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ZombieDarwin 7 year s ago
#21 FFS! The needle being referenced to is not a knitting needle, as pictured! The needle is the name of the very small door in the large gate that controls access to a town or castle. When the gate was closed, the only way in or out of the town was through this very small gate, just barely big enough for an adult male to squeeze through. At the time, camels would enter the town laden down with goods, doubling or even tripling their width. Thus, the typical camel would be unable to go through the needle unladen, and absolutely impossible for a fully laden camel to do so.
       
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Funny 4 year s ago
#7 Wrong. The phrase predates the First World War by around a hundred years.
       
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yahooshoot

Break the ice

Commence a friendship or break off a conflict.

Back before the massive infrastructure projects that produced the sprawling road system with have today, ships were the primary form of transport and trade. During the winter, ships would get stuck in ice formations and the destination country would send smaller ships out to ‘break the ice’ and allow the larger transport ships free.

Feel free to use this fact as a chat up line. To ‘break the ice’ so to speak.

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