Straight From The Hart
By Joan Rowden Hart
In the April 18, 2012 edition of the Lebanon newspaper, Associate
Judge Steve Jackson, speaking at the local Kiwanis club, is quoted as
saying: “One branch of our government is the judiciary, but really it
is based upon words and concepts and ideas and principles that are in
written and spoken words. We live in a time right now when there has
never been a bigger danger to those principles because we have
students graduating every single day that can’t read or write.”
Judge Jackson added that people do not know the language well enough
to carry on this country. “I think it’s very, very important that we
get a handle on this. If we go much farther, that’s going to start
becoming a real problem,” Jackson said.
I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read that article because it
really struck a nerve with me. There are always exceptions, but most
young people nowadays seem incapable of communicating either through
the written or spoken word. Even if they know the language, they
mangle it by mumbling instead of articulating it clearly.
Words are so incredibly beautiful, and I have always loved them, but
it was my favorite teacher,Veda Esther Smith, who lit a spark that
has been an eternal flame as far as my enjoyment of the English
language. I even remember the first phrase she taught in class which
caught my attention, “pyrrhic victory”, and that’s been over sixty
years ago.
I was very fortunate upon graduating from high school to obtain
employment with a man who loved words and phrases as much as I do.
John F. Low was the consummate communicator, and taking dictation from
him stretched my brain cells about as far as they could go.
Both of us were also in agreement on spelling. We had zero tolerance
for misspellings and typographical errors, and I still do. There are
some misspelled words on signs around town that just make me cringe
every time I drive by them.
Mr. Low was often asked to speak at various organizations about the
etymology of words and phrases, and he and I would collaborate on
getting his speech together. And if you think that sounds tedious
and boring, I can assure you that his speeches were always very
interesting and full of humor.
Nothing is funnier than the English language, as in “A blackberry is
red when it is green”.
After his death, when I was doing lots of public speaking, I was
occasionally asked to give similar speeches.
My favorite Sunday afternoon activity long before we had cable
television was to watch William F. Buckley, Jr. on PBS just to listen
to the words he used.
I have made it a lifelong habit to learn the origins of some of the
words and phrases we use. One of my favorites is the word “sabotage”,
which came from the time when Europe was becoming industrialized, and
the workers who wore wooden shoes, or sabots, would throw them into
the machinery when they became fearful the machines would take their
jobs.
Back in the old days before incubators and warm hen houses, chicks
couldn’t be raised in the winter, and chicks born during the spring
brought a premium price during the summer. But sometimes farmers
would try to pawn off a chicken from the previous season and buyers
knew from the tough meat that it wasn’t a “spring chicken”. So now
anyone who is past the tender age of youth is described as being no
spring chicken.
As a teaching preacher, I was always fascinated by the story of the
scapegoat found in Leviticus 16:8 where the Hebrew priests were to
take two goats, kill one for a burnt offering, and then take the other
goat, the scapegoat, symbolically bearing the sins of the people, out
into the wilderness and push it over a cliff. To this day, there is
always someone, especially in the political arena, who is trying to
make somebody else a scapegoat.
Frontiersmen found that when the blade of an ax flew off the handle,
due to shrinkage or decay of the wood, that it was a danger to the
user and everyone nearby. Now when we say that somebody flies off the
handle, we mean that everyone in the vicinity of their temper tantrum
stands to get hurt in some way.
In the early days of rural America, political parades were usually
held at night, with lots of noise and the carrying of torches. When a
man carried a torch in such a parade there was no doubt but what he
was wholeheartedly behind his candidate. Now we speak of an ardent
lover “carrying a torch” for the love of his life, exhibiting his
passion for that person.
In rural Europe, a person who was so poor they could not afford shoes
was said to have cold feet. A gambler wanting out of a game would let
it be known that he had cold feet, signifying he was broke. Now
whether you are talking about someone not wanting to go through with
their wedding, or planning to change jobs, etc. you say that person
got cold feet.
English doctors many years ago were not allowed to dissect a human
body unless it was that of an executed criminal. So many physicians,
needing to know more about human anatomy, would only dissect one
cadaver during their entire career. He prized the skeleton highly and
didn’t want to dispose of it, but public opinion would not allow him
to hang it where it could be seen.
So he would hang his prize in a dark corner of a closet. But most
patients knew their doctor had a skeleton in his closet even if
neither he nor they ever mentioned it. Now we use the phrase “a
skeleton in the closet” to indicate hidden evidence of any kind.
By Joan Rowden Hart
In the April 18, 2012 edition of the Lebanon newspaper, Associate
Judge Steve Jackson, speaking at the local Kiwanis club, is quoted as
saying: “One branch of our government is the judiciary, but really it
is based upon words and concepts and ideas and principles that are in
written and spoken words. We live in a time right now when there has
never been a bigger danger to those principles because we have
students graduating every single day that can’t read or write.”
Judge Jackson added that people do not know the language well enough
to carry on this country. “I think it’s very, very important that we
get a handle on this. If we go much farther, that’s going to start
becoming a real problem,” Jackson said.
I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read that article because it
really struck a nerve with me. There are always exceptions, but most
young people nowadays seem incapable of communicating either through
the written or spoken word. Even if they know the language, they
mangle it by mumbling instead of articulating it clearly.
Words are so incredibly beautiful, and I have always loved them, but
it was my favorite teacher,Veda Esther Smith, who lit a spark that
has been an eternal flame as far as my enjoyment of the English
language. I even remember the first phrase she taught in class which
caught my attention, “pyrrhic victory”, and that’s been over sixty
years ago.
I was very fortunate upon graduating from high school to obtain
employment with a man who loved words and phrases as much as I do.
John F. Low was the consummate communicator, and taking dictation from
him stretched my brain cells about as far as they could go.
Both of us were also in agreement on spelling. We had zero tolerance
for misspellings and typographical errors, and I still do. There are
some misspelled words on signs around town that just make me cringe
every time I drive by them.
Mr. Low was often asked to speak at various organizations about the
etymology of words and phrases, and he and I would collaborate on
getting his speech together. And if you think that sounds tedious
and boring, I can assure you that his speeches were always very
interesting and full of humor.
Nothing is funnier than the English language, as in “A blackberry is
red when it is green”.
After his death, when I was doing lots of public speaking, I was
occasionally asked to give similar speeches.
My favorite Sunday afternoon activity long before we had cable
television was to watch William F. Buckley, Jr. on PBS just to listen
to the words he used.
I have made it a lifelong habit to learn the origins of some of the
words and phrases we use. One of my favorites is the word “sabotage”,
which came from the time when Europe was becoming industrialized, and
the workers who wore wooden shoes, or sabots, would throw them into
the machinery when they became fearful the machines would take their
jobs.
Back in the old days before incubators and warm hen houses, chicks
couldn’t be raised in the winter, and chicks born during the spring
brought a premium price during the summer. But sometimes farmers
would try to pawn off a chicken from the previous season and buyers
knew from the tough meat that it wasn’t a “spring chicken”. So now
anyone who is past the tender age of youth is described as being no
spring chicken.
As a teaching preacher, I was always fascinated by the story of the
scapegoat found in Leviticus 16:8 where the Hebrew priests were to
take two goats, kill one for a burnt offering, and then take the other
goat, the scapegoat, symbolically bearing the sins of the people, out
into the wilderness and push it over a cliff. To this day, there is
always someone, especially in the political arena, who is trying to
make somebody else a scapegoat.
Frontiersmen found that when the blade of an ax flew off the handle,
due to shrinkage or decay of the wood, that it was a danger to the
user and everyone nearby. Now when we say that somebody flies off the
handle, we mean that everyone in the vicinity of their temper tantrum
stands to get hurt in some way.
In the early days of rural America, political parades were usually
held at night, with lots of noise and the carrying of torches. When a
man carried a torch in such a parade there was no doubt but what he
was wholeheartedly behind his candidate. Now we speak of an ardent
lover “carrying a torch” for the love of his life, exhibiting his
passion for that person.
In rural Europe, a person who was so poor they could not afford shoes
was said to have cold feet. A gambler wanting out of a game would let
it be known that he had cold feet, signifying he was broke. Now
whether you are talking about someone not wanting to go through with
their wedding, or planning to change jobs, etc. you say that person
got cold feet.
English doctors many years ago were not allowed to dissect a human
body unless it was that of an executed criminal. So many physicians,
needing to know more about human anatomy, would only dissect one
cadaver during their entire career. He prized the skeleton highly and
didn’t want to dispose of it, but public opinion would not allow him
to hang it where it could be seen.
So he would hang his prize in a dark corner of a closet. But most
patients knew their doctor had a skeleton in his closet even if
neither he nor they ever mentioned it. Now we use the phrase “a
skeleton in the closet” to indicate hidden evidence of any kind.
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