[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[VHFCN1 Pilots and Crew]

The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block.

Inigo DeLeon

 

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer

 

Leave it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination.

Calvin in "Calvin and Hobbes"

 

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my
room.

Woody Allen

 

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects
such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern
art.

Tom Stoppard 

 

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

Jane Austen

 

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Laughing-stock

 

A figure or object of ridicule and laughter.

 

Laughing-stock is now usually written as a single hyphenated word, but it
was previously the two-word phrase, 'laughing stock'.

 

It's moderately old and there are at least two citations of it dating back
to the 16th century. John Frith's, An other boke against Rastel, 1533:

 

"Albeit ... I be reputed a laughing stock in this world."

 

and Sir Philip Sidney's, An apologie for poetrie, 1533:

 

"Poetry ... is fallen to be the laughing stocke of children."

 

The age of the phrase may be the reason that it is often linked with the
practice of putting people into stocks as a punishment. The stocks were a
means of punishment in use at the time the phrase was coined, by which
people were tortured or ridiculed. Victims were held by having their ankles,
and occasionally the wrists too, trapped in holes between two sliding
boards. The punishment, although not as harsh as the pillory, in which
people were confined by the neck, was severe and certainly not intended to
be humorous.

 

More recently, it's become commonplace at school fairs and charity events to
put volunteers into stocks and pillories and throw wet sponges at them. This
is for humorous effect of course and has no doubt added to the idea that
'laughing-stock' originated this way.

 

The stock in question isn't that though. It refers to the meaning of stock
as 'something solid that things can be fixed to', that is, a butt or stump.
So, 'laughing-stock' is just the same as 'the butt of the joke'.

 

It may be that the association between 'laughing-stock' and the practice of
ridiculing people in the stocks grew over time. There's no reference to that
in any of the early citations of the phrase though, and it seems clear that
isn't the way the phrase originated.

 

The last straw

 

The final additional small burden that makes the entirety of one's
difficulties unbearable.

 

The full version of this metaphorical phrase is 'the last straw which breaks
the camel's back', which has an Old Testament sound about it. Searches there
produce many references to straw and camels amongst the smiting and
begetting, but no 'last straw'.

 

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations lists it as a 'mid 17th century
proverb', but offers no supporting evidence for that view. The earliest
citation found is from The Edinburgh Advertiser, May 1816:

 

"MR. BROUGHAM remarked, that if it [a tax on soap] were only 3d. a head, or
4d. and 5d. upon the lower orders, yet straw upon straw was laid till the
last straw broke the camel's back."

 

The last straw that broke the camel's back. Some authorities suggest that
the phrase is a variant on an olde proverb 'it is the last feather that
breaks the horse's back'. That may be so. The earliest found for that is
after 1816 though and, of course, much later than mid 17th century. That's
also from The Edinburgh Advertiser, in November 1829:

 

"It may be very well for Mr. O'Connell, in his own exultation of heart, to
ascribe the success of the Catholic Relief Bill to his 'agitation;' but the
fact is, that 'agitation' was only the cause of Emancipation in the same
sense in which it is true that the last feather breaks the horse's back."

 

Last but not least there is, or rather was in 1843, a merger of the two
phrases. This appeared in The Southport American in October 1843:

 

"And finally, the 'feather which breaks the camel's back' having been added
to Sir Walter's burthen, he was struck down by paralysis, and after
lingering a few months, was gathered to his fathers."

 

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Which American president was the first to have a phone on his desk in the
White House?

A: Herbert Hoover, in 1929. Previous presidents used an enclosed phone booth
in the hallway outside the Oval Office.

 

Who was the first president to wear long trousers rather than knee breeches
to his inauguration?

A: Our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, in 1825.

 

Which president was the first to visit China?

A: Ulysses S. Grant, in 1879, two years after he left the White House.

 

Who was the first president to have the name of his official residence, the
White House , on his stationery?

A: Teddy Roosevelt.

 

Into what three major categories did Thomas Jefferson organize the books in
his library at Monticello?

A :Memory, reason and imagination. Memory covered history; reason included
philosophy, law, science and geography; and imagination included
architecture, music, literature and the leisure arts. Within each category,
books a=were arranged according to size.

 

How many pages long was John F. Kennedy's will?

A: 16. In it he set up trusts for his wife and children.

 

Why was Franklin D. Roosevelt chosen to be portrayed on the dime in 1945?

A: Because of his work on behalf of the March of Dimes and its battle
against polio, the disease that crippled Roosevelt