h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Total guess:
Cricket balls are made from leather round a cork
center, so a "Corker of a shot" would be one which
exposed the cork?
The main thing against this theory is that this is
"English slang" and there doesn't seem to be one
person in the entire country who can hit the thing,
let alone produce a corker

Cock up, I've just heard on the radio, comes from sailing when the sails were not furled properly and lookad a right mess. But if you've got your gun cocked I will agree with you

The "bitter end" is apparently another sailing term. Ropes which had attachments on them to fix them to "bits" had a "bitter end" which was the very end of a very wet rope.

Snorter
Possibly refers to the way in which some people make a snorting type noise when laughing?

Just checked with websters online and they say it's
1 : one that snorts
2 : something that is extraordinary or prominent : HUMDINGER

so I'm not sure if my idea is correct at all, but it sounds probable

I heard that the term was similar to Vintage - IE if you'd had a good crop of grapes, made a great wine, then bottle it up( Cork it) and keep it.

Sorry - I was talking about Corker.

P.S - Celebraties names are making a big apperance in slang these days. Some you've probably heard though..

Gregory Peck - "Right pain in my gregory"
Roger moore - "He's just walked out the Roger."
Brad Pitt - "I really need a brad"
Alan Whicker - Knickers - Or money. Which is sometimes called nicker. Don't know why though.
Sharon Stone - "His Misses is still on the Sharon"

has anyone discussed 'taking the mikey/michael' (it's a more polite way of 'taking the piss' - if that's possible...)?

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You've missed out another use for 'bugger' - when asked if how much of a task you have done / completed, the answer can be 'bugger all' - nothing.

I has always assumed that this was a phrase used by all English speakers but having worked for a US company, discovered they were utterly mystified by this - a shame really, since it is a useful word / explanation.

The brass on the uniform also created the term Brass Hat - High ranking officer. We always used to call these guys "scrambled eggs" in the RAF because the metallic colour on the hats looked like scrambled eggs. Usage - "That Rupert (officer) has some serious scrambled egg there!"
or "Who's the arsebiscuit (just a general insult we invented) with the scrambled egg?"
We also commonly referred to people as Nato Potatoes (boring), far too Colemans (keen as mustard), Growbags (green and full of shit) and many others.

as rare as rocking horse shit?
well rocking horses don't shit, but if you had one that did, the shit would be pretty rare and unusual, wouldn't it?

I've heard a slightly different version.
The cannon balls were made of brass as they wouldn't rust and could be polished but as cannon balls are round they'd roll away if the monkey didn't have a small ridge around the edge to hold them on. During a storm or rain the cannon balls would get wet and when that water froze and expanded, as it does when bursting pipes, it pushe dthe cannon balls apart until they rolled over the ridge.

I've heard a slightly different version.
The cannon balls were kept on plates (Monkeys) which made of brass as they wouldn't rust and could be polished and would protect the wooden ddeck, but as cannon balls are round they'd roll away if the monkey didn't have a small ridge around the edge to hold them on. During a storm or rain the cannon balls would get wet and when that water froze and expanded, as it does when bursting pipes, it pushed the cannon balls apart until they rolled over the ridge.
I've also heard that the plates were called monkeys as it was onr of the jobs of the powder monkey to keep them polished

Ah! The 'brass monkeys' thing. Apparently the phrase has nothing to do with cannon balls, as I suggested earlier. It's likely that was just an explanation somebody came up with to 'clean up' the phrase. I've since come across something that says the phrase has been used as 'cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey', suggesting it has more to do with anatomy than artillery.

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Besides Bob´s your uncle , that was a mistery for a long time, do you where did:
Pull the other one its got bells on orginated. I understand the context. And also: Sorry virgina there is no Santa claus?

in stoke everyone calls each other duck do you agree?

Hmmm. I don't think I know everyone in Stoke...

you know what i mean it is quite common!

I'm happy to take your word for it

Where do you live then near stoke?