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"Rub of the Brush"

One of the few pastimes I still am able to pursue with any regularity is to watch old films on Turner Classic Movies. I often stay up until 2-3am watching an old movie or two. While his habit may wreck havoc with my sleep, it does give me one way to garner a sense of normalcy during times of stress.

A film I had not seen for probably 20-25 years, and did not really watch that closely then, was "The Westerner". This 1940 epic staring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan was a fairly standard cowboy film on the surface, but actually displayed surprising depth of character (especially for a 1940 film).

Brennan played an old reprobate, judge/bartender in a small Western town. His character was the infamous Judge Roy Bean. It was a wonderful film. An espeically intriguing aspect of the film was a "slang" expression that was used in the film, which apparently was a term of the mid 1800s and is authentic. In the film, Bean, in his bartender duds, is serving a drink to Cooper. Originally they start out in a more antagonistic role with each other, but over time become more friendly. As a means of celebrating the newly developed friendship, Bean offers Cooper a different drink, which he then says is a "rub of the brush". They both nod and proceed to drink (an enormous quantity for a movie... perhaps half of a fifth each.

When I heard the expression, I immediately presumed it was a variation on the "hair of the dog that bit you" sort of theme. But, because I thought the term sounded especially entertaining and a bit archaic and quaint, I decided to investigate further. What I found was interesting indeeed:

Rub of the Brush = A beverage made from the remains of drinks in a bar.

[grin] This made me smile enormously, for it fit so well into the Brennan character (Bean). Being a frugal bartender, when he would collect glasses to clean, he would pour the contents left behind into an empty bottle and then proceed to drink them himself when the bottle was full. Economy, frugality, conservation, all rolled into one, with drinking to boot! Quite a fun phrase, and one I shall remember from now on.

Perhaps some day, that novel I have always been meaning to write will come true. And, perhaps I shall strive to write a western, instead of a detective novel. If so, I want to be sure to have a character in it that would use the "rub of the brush" phrase as well.

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We have been making some significant changes in my mother's medication to keep the fluid build up under control. I hope it works and I hope that we can keep her healthier during the holidays. We are playing it day-by-day, and hope simply for homeostasis.

Because of several difficult and impossible issues around the family, I am not going to the funeral with my wife. She is going instead with her brother and sister. She will not be home until likely around 11:30pm.

PipeTobacco