I remember this one from a prog on tele about the war. It's also for the term, stepping over the line

What is the origin of "drawing a line in the sand"?

What is the origin of "drawing a line in the sand"?

The movie The Alamo when Travis took his sword & drew the line. Of course there are always several versions of origins of most metaphors Shula. Just pick the one you like best. 

Anti-malaria medicine is very bitter.  Not being a gin drinker I don't see how it and tonic could improve on the taste much.

It has nothing to do with the Gin young lady. It's the tonic water that contains the quinine.

I took it for 6 months in Egypt in pill form which I imagine contains more quinine than tonic water. It sure didn't work on stopping dysentery though. Many doctors will recommend tonic water for leg craps. Mine did and it worked wonders.

What is the origin of "drawing a line in the sand"?

In the schoolyards when they were sand before they were asphalted over and the kids still played Red Rover-Red Rover.

A stick was used to make the line with.

She was the last woman to be sentenced to death in GB, the last actual execution took place in 1955. As you say only her age saved her, she was 68 at the time of her trial.

Early in the morning of December 10, 1962, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin still hoped they could avoid being marched to their deaths at midnight. Convicted of murder in separate cases, they were sentenced to hang at the Don Jail in Toronto. But there was reason to be optimistic. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had commuted most court-imposed death sentences to life imprisonment, and the cabinet’s decision on a last-minute appeal was pending. Many in Toronto’s legal, academic, and religious communities were lobbying intensely for the government to step in to reverse the judgment of the courts.

Shortly after noon, however, the news arrived: There would be no eleventh-hour reprieve. The government decided that the hangings would go ahead. Inside the century-old brick-and-stone jail on the east shore of the Don River, the two condemned inmates were reportedly calm in their final hours. Shortly before midnight, they were led to the small converted washroom that housed the gallows. Two dozen men had been hanged in the same room over the years, ever since officials had moved executions indoors to prevent them from turning into public spectacles. With their hands bound behind their backs and manacles on their feet, wearing jail-issued blue pants and grey shirts, Lucas and Turpin stood back-to-back as the hangman slipped a noose over each of their hooded heads. At two minutes after midnight, the hangman sprang the wooden trap door. They were officially declared dead sixteen minutes later. Their bodies were driven across town to Prospect Cemetery, where they were buried side by side in unmarked graves.

In the cutting wind and freezing temperature outside the jail, demonstrators had been picketing for hours. When jail officials posted a notice of the hangings at 12:30 a.m., the crowd surged forward shouting “murderers” and “killers.” Police had to call for motorcycle backup, and there were a few  arrests before the crowd eventually dispersed. Meanwhile, members of the Don Heights Unitarian Congregation were holding a death-watch service in their church. “This ugly thing must be fought,” said Rev. Franklin Chidsey. “I refuse to accept the principle that there is anything such as a legal killing.”

Death row in Toronto's Don Jail before its demolition in 1978. This is where Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin spent their final hours before being hanged shortly after midnight on December 11, 1962.

The outside of Don jail is now used to help create the TV series Murdoch Mysteries.

Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian television drama series that premiered on Citytv on January 20, 2008, and currently airs on CBC. The series is based on characters from the Detective Murdoch novels by Maureen Jennings and stars Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch, a police detective working in Toronto, Ontario in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[1] The series was titled The Artful Detective on the Ovation cable TV network in the United States, until season twelve.

I've said that after staying in some motels over the years Tommy.

No, I signed it Tommy Hinchey and said, send the bill to the Buffalo Police Department because they sent me here under cover to pick up two local hookers which I have to guard in my room all night. 

Yes sir room 204 second floor. Do you need a porter to carry you bag and I said yes and but a 10 tip on the bill for him and yourself also. Oh thank-you Sir thanks for making my first night working here a special one.

If you read my post better you would see no one did pay for the room, the tips or the hookers.

The bill was the hotel bill why are you so confused. You are the weak one Tommy not being able to fight of those advances at the hunting camp.

The bill was the hotel bill why are you so confused. You are the weak one Tommy not being able to fight of those advances at the hunting camp.

Repeat..............cops don't pay bills. Uniforms are called "purchasing clothes." Regarding hunting camp it was easier to be compliant. At least there was no Mon signor there telling me I would go to hell if I told. 

Did you call your Quakers from Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Dutch like we do up here. The groups that came up did well. My sisters husband's family came from their and they have a hard covered book of all their descendants which is at least 4 inches thick. The ones that come first started off mainly in farming.