Chewin' the Fat
So when we were sniffin’ around for a new name for the newsletter, when we were drawn to the old colloquialism - “Chewin’ the Fat.” There are a few theories about the origin of Chew the Fat:
- Perhaps it’s a derivative of “Chewin’ the Rag” – In the late 1800’s, soldiers would chew a piece of cloth (“the rag”) when they ran out of tobacco. Naturally, they’d be bitchin’ about the absence of tobacco at the same time (ragging?”).
- Elizabethan lore that farmers kept a haunch of smoked pork hanging by their kitchen hearths. On rainy or snowy winter days when no fieldwork could be done, the family and visitors would sit around the hearth talking, and slice off slivers of pork to "chew the fat."
- In the far North, it is suggested that the term has to do with the preparation of caribou hide. Native women used to chew the scraped and smoked hides to increase the flexibility of the garments made there from. Since it would take hours to soften an entire hide, this became a social pastime involving several women in their "spare" moments.
Another guess is that this expression was originally a nautical one: Sailors working their jaws on the tough salt pork rationed out when supplies ran low constantly grumbled about their poor fare while literally chewing the fat."
Seems there are two themes that continue to emerge: chatting and bitchin'. Hey - wait, that’s us!!
We are here to listen to you and talk about what matters to you. We love to hear from you and what is on your mind. Talk to us, we don’t bite…