Simonetta Frittelli's
Annotated collection of favorite
Things to display in a Personal website

The Rule of Thumb

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Thou shall not beat your wife with a stick thicker than your thumb
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-Sheez...
I got this from my husband. (I did!)

Yeah, I've seen it: all the fuss by historians, lawyers, psychologists,
feminists, ethymologists et cetera explaining that the phrase
was not coined expressly for the purpose of alluding to wife beating.
I don't think it was.

But I think that's beside the point, isn't it? Why, the point is that the phrase fits.