THE CAT'S PAJAMAS XXXV

Tad Tuleja

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases

ON THE BALL

Among the greatest attractions of medieval fairs were the traveling acrobats who treated provincial audiences to such novelties as high-wire balancing, juggling, and "ball walking." This last feat involved balancing on a large wooden ball while "walking" it around the fair grounds through the crowd. The ball walker was a doubly skilled specialist, for sometime early in the twelfth century one enterprising practitioner decided to increase his appeal by reciting scripture passages while he "walked." By Chaucer's time, nearly all ball walkers did the same, many of them displaying prodigious feats of memory - including reciting entire books of the Bible by heart. Thus to be on the ball in medieval England meant to be mentally and physically adept.