CHEW THE FAT Q From Steve Haywood: So why do we chew the fat
while we’re talking? The idea I’ve heard that you might hack off
a piece of your bacon for guests as it was curing in the hearth
seems preposterous to me. Surely there’s a better explanation? A
These days we mean by it that people are chatting or gossiping
to pass the time to no very deep purpose. When it first
appeared, though, it meant to grumble or complain. Some
wonderfully literal-minded stories have been invented with which
to explain its origin, especially in North America, where it has
been linked to native peoples, American Indians or Inuit, who
would chew hides to soften them, an activity carried out in
their spare time. The tale you mention first appeared around
1999 in a widely circulated humorous message with the title Life
in 1500 that purports to give the origins of several puzzling
expressions. It still annoyingly pops up from time to time and
has unfortunately been widely taken to be accurate: Sometimes
people could obtain pork and