A Toast to You!

I’m from that generation of folks where many of us made the weekly trek down to our local independent movie house to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show. I wasn’t one of the gung ho folks dressing as the characters or walking in armed with water guns or pieces of toast, but I did know all of the lines in the movie and the accompanying audience lines yelled back at the screen.

One of my favorite parts was the section where a toast is made and suddenly audience members would scream out, “A toast…..a toast!” Some folks would reach inside bags they had brought in with them and fling real pieces of toast at the screen.

I love a good wine…..I love a good toast among friends even more, so I got to thinking that I might want to look up some well worded toasts and have on hand to use during dinner parties, etc.

Snopes.com has a great article explaining away a myth involving how toasting evolved from folks clinking glasses in order to slosh a little of their drink into someone else’s afraid that someone in the group might be poisoned. It sounds good in theory, but…..it’s not the real reason.
Like most customs the real reasons evaporated years ago and might not ever be known, but one theory holds that the modern toast began as a way to honor the female sex, and it was often done with innuendo.

I love a play on words, so maybe that’s why I like the custom so much.

Here are some well worded toasts that don’t necessarily have anything to do with innuendo, but I like them:

1. May opinion never float on the waves of ignorance.

2. May we live to learn and learn to live well.

3. May we live in pleasure and die out of debt.

4. May we look forward with pleasure and backwards without remorse.

5. Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

Helpful anniversary toasts can be found here with links in the sidebar to other toasting occasions.

Some toasting etiquette is given here.