PARVUM OPUS
Number 224
May 3, 2007
______________________________________________
JURY-RIG
Several people corrected me on jury-rig.
Jim S. wrote:
I have a different opinion
on the terms "jury rig" and "jerry rig." I believe the proper term for a temporary
fix, usually on a ship, is "jury rig." I believe that "jerry rig" is a corruption of that
term, possibly relating to Word War II, when Germans were sometime referred to
as "Jerrys". Obviously one could attempt to "rig" a jury
for a court case, but then it would be a "rigged jury."
Bill R. wrote:
"Jury-rigged" is
a standard nautical term -- the oldest use upon which I can lay hands here at
home is Stephen Luce's _Textbook of Seamanship_ (1884) which discusses
"jury anchor, "'jury rudder," "jury mast," and
"jury windlass." John Ciardi (_A Browser's Dictionary_) gives the
derivation from "L adjutare, to help" via "OF ajurie, aid"
(p. 215). At least one web source states, The term "jerry-rigged"
derives from confusion with "jerry-built", implying shoddy
workmanship. (http://www.answers.com/topic/jury-rig ) Bottom line -- rigging a
jury has nothing to do with jury-rigging.
Mike S. sent this (probably from his Oxford English Dictionary):
Naut. (Serving) as a temporary
expedient, makeshift.
jury-leg joc. a wooden leg.
jury-mast a mast put up in
place of one that has been broken or carried away.
jury-rig v.t. supply with
temporary rigging.
jury-rudder a contrivance
taking the place of a damaged rudder.
However,
it has 'jerry-built' (M19, origin unknown), meaning: Built insubstantially from
inferior materials; built to sell but not to last. So the writer of what you
read was perhaps meant jerry-built, but perhaps we're suffering from the sort
of eggcorning that leads to sloppy language.
OK, I'm convinced and have given myself 30 lashes with a wet dictionary page. I was probably also confusing it with gerrymandering. But "jury rig" will always make me think of jury tampering.
Now, what's "eggcorning"?
Mike S. also commented on "of African ascension":
So why not 'ascent'? Or 'ascendancy'? Are we to going to claim to have 'ascended' from our ancestors? Come off it! Slightly off-topic: it occasionally irks me that in computing a hierarchy is often referred to a tree (e.g. directory, or folder, tree) that has its root at the top.
If
you've ever tried to construct your family tree, you know that you can do a
couple of different configurations: make yourself the root, and chart everyone
who came before you and led (up?) to you, or start with an ancestor and chart
everyone who came (down?) from that person. Supposedly we're all related if we
go back 30 generations or so. Instead of being a branch of a tree, maybe we're
more like spores of the biggest
living fungus in the world.
Another entry in the Overblown Out-of-Touch-with-Reality Metaphor category: What does insane sadistic murderer Idi Amin have in common with Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair? According to a British Muslim interviewed on the BBC program I'M A MUSLIM, GET ME OUT OF HERE! (best listened to on the RealPlayer link), they all have made it impossible for Asians to live in their countries. Except of course that Idi Amin kicked them out of Uganda (and many relocated to the UK), whereas in England, some middle-class Muslims are moving to the United Arab Emirate because sometimes people call them names, and there have been some unflattering things written about them since 9/11 and since terrorists killed 52 people in the London subway. Which the disgruntled Muslims interviewed here ignored like an unpleasant odor in an elevator.
Another interviewee compared the discomfort of Muslims in Britain to the persecution of Jews in Europe, saying the next Holocaust victims will be Muslims. The next Holocaust victims are more likely to be victims of jihadists, but no matter.
And of course there is reference to what is called "almost a disease of Islamophobia", the diagnostic word that implies that the fear is irrational and neurotic.
Middle class people with ample assets are the ones moving, because they can afford to, and will get good jobs in the UAE and elsewhere in the Middle East. Though they received their excellent educations in Britain, they feel they "lack opportunity". The least educated among them will be staying in Britain.
Someone said that Muslims are leaving the U.S. too, but I haven't heard anything about it.
However, one man said Britain is still the best place in the world for freedom. Aside from casting my lot with the U.S., I have no argument there. Thanks for noticing.
So what does it matter if cranky people use inflated metaphors? Unfortunately, Idi Amin died peacefully at an advanced age, but anyone would have been justified in assassinating him. Exaggerating the situation in Britain can add to the hostility that persuades jihadists that they are justified in continuing to kill more non-Muslims.
By the way, Ingrid Mattson, the first woman and first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America, in an NPR interview talks about "How to be Muslims in the so-called West" (at about 33 minutes into the interview). Why "so-called"? Are we actually living in the East, but calling it the West out of pure hubris? Has the earth shifted and we haven't been informed? She also referred to "so-called honor killings", which makes more sense, since our idea of honor in the "so-called West" does not have to do with killing female relatives who have broken some sexual taboo, or who were perhaps raped.
About three years ago Dave DaBee started a chat about the meaning of the word "irony", which means incongruity between what is expected and what actually happens. It's often misused, most recently (today) by Joan Baez. The folk singer and antiwar activist was not allowed to perform for soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when John Mellencamp asked her to join him. She now says, "I realize now I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam.... four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony." What irony? It seems like exactly what she should have expected. She is still against violence and is against the Iraq war. Hospital officials aren't talking, aside from saying she doesn't fit there, but she thinks someone might think she was a traitor. Dennis Miller said it might be because most of the young soldiers have never heard of her, and it's not as if she's had any hits lately. I hope she figures it out, and lets the rest of us know.
Jan sent a clipping of a letter in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette from a woman opining that global warming is obviously caused by the extra heat allowed by daylight savings time. It turned out that the letter was a joke, sent by a lawyer named Connie M. Meskimen, but some political hoo-hah ensued nevertheless. A transcription of the letter spells her name "Commie".
A couple of people wrote more about the murders at Virginia Tech. Sue S., who is a nurse, wrote:
It's unfortunate that we
cannot force treatment on mentally ill people for a couple reasons. ... I used
to teach mental patients and use the analogy of a heart attack to explain why
we forced medicine upon them in the hospital. If you saw someone have a heart
attack, would you just stand there and do nothing? Every heart attack damages
the muscle and the sooner you get help, the least permanent damage there is.
The same thing happens to the brain chemistry. If you let it get out of whack
too long, it never comes back 100%.
______________________________________________
Parvum Opus CafePress shop: New: "I am here"; "Someone went to Heaven and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" T-shirts; "I eat dead things" doggy shirt and BBQ apron; Parvum Opus mouse pad; and more!
HUR HERALD
Parvum Opus is
now being carried by the Hur
Herald, a web newspaper from Calhoun
County, West Virginia. See Editor Bob Weaver's interview with me (February 10,
2007 entry), and the PO every week in Columns.
Short Order is a new series of my short stories in 5
1/2" x 8 1/2" booklet format. The first two are available now for $5
each (includes mailing).
/// In Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn, a young
computer guy who dreams of becoming a big-time gambler sets up web sites for
his role model, a real big-time gambler, Stockyard Stan of Kansas City. But
when Carl comes up short on his gambling debts, he finds himself wearing
concrete boots in the middle of a Kansas cornfield. 26 pages.
/// Still Ridge is about what happens when the old-time moonshine business meets up with a predatory modern bottled water corporation. How far will Kate, a newcomer to the mountains, go to protect the water supply? 22 pages.
THIS IS
REALLY NEW! For women who get massage or chiropractic treatment, who
sleep on their stomachs, or have implants, try Rhonda's original Breast Cushion
to take the pressure off. Go to www.keithops.us/cushion.
WHEN SONNY GETS BLUE! Check out the video clips of Sonny Robertson and the Howard Street Blues Band at www.sonnyrobertson.com and www.youtube.com/rondaria, with his new original song, "A Different Shade of Blue".
SEARCH
IT OUT ON AMAZON : It is the glory of God to conceal a
thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2
The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed
of atoms, but stories. The physicist Werner Heisenberg said the universe is not
made of matter, but music.
NEED SOMEONE
TO ORGANIZE A MEETING OR CONFERENCE? CALL KEITHOPS.
Go to Babelfish to translate this page
into Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish!
Parvum
Opus is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services.
Back issues may be found at http://www.keithops.us/.
Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The PO mailing list is
private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive Parvum Opus, please reply
with "unsubscribe," "quit," "enough," or
something like that in the subject line, and I'll take you off the mailing
list. Copyright Rhonda Keith 2007. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced
only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the
copyright remains.