It's one that I remember DF using regularly! I was surprised to hear from DH that DF would swear pretty vehemently. He never swore around us, his children, and Sam Hill was about as "colorful" that he would get.

Jim, that's an excellent suggestion. My dad's not in memory care yet, but we've attended (pre-Covid) a few sing-alongs in the memory unit. Just an amateur with her guitar, but it connects the men and women with their old selves for a little while. Maybe with vaccinations coming along, volunteering will be possible in another few months. I can't sing worth a darn, but I can read :-)

Borscht is delicious and while the variety I ate wasn't in a hotel, it was on the "circuit" of DM's meal preparation. The only "belt" involved was a loosening after indulging in helpings of beet soup, served by DM with homemade biscuits.

Could be when the word was taken into English, we mispronounced it. Or maybe it was from a language other than German. Still sounds like an Old Country last name to me. eta: Okay I caved and looked it up. The origin probably came through the Old English, German, or Yiddish word for "chest", spellings (and opinions) vary.