May 20, 1958

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Joel Byers

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1958 the city of High Wycombe, England performed their annual weighing of the mayor. This custom dates back to 1678 where the mayor is weighed in full view of the public upon assuming the office of mayor and then weighed again at the end of his term to see if he’s been getting fat at the taxpayers’ expense. The annual weigh-in is performed by the local ‘macebearer’ in traditional costume and he rings a bell as he calls out the weight. The macebearer calls out the weight by announcing the original weigh-in value of the mayor and then shouts “And no more!” is the mayor weights the same or less and the crowd cheers as a sign of their appreciation for the hard work done by the mayor for the community. However, if the macebearer adds the words, “And some more!” the crowd cheers and boos at the mayor for his getting fat at the publics’ expense. I wonder if we should start this for all of our elected officials.

[Facebook] [MySpace] [Twitter] More »

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
This entry was posted in 20th Century, Historical Facts and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *