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A simple way to understand it, is to compare the UK to the USA. The USA is a country made up of states. Each state, with a different name. People can be New Yorkers or Californians and they are Americans. However, not all Americans are New Yorkers or Californians. For the UK, replace the word states, with the words "home nations".
The terms are all derived from the start of a foot race: "On your mark"/"Take your mark"/"Ready" - Get in your lanes, put your toes (or hands if using a starting block) on the line, and prepare to run/swim/skate/bike your butt off.
So your sense of "sod" is on the money. Suffixial "off" marks a general epithet as an insult, as seen in "piss off," "f-ck off," "bugger off," etc., all used in the manner of "please go away." Also note that "sod" in this sense is UK usage only. In US English it only refers to topsoil and turf grass.
When the symbol % is used, there should be no space. When the "percent" word is used, there should be space. Examples from the Chicago Manual of Style Online: Fewer than 3 percent of the employees used public transportation. With 90–95 percent of the work complete, we can relax.
Poor paper quality not writing. From an article published by the same magazine, in 1823, the following extract supports the theory that the term rag was used to refer to the main component of a newspaper, and perhaps, initially, to the substandard quality of the paper used in printing these journals etc. during the 18th and 19th century.
The crux of the problem is that SOS’s cannot serve as both a genitive singular and a nominative plural, because you then run into a brick wall trying to make a genitive plural: ****SOS’s’s*** or some such similar silliness simply doesn’t work.
Early figurative use of "ten-foot pole" The earliest instance I could find of figurative use of "touch [someone or something] with a ten-foot pole" is from "Buying Up the Press," in the [Lawrenceburg] Indiana Palladium (September 22, 1832, reprinted from the Missilonn Gazette), which uses the phrase in a very modern-sounding way:
My take is that if your intent is to add sophistication to your speech in an attempt to avoid using the lowly 'me', then you are incorrect because 'me' (or 'I') IS correct. However, if you have some artistic or poetic intent then 'myself' in a compound subject or object can be acceptable. – Paul Jackson.
In the UK we have another saying in the Same vein "Does Judith Chalmers own a passport?" Of course being the host of a travel program then answer again must be yes. My friends and I took the mash-up one step further to say: "Does Judith Chalmers Sh** on the Pope" –
6) a stick, pole, or rod for aid in walking or climbing, for use as a weapon, etc. 7) a rod or wand serving as a symbol of office or authority, as a crozier, baton, truncheon, or mace. 8) a pole on which a flag is hung or displayed. . . . 11) Archaic. the shaft of a spear, lance, etc. Exactly.