Keep Your Ps and Your Qs Straight

When someone tells you to “mind your Ps and Qs,” you know you’re being told to be careful or attentive to something. There are several theories on the origin of this expression. One goes this way: Centuries ago at British pubs, purchases were tallied up on blackboards behind the bar. Ale was sold in pints and quarts, so it was common on the tabs to list the quantity purchased by customers under the abbreviations “Ps” and “Qs.” If a drinking customer failed to remain attentive to the tally, it was an easy matter for a barkeep to pad the bill, hence the expression “Mind your Ps and Qs.” It’s also possible that bartenders used this phrase to chastise intoxicated customers who were getting out of line. 

Looking At Yourself Through the Eyes of Others

We’re often told to look at ourselves in the mirror, but few of us get the chance to view how the world really sees us. In the case of Alfred Nobel, some people believe the chance came to him through a case of mistaken identity.

 Nobel worked with his father and brothers in their family-owned factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, producing mines and military equipment during the Crimean War. Once the war ended, the company went bankrupt and Alfred and his brothers had to search for new business ventures. Young Alfred began experimenting with a new substance called nitroglycerine and eventually invented dynamite — a product that made Nobel a wealthy, powerful industrialist.

 Though Nobel never revealed his reasons for establishing the Nobel Prizes — the most famous of which is the Peace Prize — many believe that the death of his brother, Ludvig, in France in 1888 may have been the catalyst. When Ludvig died, it is believed that though French newspapers reported on his death, editors inadvertently mistook him for Alfred and ran the headline “The merchant of death is dead.”

 Imagine what it would be like to pick up a newspaper and read a report of your own death and realize that history was not going to be kind to you and your lifetime of accomplishments, which included 355 patents, fluency in five languages, businesses and studios in Europe and the United States. Nobel had long been a friend of Bertha von Suttner, a prominent peace activist. It’s possible that the obituary mishap coupled with his friendship with Suttner led him to establish the bequest for the prizes.