[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to
travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff. 

Britney Spears

 

Waiting for inspiration is like standing at the airport waiting for a train.

Anonymous

 

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

Derek Bok

 

Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a
little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of
accumulates...

Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell

 

Intelligence is like a four-wheel drive. It allows you to get stuck in more
remote places.

Garrison Keillor

 

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

George Bernard Shaw

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Near miss

 

The expression near miss is often used when two aircraft avoid a mid-air
collision. This seems patently illogical, because a near miss is surely a
hit, and therefore a near hit is a miss and should be used instead. However,
the online Oxford English Dictionary gives a definition aligning with the
common usage. 

 

The overuse of near ... became controversial with near miss, a nonsensical
version of near thing; some of us patiently but uselessly pointed out that
the writer meant near hit. Near miss has since entrenched itself as an
idiom. - On Language By William Safire, The New York Times, 2 Jan. 2005.

 

Near miss has indeed become an idiom and idioms by definition don't make
literal sense, however infuriating that may seem. In this case, opponents
may argue that near means "close", so near miss can be interpreted to mean
an accident that has only narrowly been avoided or in which catastrophe has
been barely averted. Our thoughts may at once jump to aircraft incidents
when we hear it, but near miss is also used in the same sense in healthcare,
firefighting and other areas where risk of accident exists.

 

It did appear occasionally in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth,
but the records show a massive upsurge from the start of the Second World
War in 1939. That's because near miss was a technical term of the military
to identify a bomb or shell that missed the target but which exploded close
enough to it to cause significant damage. This is a very early case:

 

The Admiralty stated this evening that "as a result of a near miss during an
enemy bombing some days ago H.M.S. Eclipse was damaged but is now safely at
her base." - Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica), 20 Apr. 1940.

 

After the war, the term continued in widespread use but lost the implication
that damage had been caused. Its popularity may have been helped by its
being shorter than near collision, a much less used but acceptable
alternative that has been known since the middle of the nineteenth century:

 

Allusion had been made to a near collision with a vessel at Spithead, but
this was the first time it had been insinuated that the captain was
intoxicated at the time. - Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle
(Portsmouth), 30 Oct. 1852. The captain in question was in charge of an Isle
of Wight ferry.

 

If anyone would like an historical justification for near miss, this may
suffice:

 

Lord Wellington happening to be with us, a shot ... carried his cocked hat
completely off. Our colonel remarked to him, "That was a near miss, my
Lord;" to which he replied, "Yes, and I wish you would try to stop them, for
they seem determined to annoy us." - The Autobiography of Sergeant William
Lawrence, published posthumously in a version edited by George Nugent
Bankes, 1886. The incident happened during the Peninsular War in 1813,
though the colonel's phrase might be the invention of the editor.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

The ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. 

 

The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period
from 1347 to 1351. 

 

The first country to abolish capital punishment was Austria in 1787. 

 

The first modern Olympiad was held in Athens in 1896. 484 contestants from
13 nations participated. 

 

The first US Marines wore high leather collars to protect their necks from
sabres, hence the name "leathernecks." 

 

The first-known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000
BC. 

 

The House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, won England's 'War of
the Roses.'