Alarmed

This one falls under the category of "you have got to be kidding".



OK so I am in the elevator, I push the appropriate button for my floor, the door shuts and as the elevator starts to move I hear what sound to be steel on steel grinding. I think to myself, "self I am not sure this is going to turn out so well".

I take a casual but concerned gander at the "lift permit" and all was in order here, not that the problem would be posted for all to see!!!! My guess is the hotel had no idea of the problem.

Then I see it, right at eye level (I never noticed it before and I have stayed at this particular hotel on numerous occasions) was the most comforting and profound set of instructions I have ever set eyes on. Keep in mind the elevator is not acting or sounding right!!!!!!

the sign was this:
"If the elevator door does not open or the elevator becomes inoperable
Please do not become alarmed
Push the alarm button below and wait for assistance"

Only an industrial strength smart guy could come up with that!!! (or an attorney) I just found that to be very humorous at the time when I was becoming alarmed!!

LK

All stove up

I walk out of the room, down the hall, and into the dining room where everyone in our party is seated for breakfast. As I made my way to my seat I made the simple comment that "I'm all stove up". Well you would have thought I was headlining at the laugh factory because Bro. Bradford starts cracking up.

Let me back up a moment and set the whole scene up. We had left LAX at midnight, flew about 4.5 hours to San Salvador, had an approximate 5 hour lay over in the San Salvador airport, flew another 4-5 hours to Lima, Peru. (total traveling was around 20 hours). I was in a foreign country (hot and very humid), a foreign bed, just been on a marathon trip, so with all that in mind I was stiff and sore, hence the comment "I'm all stove up".

Back to the Breakfast table and Bro. Bradford laughing and inquiring where i had come up with that saying because he had never heard it before. I informed him that I acquired the saying from my dad. My dad would use the saying to inform us that he was sore or stiff and it was kinda painful to move until he loosened up a bit. Well Bro. Bradford was still trying to figure out how the words "stove up" meant stiff or sore, when the definition of stove is a heating appliance or heating room, etc.

I have heard this saying as long as I can remember so I never really thought about where it came from, how others may use it, or maybe some like Bro. Bradford and have never heard it used before. So I did a little research and this is what I have found:

From word-detective.com:
Before I explain that "nautical" reference, a few words about "stove" itself. We're not talking Betty Crocker stoves here: "stove" is an archaic form of the past tense of the verb "stave" (and a participle, or adjective, based on that verb). To "stave" something is to break up or puncture it, originally in the sense of smashing a wine cask by breaking the "staves," or wooden slats, from which the cask was constructed. Thus something which is "stove" has been punctured or damaged, often a "stove boat" which has had a hole poked in it by running aground on rocks or other impediments.
A boat that has been "stove in" or "stove up" has been rendered utterly useless, and this same sense is carried over to the more general landlocked use of "stove up" as a synonym for "worn out" or "run down." As I said, I'm sure this phrase is used often in Maine, but since it's also heard in rural settings all over the country, it's classified as a general American colloquialism. The first written citation for "stove up" listed in the Oxford English Dictionary comes only from 1901, but since the literal sense of "stove" applied to boats has been traced back to 1850 (in a work by Herman Melville, not surprisingly), the metaphorical phrase has probably been in use in seafaring communities a good deal longer than that 1901 citation would indicate.

The above from word-detective is best I could find but I am still searching and asking the "Old folk".