midwestgak 3/22/2020 6:59:12 AM

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Yummy brunch, Kosh. Thanks.

Off to work I go.  How many different  excuses will I hear today how some people just cannot do with one loaf of bread or one 32-pack of bottled water, etc?

I politely explain to the uncivil customers that refuse to abide by the recommendation that the reason they can buy the bread, water, etc. today is because we are limiting the items.

Laters.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 7:08:09 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 7:11:11 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 2:

I'd agree, with the caveat that our doing so depends on what power grabs are emplaced under the cover of the coronavirus panic.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 7:12:57 AM

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lucius septimius 3/22/2020 7:17:05 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 2:

But Orange Man Bad!!!

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 8:20:55 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 8:38:29 AM

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I hope Kenneth shows up.  He responded to my initial dissection of "Oliver Twist," but I added something in #47 on Friday that I'd forgotten to include.  

Not to overly beat a dead horse, but that entry is important because it debunks one of the gay-rights movement's most frequently-asserted lies; that the anti-homosexual pejorative "faggot" derives "from homosexuals being burnt at the stake during the Middle Ages," a claim for which there is no proof whatever.  It's one of those exaggerations-of-oppression to which the Left is reflexively prone, whether it is the gay-rights movement exaggerating the number of homosexuals sent to camps by the Nazis during the Holocaust (and, again, inventing the burnt-at-the-stake fairytale), the women's-rights movement exaggerating the number of witches allegedly burnt at the stake, or the black-history-month promoters glossing over and erasing the history of black achievement and success from the late 19th century up to the advent of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

The term "faggot" and its abbreviation "fag" is a derivation from the British public-school system, its practice of having the younger boys serve the elder, and the sexual abuse that frequently resulted from this system.  The name "Fagin," and the fact that he was the headmaster of a criminal (i.e., perverted) "school for boys" is an oblique reference to this.

If leaders/spokespeople of the gay-rights movement know this, they have chosen to conceal it in favor of promulgating the burnt-at-the-stake myth. It would not surprise me, however, if most of them did not know it; they certainly don't seem to know the 19th-century derivation of the word "gay," as it is applied to homosexual behavior.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 8:47:39 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 8:48:42 AM

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In #8 Occasional Reader said: people’s preferred pronouns.

The pronouns belong to the people!

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 8:48:43 AM

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In #7 buzzsawmonkey said: Not to overly beat a dead horse

Is there an optimal level of dead horse-beating?

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 8:49:44 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 2:

That's uncharacteristically optimistic coming from you, but I think you're right. buzz also has a point about the disinformation and naked power grabs coming from the left. I am not looking forward to seven more months of Democrats blaming Trump.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 8:50:35 AM

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In #10 Occasional Reader said: Is there an optimal level of dead horse-beating?

Just enough to tenderize the skin for eventual tanning. Makes nice, supple cordovan shoes.

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 9:00:35 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 7:

I have looked at thousands of inquisitorial cases.  In the very, very rare cases (and here I'd say less than 1%) of the cases where "sodomy" is given as the crime, in none of those cases did this involve homosexuality.  In all but one case, the crime was bestiality; the exception was where "sodomy" was used to describe a particularly scandalous heterosexual couple's activities.  The fact is (and this fact is frequently deliberately obscured by soi-disant "queer" scholars) "Sodomy" was simply shorthand for sexual excess.  I should add that there is a small group who are trying to claim that whenever men were persecuted as witches it was because they were somehow "feminine" with the implication, and sometimes the overt claim, that they were gay.  There is no evidence whatsoever to support this claim.

A similar bit of folk-etymology is the term "Cracker."  I've heard it said that whites were called that because they "cracked" the whip punishing "enslaved persons of color."  It's not true:  "Cracker" is English seventeenth-century slang for braggart; it is related to the phrase "to crack a joke." Nevertheless, the slave-master derivation is what's taught in schools despite being demonstrably untrue.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 9:02:17 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 8:

That's another thing that I am hoping will change with the pandemic. The pettiness and self-absorption of the Left are even more obvious when there's a real life or death situation going on. The virus doesn't care what color you are what type of private parts you have. The SJWs need to shut up while grownups are talking.

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 9:05:33 AM

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In #14 doppelganglander said: The pettiness and self-absorption of the Left are even more obvious when there's a real life or death situation going on. The virus doesn't care what color you are what type of private parts you have.

I suggest that all the Trump-bashers refrain from taking the medications when they become available.  Since they criticized Trump for suggesting it, let them put their money (or their health) where the mouth is.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 9:05:50 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 9:13:59 AM

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In #13 lucius septimius said: A similar bit of folk-etymology is the term "Cracker."  I've heard it said that whites were called that because they "cracked" the whip punishing "enslaved persons of color."  It's not true:  "Cracker" is English seventeenth-century slang for braggart; it is related to the phrase "to crack a joke." Nevertheless, the slave-master derivation is what's taught in schools despite being demonstrably untrue.

I've heard that derivation.  

I'd once thought there was a possibility that it derived from the practice of rendering turpentine, often done in remote backwoods camps, a process known as "cracking," and which might, logically, be therefore applied to the backwoods workers in "cracking-camps."  That is apparently wrong, but it still makes more sense than the overseer-whip legend.

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 9:28:14 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 17:

As with many terms and usages, it reflects how American English is in many ways closer to late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century British English, much in the same way the "Pennsylvania Dutch" is, essentially, seventeenth-century Rhenish German.  

There is a rule in language study about the conservatism of the periphery.  One classic example of this is the Beowulf story.  Though set in sixth-century Denmark, the major elements are not found in Danish sources.  It does appear, however, in the colonial settlements of England and Iceland.  The tale was forgotten at home but perpetuated among Danes who had wandered abroad.  

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 9:29:18 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 15:

I like that idea. I'm sure you saw MSN's hysterical "two grams of hydroxychloroquine can kill you!" article. My only worry is that mass distribution might have an impact on my ability to get my regular dosage each month.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 9:40:07 AM

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Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 9:41:53 AM

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In #11 doppelganglander said: That's uncharacteristically optimistic coming from you,

Really?  I don’t think of myself as being all that pessimistic, and can’t recall when I’ve been on the pessimistic side of things at this forum.

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 9:43:48 AM

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In #19 doppelganglander said: I like that idea. I'm sure you saw MSN's hysterical "two grams of hydroxychloroquine can kill you!" article. My only worry is that mass distribution might have an impact on my ability to get my regular dosage each month.

I only saw Fox's reply in which health professionals bashed CNN for saying it. "Any drug will kill in too high doses. Even too much water will kill"

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 9:47:25 AM

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In #18 lucius septimius said: the Beowulf story

To Beowulf, or not to Beowulf?  That is the question...

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 9:50:21 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 18:

Somebody posted the song "Poke-Salad Annie" on WZ.  Nice song, but the title is usually written as "Polk Salad"---it even appears that way on the original single.  

The term is obviously "poke salad," i.e., stuff you pick up and put into a "poke," which is a longtime term for a sack, a bag or, occasionally, a pocket---but the use of "polk salad" has apparently become general.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 9:51:06 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 21:

I guess I think of you as somewhat pessimistic because you are very safety-conscious and therefore always well prepared for any contingency. You have to think about the worst-case scenario sometimes to recognize potential threats. That's not the same as pessimism, of course, and I apologize if you feel I've mischaracterized you. I think we all indulge in some doom and gloom around here at times - right before the 2016 election, for example.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 9:51:30 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 20:

Make your own chloroquine at home in your spare time!  Chlorox bleach mixed with tonic water!

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 9:58:59 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 24: 

Poke salad is traditionally made with Poke Weed, a plant that if eaten raw is poisonous, even deadly.  If prepared correctly, though, poke is quite edible and very nutritious.  My back yard is full of the stuff in the spring, though I've never cooked it.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 10:00:33 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 27:

If the term "poke weed" is general, then the mislocution "polk salad" is even more incomprehensible.

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 10:04:40 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 28:

Poke salad is poor people food -- one of the things people ate in the spring when the rest of the food had run out and it was too early for the first harvest.  Similarly chickweed, nettles, dandelion greens (all of which I have eaten) and fiddleheads.  

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 10:10:05 AM

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In #29 lucius septimius said: Poke salad is poor people food -- one of the things people ate in the spring when the rest of the food had run out and it was too early for the first harvest.  Similarly chickweed, nettles, dandelion greens (all of which I have eaten) and fiddleheads.  

This is "Cleaning-for-Passover" season, which traditionally kicks in right after the just-past holiday of Purim.  

I have tried to get people to understand that, back in the old---well, not that old---pre-refrigeration days, when you relied on your stored food to get you through the winter, Purim was actually the Spring-cleaning kickoff; you drank up everything that had become fermented, you used all the stored stuff that was starting to go off to make/stuff cakes  and tarts and pastries and the like, and this fest of fermented (i.e., "chometz") food was the beginning of clearing the house of fermented/leavened stuff for the upcoming Passover.

For some reason, they don't teach this natural-human-life-cycle stuff in traditional Jewish instruction.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 10:21:19 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 30:

I knew about the pre-Passover cleaning, but I hadn't thought about the rest of it. It should be taught - it gives context to the tradition and affords insight into how Jewish communities lived. After all, isn't the point of tradition to preserve the connection with the past and affirm your group identity? Without that, it's just a lot of work.

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 10:23:34 AM

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In #30 buzzsawmonkey said: For some reason, they don't teach this natural-human-life-cycle stuff in traditional Jewish instruction.

The further we move from our agrarian roots, the more people lose sight of the connections between liturgical cycles and the growing season.  I always used to say that the reason that there are so many Christian holidays between the beginning November and the end of January is because, Lord, you need them during the winter.  Besides that, they are also about eating up all the perishables.  The Lenten fast is to conserve what is left while letting the stock recover.  Lamb is a traditional Easter dish because it's the first meat you've been able to take since the winter slaughter.  Likewise, you only start having eggs again after you've got enough chicks to keep a good stock of laying hens.  

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 10:44:36 AM

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In #32 lucius septimius said: Lamb is a traditional Easter dish because it's the first meat you've been able to take since the winter slaughter. 

The Passover sacrifice was, traditionally, a lamb.  And, of course, there is the "Lamb of God" symbolism attaching to the Crucifixion. 

However, eating lamb for Passover has long been forbidden by rabbinical edict, as one was not supposed to do something akin to the Passover sacrifice when there was no Temple to perform it.  

With that in mind, many if not most Orthodox households replace the traditional lamb shankbone which is supposed to grace the Seder plate with a chicken wing.  That seems odd, but in pre-refrigeration days it made perfect sense; if you were not supposed to eat lamb for Passover, lest it appear you were offering an unauthorized sacrifice, it was foolish and wasteful to kill a lamb for a mere symbolic shankbone, when the lamb would probably go off by the time you were permitted to eat it.  

The chicken wing (or, possibly, goose wing in the old country) would be a spare-able piece of the animal slaughtered for the festive meal, and it would still symbolize the deliverance celebrated by Passover.  The Haggadah speaks of the "mighty hand and outstretched arm" of God in the Passover deliverance; the Hebrew word for this "outstretched arm" is "zroah," which is the same word used for the lamb shankbone.  The poultry wing is also an "outstretched arm" of a sort, so it meets the requirement---at least, the requirement-in-exile---more or less.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 10:52:47 AM

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By the way, it would not surprise me if lamb was also forbidden as Passover fare precisely because it became traditional Easter fare.

By the same token, I believe that the whole blood-libel of Jews using the blood of Christian children for Passover matzos has its genesis not only in the Easter story itself, but in the fact that Host wafers would have been rolled out in preparation for the Easter holiday using standard rolling-pins, while matzos are rolled out using spiked rolling pins that are reminiscent of the crown of thorns, and the matzos thus produced are not smooth and white like Host-wafers, but are instead covered with puckered little brown dots (the point of the spiked rolling-pins is to let the air out so as to minimize the chance of the dough rising) that are reminiscent of blood-scabs.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 11:02:52 AM

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doppelganglander 3/22/2020 11:03:06 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 34:

I saw gluten-free matzos at the grocery store the other day. I had no idea that was a thing.

The church I used to attend had gluten-free wafers, but you had to ask for them when you got to the head of the communion line. It required an altar server to go get the container so it held up the line for a few seconds, and I tended to feel bad about disrupting the flow. Eventually the priest remembered and when he saw me he would remind the altar server, so it got better. 

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 11:13:30 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 11:24:14 AM

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In #37 doppelganglander said: Several cities, including mine and the City of Atlanta, have shut down eat-in restaurants, for example.

KEEP CALM

AND

CARRY OUT

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 11:29:08 AM

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In #25 doppelganglander said: and I apologize if you feel I've mischaracterized you

Oh, no apology necessary, I was just a little surprised. I do like to think of myself as being moderately on the preparedness side, but I don’t think of myself as a pessimist.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 11:41:33 AM

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In #38 buzzsawmonkey said: KEEP CALM AND CARRY OUT

+++++++

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 11:48:56 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 38:

OMG.  You need to copyright that. That is brilliant.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 11:53:08 AM

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In #41 Occasional Reader said: OMG.  You need to copyright that. That is brilliant.

Thanks, but sadly the Copyright Office (even if it's open, which is doubtful at the moment) doesn't accept registrations for short phrases.  Had I an active CafePress account it might make some money, though.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 11:53:39 AM

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I am having a cheeseburger and beer for lunch. And I must say:

https://youtu.be/hzeOaJPZt3I

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 12:00:18 PM

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doppelganglander 3/22/2020 12:08:27 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 44:

People really have been exceptionally nice. I popped into a small store the other night and everyone politely lined up six feet apart, or as far apart as they could given the size of the store. It's a lot like the days after 9/11.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 12:40:10 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 45:

But was anyone in that line assuming anyone else’s gender?!

/concerned face

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 12:40:57 PM

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In #46 Occasional Reader said: But was anyone in that line assuming anyone else’s gender?!

What if someone had a hidden, uh, gender?

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 2:10:15 PM

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Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 2:17:25 PM

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In #47 buzzsawmonkey said: What if someone had a hidden, uh, gender?

If xe kept it hidden for long enough, it could result in a sequel to this book:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_Everlasting

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 2:44:55 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 48:

Cuomo angling for the nomination would be a logical explanation for his recent praise of Trump.  He's certainly lusted after it for some time, and this might indeed be his lever for achieving it.  I wouldn't bet against the possibility, though thinking of it makes me shudder uncontrollably.

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 3:26:32 PM

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In #50 buzzsawmonkey said: though thinking of it makes me shudder uncontrollably.

Is he worse than any of the other democrat candidates? And I guess the corollary to that would be, does he have a better chance of winning in the general election.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 3:29:34 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 50:

It's horrifying, but think of the schmaltz the Dems could pour on - Andrew fulfilling his father's lost dream of the presidency, yada yada. I get the impression Mario is still revered in certain quarters. Meanwhile, CNN would make Brother Chris their Chief Campaign Correspondent or some such thing. I have half a mind to contact the Trump campaign and suggest they begin oppo on him, stat.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 3:34:58 PM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 52:

The other half of my mind is pointing out that Cuomo and Trump have developed a good working relationship here and it would be wrong to disrupt that because it would cause immense harm to the people of New York, not to mention making Trump look petty (which, let's face it, he is). There's no doubt in my mind Cuomo and the Dems would go after Trump, so it's best for the campaign to be prepared, but hold fire for now. But the second Trump even gets the whiff of a hint of Cuomo's presidential ambitions, he might undo all the good he's done with his handling of the crisis. It's a hell of a dilemma, and I'm sorry I even thought of it.

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 3:35:02 PM

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In #52 doppelganglander said: I have half a mind to contact the Trump campaign and suggest they begin oppo on him, stat.

They probably are already on it. Although I do have a contact in the MA for Trump organization.

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 3:39:32 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 51:

He's certainly no worse, and in some respects better, than the current field. He does have executive experience. I don't like the potential abuse of civil liberties he's proposing, but not all of his ideas are terrible, and that sort of bold action appeals to Democrats and some swing voters. The more I think about it, the more I think his chances are excellent. How close is he to the Clintons?