[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as
an Airport' appear.

Douglas Adams

 

We make too many wrong mistakes.

Yogi Berra

 

I have nothing but respect for you - and not much of that. 

Groucho Marx

 

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.

Dan Quayle

 

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it
takes to sit down and listen.

Winston Churchill

 

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look
respectable.

John Kenneth Galbraith

 

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Kangaroo court

 

A kangaroo court is one that's illegal, not properly constituted or is
manifestly unfair or unjust and in which the likelihood of the prisoner's
being found guilty doesn't depend on the evidence.

 

You might reasonably assume the term is Australian - only in that country,
after all, does one find kangaroos. But the term is definitely American,
with no known links to Australia apart from the animal's name. What's more,
the early history of the term is almost totally opaque. Under such
circumstances, folk etymology thrives.

 

It has been suggested that it comes from the habit of kangaroos out in the
bush of staring fixedly at human intruders for minutes at a time and that
settlers might have connected this to the unwavering assessing stare of
judge and jurors at a trial. Others argue that it might have come from a
vicious streak that cornered kangaroos are reported to display. It has been
seriously put forward that a prime characteristic of the first kangaroo
courts was that they hopped unpredictably from place to place or that the
prisoner was bounced from court to gallows. Or it might have been that
kangaroo courts defied the laws of nature, just as the kangaroo's appearance
and hopping gait does.

 

As for the facts? This is where the problem arises. Until recently, the
first example was recorded in a book by the pseudonymous Philip Paxton
(whose real name was S A Hammett) in 1853 in A Stray Yankee in Texas: "By a
unanimous vote, Judge G____ was elected to the bench and the 'Mestang' or
'Kangaroo Court' regularly organized". In September 2007 an earlier example
was reported by Stephen Goranson of Duke University from The Mississippian
for 12 January 1849 but referring to an event the month before: "On the
evening succeeding the election, a meeting was gotten up somewhat in
imitation of a 'Kangaroo Court,' for the purpose of trying three
individuals, (not all of who had voted for Taylor,) on charges preferred,
that one of them, H____, is ever loudest to proclaim his democratic
sentiments, but has never been known to vote for one of the party for any
office, from President down."

 

The kangaroo court in the first example was an unofficial legal institution
set up on the frontier at a time when the regular law didn't reach so far -
much like the lynch law of the previous century on the other side of the
continent. The association may have been between the unruliness of the body
and that of the kangaroo, since the mustang, a half-tamed horse, was also
invoked. The second example also suggests an ad hoc body (and also that the
term was even then well enough known in Mississippi that it didn't need
explaining). On the other hand, the next examples don't appear until the
1890s and most of those refer to mock courts organized by prisoners in jails
to deprive new inmates of their money. The term must have been fairly common
around 1850 to appear in newspapers in different states, so the long gap is
puzzling; either it wasn't that widely used or it died out, only to be
rediscovered or reinvented later.

 

Many people like to see something in the closeness of the date of the first
example to that of the gold rush in California in 1849. Many Australians
came to seek their fortune there (it was easier for them to get to the
American west coast by sea than it was for Americans coming from the east
coast overland or around Cape Horn). It is suggested that informal courts
were held in the gold diggings to control illegal prospectors, who were
called claim-jumpers, and that the association of ideas between jumping and
kangaroos was too strong to resist. But this story is refuted by the
Mississippi discovery, since that state is a long way from California and
the newspaper report predates the gold rush.

 

We're now less sure about the answer than we were before the Mississippi
citation turned up. Such is etymology.

 

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What famous American inventor ran twice for mayor of New York City--in 1836
and 1841-- and lost both times?

A: Samuel F. B. Morse.

 

The "Noisy Serpent" was the nick name for what invention in 1902?

A:  Vacuum Cleaner

 

Christopher Cockerel invented the what?

A:  Hovercraft

 

What was "the best thing", patented in 1954?

A:  Sliced bread

 

Who is credited with inventing the television? 

A: John Logie Baird

 

What sporting equipment did Fred Waller patent?

A:  Water Skis

 

Edison's first practical invention was what?

A: Tick a Tape for stock market