Bread, Confusion and just general Tom Foolery

Hello All,

I am sitting here watching the people outside of my office window, as they peer inside at some form of entertainment. I look back to the computer and, like a shot, I travel through some time warp to a London hospital proposed for the deprived, suffering, and homeless; its name, Bethlehem, in Hebrew, the “House of Bread.” In 1405, a report of the Royal Commission, stated of the lunatics confined there as it began to be used partly as an asylum for the insane. The name Bethlehem became shortened to Bedlam in popular speech, and the confinement of lunatics there gave rise to the use of this word to mean a “House of Confusion.”

"I understand this!"

Bedlam, founded in 1247 as a priory in Bishopsgate Street, for the order of St. Mary of Bethlehem, by Simon Fitz Mary, an Alderman and Sheriff of London. Early in the 16 century, the word Bedlam was used by Tyndale to mean a madman.

"Huh?"

The stance of succeeding generations of Englishmen toward the insane is traced interestingly at Bedlam. An old English word, “a Bedlam” signifies one released and licensed to beg and was known as Bedlamers, Bedlamites, or Bedlam Beggars. In the 17 century, it became the custom for the lower classes to visit Bedlam and observe the antics of the insane patients as a novel form of amusement. The audience’s favorite “performers” were often nicknamed Tom Fool, which popular nickname came to be applied to the antics of the asylum residents, and then its meaning was softened to mean “silly behavior” in general.

In the 1930's, Hollywood California picked up on this information. The rest is in typical Hollywood Horror History.
With many daily achievements behind me, I find the time to enter this portal. Productivity? I have done this, so,

"What's this Tom Foolery?"

"There is no Tom Foolery, only some Tim Bloggery- going on here!"

I could not think of another topic for the day; therefore, we had a little lesson in Etymology.

Reach