Mind Your P's and Q's
When somebody tells you to "Mind Your P's and Q's," they probably got it from one to two places. One place was the old schools printing presses, where the letters were opposite of what they would be on the page. The letters P and Q were easily and often confused, so to mind your P's and Q's meant to pay close attention to the minor details.
But for you folks that love the spirited beverages, such as myself, this one may be more interesting. Back in the day in the old English taverns, the bartender was completely responsible for watching how much his customers drank (had to cut folks off way back then, lol). By using a slate or a talley sheet behind the bar, the bartender would mark P for Pint and Q for Quarts so that he could monitor their intake, and also see how much money he was making. Having that, when patrons got out of hand, the bartender would yell "MIND YOUR P's and Q's" in order to restore peace to the establishment.
Help somebody learn something new every day!
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