Were the holes in Life Savers put there on purpose to prevent kids from choking on them? Or was it just a gimmick that had a “happy accident”. Also, why do people say “bless you” when someone sneezes, but nothing if they cough. I remember it as a Black Death thing, but I am not sure.
If you just sneezed, bless you.
The Great Mope
Lifesavers were picked for their cute appeal. The whole “invent a candy with a hole to prevent choking” story was not even invented until forty years or so ater the candy came out. (And the hole has never coincidentally saved any lives, either. When your throat spasms around an object lodged in it, it contracts (attempting to expel the object) to the point where no air would pass through the center hole, anyway–even provided you could line the hole up in the vertical position when you decided to choke on the candy.)
IIRC People used to think sneezing was your soul trying to escape. “Bless You” would be a way from preventing the escape.
As for the holes in lifesavers, I’d think that they make more money by using less candy and it still has the big circular form (imagine there was no hole but the same ammount of candy were used)
I wondered that very same thing today (about the sneezing)!
I have allergies so I sneeze alot. Everytime I do, it’s a sure thing that one of the women in the office (usually the ones that have Home Interiors and Beanie Babies decorating their cubes) says “Bless you!” which has ALWAYS irritated me, and I don’t even know why. I guess becuase I find it to be a kind of intrusion - I’m minding my own business, doing my work, my body performs a basic function, and next thing I know people from all over the office are shouting greetings at me that I must acknowledge. Of course, it’s never just one sneeze, and then I really get irritated, because then I know I’m going to be wasting more time waiting for the “bless yous” and then will have to do the obligatory “thank you”. It also bothers me because if I am on the phone or have my headphones on, I may not be able to hear or respond to the “bless you” and then I’m afraid I will appear rude because someone ten cubicles away will not know why I did not respond.
It finally occured to me, besides the fact that I feel like it’s an intrusion, it bothers me because it’s the only normal bodily function I know of that people think they have to acknowledge. I then wondered to myself how these people would react if, everytime they went to the ladies room to take a dump, I ran in there and shouted “bless you!” with every kerplunk? And I don’t think it’s the warding off disease thing, because I don’t remember hearing anyone goodnaturedly calling out “bless you” every time I barfed when I had that stomach virus last year!
I guess I’m just an old curmudgeon (can women be those?) but I HATE the bless you thing and wish it would just go away!
Save those blessing and redeem them for valuible merchandice.
I only need 300 more blessings to get that Angel Bomber Jacket from the catalog!
According to SDSTAFF Songbird in the aptly named column Why do we say “God bless you” after a sneeze? it was pope Gregory the Great who instigated the practise. I’m not convinced though, but I haven’t been able to find evidence to the contrary.
[sigh]
When will these people learn to use the archive?
The “Bless you” thing seems much more prevalent among Americans than say, Canadians. When I lived in Canada, we rarely said it. But here in 'Merica one sneeze can invoke scads of “bless yous” from total strangers.