The Barber Pole, Andy Griffith, and the NFL

I still go to an old fashion Barber here in town. (yes, I go and get my hair cut and people who are there waiting wonder why? It's because I like it!) Anyway as I was sitting in the chair early Monday morning, I became intrigued with the Barber pole. You know the red, white, and sometimes blue pole. So I asked my barber about the origin. I thought it was interesting and for those of you who aren't familiar with it. Here it is.

In the Middle Ages, hair was not the only thing that barbers cut. They also performed surgery, tooth extractions, and bloodletting. French authorities drew a fine distinction between academic surgeons (surgeons of the long robe) and barber surgeons (surgeons of the short robe), but the latter were sufficiently accepted by the fourteenth century to have their own guild, and in 1505 they were admitted to the faculty of the University of Paris. As an indication of their medical importance, Harry Perelman points out that Ambroise Pare, "The father of modern surgery and the greatest surgeon of the Renaissance," began as a barber surgeon.
The barber pole as a symbol of the profession is a legacy of bloodletting. The barber surgeon's necessities for that curious custom were a staff for the patient to grasp (so the veins on the arm would stand out sharply), a basin to hold leeches and catch blood, and a copious supply of linen bandages. After the operation was completed, the bandages would be hung on the staff and sometimes placed outside as advertisement. Twirled by the wind, they would form a red & white spiral pattern that was later adopted for painted poles. The earliest poles were surmounted by a leech basin, which in time was transformed into a ball.
One Interpretation of the colors of the barber pole was that Red represented the blood, Blue the veins, and White the bandages. Which has been retained by the modern Barber-Stylist.

If you are asked the question on "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" then don't forget where you found the answer!

Andy Griffith trivia question

Well, the question was a little more difficult than I thought. I had a few people who told me they simply didn't know it and I had one correct answer so far and that was from Howard and Clara. CONGRATS TO HOWARD AND CLARA!

The answer I was looking for was "good ole 14A" or the original title of the song was "Welcome Sweet Springtime".

HERE IS A NEW QUESTION!

In the episode titled "The Manicurist" what was the name of the manicurist played by Barbara Eden? (she was best known as I Dream of Jeannie)

Titans Go 10 and 0. Can they do it? I would love to see it happen but they have some tough games remaining.

They have the Jets at home (who are playing pretty good and they have Brett Favre, from Mississippi)

Then the rest of the schedule is as follows;

at Detroit

Cleveland at home

at Houston

Pittsburgh at home

at Indianapolis

Time will tell!