Riot Act

On Sunday, Shelly came upstairs complaining that she had been pushed against a door and gotten a doorknob in her back.  Upon further questioning, all I got were more offenses by the other child involved.  When I went downstairs and after I had gotten other said child in quite a bit of trouble, I heard the 'other side of the story.'  I realized that Shelly had conveniently left out vital parts of the story, and subsequently rather firmly informed her of future consequences of lying (the kind of lying that involves telling only half a story to get the other person in trouble whilst avoiding trouble for yourself).  When I went upstairs and told Mark all that occurred, I informed him that I had 'read Shelly the riot act, but only read, not actually did anything.'  As I stuttered my way through that, I realized that I had no idea what that saying actually meant, and if it implied anything more than 'reading.'  So I decided to look it up (thank you Al Gore for inventing this awesome information database now know as the internet - or thank you wikipedia, one of the two) and now I'm going to share it with you!

So the saying is based on a Riot Act of 1715 (at least I think that's the year).  It basically says that a group of more than 12 individuals gathered in a rowdy and destructive manner can be dispersed forcibly within one hour of being given notice (hence the 'reading' part).  There were some other cool parts (like if injury or death occurs people involved in the dispersing are exempt from prosecution, and in at least one version it fines the neighborhood to help pay for damages - which incentivizes them to help quell riots, stuff like that).

So I guess I actually did 'read her the riot act' and I didn't have to add the part about only reading it, and not doing anything about it yet...

Now you know! :)