And a nuther thing...

1
A Friend's Facebook Reply

My friend Adam commented on Facebook on my post here:

"Adam Kenyon Very nice, Charles. My reaction?:

I especially like the cigarette as a sacrifice, which on one hand is comical, but on the other, a touching gesture; a confrontation of how subjective are our sensibilities and not because of our religious systems as much as our geography.

Wherever they touch, all cultures and systems taint and refresh one another. They bleed and breath into each other. They live and thrive and die not independently, but tied together.

All that said, you had me at "nuther."  "

I like the juxtaposition of "taint" and "refresh." There's a sense that Western culture is always and everywhere an invasive species, or a violation of the Prime Directive, or ugly or shallow or unrefined or ill-mannered. And it is often those things, but it is just as often (and hopefully more so) just the opposite, and I think other cultures can be equally tainted or refreshing. It's up to a discerning populace to decide what's worth adopting and what's not.[1]

[2012-10-02]

2
Full-Proof

I learned the origin of the word "full-proof" from Prof Thomas Madden in Heaven or Heresy - A History of the Inquisition. It was coined during the Inquisition and meant that evidence in capital cases (which could result in the death penalty) must have at least two witnesses; ie, the proof in the case must be complete or full.

I've been looking for an etymological connection between full-proof and foolproof, but haven't found it; I checked my Compact OED to no avail; they are in any case similar in meaning - eg, infallible, unbreakable, complete, final.

However, sometimes an etymology "sounds right" but is very wrong.

Example: I heard a tour guide at Mount Vernon (George Washington's home) say that "toaster" came from toe+stir because toast was prepared in those days in an iron device suspended over a fire that you turned by the toe of your shoe.

As interesting as that sounds, it's very wrong.

-er is an English suffix indicating agency (baker, reader, writer, etc). The etymology of toast is here.

[2012-08-28]

3
Old Joke

A man approaches his minister and says, "I'm not sure I buy that whole Jonah and the whale story, pastor. I mean, how could Jonah survive in the belly of a fish?"
Minister: "I don't know. When I get to heaven, I'll ask him."
Man: "What if he's not there?"
Minister: "Then you ask him."

--Bishop Fulton J Sheen; heard on the radio 2012-09-30

[2012-09-30]

c0

[1]
I know it's not that simple; I struggle with the colonization of native peoples and terrible atrocities they endured. Every nation powerful enough to impose its will does just that. I'm referring here to the inevitable encounter all cultures have with each other in a digital age and the personal (and corporate) responsibility that entails.

c0