Re: The Great Exhibition opened, London (1-5-1851)

 Ar an dara lá de mí Bealtaine, scríobh Ross Clark:

 > [...] More interestingly, one of the new industrial wonders of the
 > Exhibition was--- pay toilets! Designed by George Jennings, and apparently
 > referred to colloquially as "monkey closets", they cost one penny to use.
 > Whence the expression "spend a penny", which survived longer than the
 > Crystal Palace.

On its last legs now, I would say, but I don’t watch much British TV lately.

I wonder if there an online resource for dying English phrases. I remember the
Duden Oxford German-English dictionary translated „futsch sein“ as ‘to be gone
for a Burton’ and when the phrase came up in a German conversation exchange
locally I realised the latter phrase has no currency locally.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)