments said this in his latest post:



I think that Robert gets a kinky thrill thinking about the devil trying to deceive him into giving in to lust. There's nothing wrong with that though - "chacun à son goût" I say - or would have when I was studying French at university and could pronounce it properly. Anyway, here's a music video clip for Robert to satisfy his 'soul'.    PRINCIPLES OF LUST



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2 comments:

Richard (of RBB) said...

I feel like I'm inspiring your posts.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Inciting more like.