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Based on the talent info provided by Blizzard, we updated our Warlords of Draenor talent calculator and the level 100 talents should all be up to date! Balance changes on the other talents will come when we get our hands on the files.
Warlords of Draenor Talents - Level 100 Talents List
You can also find the breakdown of all the new talents in the list below, keep in mind that this is still an alpha and everything is subject to change!
Originally Posted by MMO-ChampionDeath Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Necrotic Plague - A powerful disease that deals XXXX Shadowfrost damage per stack every 2 sec for 30 sec. Each time it deals damage, it gains 1 stack, and infects another nearby enemy within 8 yards if possible. You gain 5 Runic Power whenever a target infected with Necrotic Plague attempts to attack you. Replaces Blood Plague and Frost Fever, and is applied by any ability which applied either.
- Defile - Defiles the ground targeted by the Death Knight, causing XXXX Shadow damage every 1 sec for 30 sec. Each time Defile deals damage, it increases in area and damage by 5%. This growth can occur a maximum of 3 times per second. Enemies standing in your Defile deal 10% less damage to you. Replaces Death and Decay. 1 Unholy, 30 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
- Breath of Sindragosa - Continuously deals XXXX Shadowfrost damage every 1 sec to enemies in a cone in front of you within 12 yards, and affects them with Mark of Sindragosa for 6 sec. You will continue breathing until canceled or Runic Power is exhausted. Mark of Sindragosa causes you to be healed for 5% of spell damage dealt by afflicted enemies. 15 Runic Power, plus 15 per sec, Instant, 1 min cooldown
Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Sunfall (Balance) - Entering Solar Eclipse will transform your Starfall spell into Sunfall and reset its cooldown.
- Lunar Inspiration (Feral) - Moonfire is now usable while in Cat Form, generates 1 combo point, deals damage based on attack power, and costs 30 energy.
- Guardian of Elune (Guardian) - Savage Defense now lasts 4 sec, and increases your chance to dodge by 100%.
- Moment of Clarity (Restoration) - Omen of Clarity now lasts 5 sec, instead of 1 cast.
- Middle
- Insect Swarm (Balance) - Swarm the target enemy with insects which deal XXXX Nature damage every 3 sec for 15 sec. Each time that it deals damage, it also generates 5 Lunar or Solar energy, whichever is more beneficial to you. May only be cast while not in an Eclipse. 2,688 Mana, 40 yd range, 1.5 sec cast
- Bloody Thrash (Feral) - Thrash now also applies the Rake bleed effect to all damaged enemies and awards 1 combo point if it strikes your current combo target.
- Pulverize (Guardian) - A devestating blow that consumes 3 stacks of Lacerate on the target to deal 500% weapon damage, generate 30 Rage, and reduce damage taken by 20% for 10 sec. Melee Range, Instant, Requires Bear Form
- Germination (Restoration) - You can apply two Rejuvenations to the same target.
- Right
- Savagery (Feral) - Savage Roar is now passive.
- Bristling Fur (Guardian) - You bristle your fur, reducing all damage taken by 50% for 3 sec. Instant, 1 min cooldown
- Rampant Growth (Restoration) - Swiftmend now consumes your own Regrowth or Rejuvenation, but has no cooldown.
Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Flaming Shots - You light your basic auto shots on fire. They now deal 80% weapon damage as Fire damage.
- Middle
- Focusing Shot - Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 100% weapon damage and prepares focuses you, generating 50 Focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces Steady Shot and Cobra Shot. Also triggers Steady Focus for Marksmanship Hunters. 40 yd range, 3.00 sec cast, Requires Ranged Weapon
- Right
- Versatility (Beast Mastery) - Increases the effect of your pet's Combat Experience to 70% increased damage. Your pet now gains the following abilities, regardless of its active spec: Spiked Collar, Roar of Sacrifice, Cornered, Boar's Speed, Last Stand, Blood of the Rhino, Great Stamina.
- Lone Wolf (Marksmanship, Survival) - Increases all damage dealt by 30% when you don't have a pet active.
Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Overpowered (Arcane) - Casting Arcane Missiles extends Arcane Power by 2sec.
- Kindling (Fire) - Your Fireball, Pyroblast, and Inferno Blast critical strikes reduce the cooldown remaining on Combustion by 1 sec.
- Thermal Void (Frost) - Casting Ice Lance extends your Icy Veins by 2 sec.
- Middle
- Prismatic Crystal - Conjures a prismatic crystal at the target location, which is attackable by only the Mage, and takes 30% additional damage. When the crystal takes damage, it instantly releases a burst of energy dealing that damage, split evenly between all enemies within 8 yards. 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
- Right
- Arcane Orb (Arcane) - Launches an Arcane Orb forward from the Mage's position, traveling up to 40 yards, dealing XXXX Arcane damage to enemies it passes through. Grants the Mage an Arcane Charge every time it deals damage. 1,600 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 15 sec cooldown
- Meteor (Fire) - Calls down a meteor which lands at the target location after 3 sec, dealing XXXX Fire damage, split evenly between all targets within 8 yards. Also burns the ground, dealing an additional XXXX Fire damage every 1 sec for 8 sec to enemies in the area. 1,600 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 45 sec cooldown
- Comet Storm (Frost) - Calls down a series of 7 icy comets on and around the target, each of which does XXXX Frost damage, split between all enemies within 4 yards of its impact point. 1,600 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Soul Dance (Brewmaster) - You are now able to shrug off even spells, such that 30% of your normal stagger amount works against magic damage.
- Breath of the Serpent (Mistweaver) - Your Jade Serpent Statue breathes healing mists toward you, healing allies in a cone within 20 yards for XXXX every 1 sec, split evenly between them. Lasts 10 sec. Instant, 1.5 min cooldown
- Hurricane Strike (Windwalker) - Unleash a rapid series of kicks toward random enemies within 12 yards, dealing a total of XXXX damage over 2 sec. While kicking, you are immune to movement impairing and loss of control effects. 3 Chi, Instant, 45 sec cooldown
- Middle
- Chi Explosion (Brewmaster) - Consumes up to 4 Chi to cause the target to explode with Chi energy, causing additional effects based on Chi consumed. 1 Chi, 40 yd range, Instant
- 1+ Chi: Deals Nature damage to an enemy equal to XXXX plus XXXX per Chi consumed.
- 2+ Chi: You also gain Shuffle for 2 sec plus 2 sec per Chi consumed.
- 3+ Chi: Also purifies all of your staggered damage.
- 4 Chi: The damage also hits all enemies within 8 yards of the target.
- Replaces Blackout Kick.
- Chi Explosion (Mistweaver) - Consumes up to 4 Chi to cause the target to explode with Chi energy, causing additional effects based on Chi consumed. 1 Chi, 40 yd range, Instant
- 1+ Chi: Heals an ally for XXXX plus XXXX per Chi consumed.
- 2+ Chi: Healed allies also receive an additional 50% healing over 6 sec.
- 3+ Chi: This healing also heals all allies within 8 yards of the target.
- 4 Chi: Also summons 8 Healing Spheres in an 8 yard radius ring around the target that last 15 sec.
- Replaces Blackout Kick. Chi Explosion is Instant while in Stance of the Spirited Crane.
- Chi Explosion (Windwalker) - Consumes up to 4 Chi to cause the target to explode with Chi energy, causing additional effects based on Chi consumed. 1 Chi, 40 yd range, Instant
- 1+ Chi: Deals Nature damage to an enemy equal to XXXX plus XXXX per Chi consumed.
- 2+ Chi: Damaged enemies also take an additional 50% Nature damage over 6 sec.
- 3+ Chi: Also generates a charge of Tigereye Brew.
- 4 Chi: The damage also hits all enemies within 8 yards of the target.
- Replaces Blackout Kick. Combo Breaker: Blackout Kick is also replaced with Combo Breaker: Chi Explosion, which causes your next Chi Explosion to refund 2 Chi.
- Chi Explosion (Brewmaster) - Consumes up to 4 Chi to cause the target to explode with Chi energy, causing additional effects based on Chi consumed. 1 Chi, 40 yd range, Instant
- Right
- Chi Serenity (Brewmaster, Windwalker) - You enter an elevated state of mental and physical serenity for 10 sec. While in this state, all Chi consumptions are instantly refilled. Instant, 1.5 min cooldown
- Path of Mists (Mistweaver) - While in combat, you leave a trail of healing spheres behind you as you move, spaced 3 yards apart. These healing spheres last 15 sec.
Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Beacon of Faith (Holy) - Mark a second target as a Beacon, mimicking the effects of Beacon of Light. 60 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
- Empowered Seals (Protection, Retribution) - Your Seals also cause your Judgment to empower you with an additional beneficial effect which persists through changing Seals:
- Judgment of Justice - Increases your movement speed by 10% for 20 sec.
- Judgment of Insight - Heals you for 3% of your maximum health every 2 sec for 20 sec.
- Judgment of Righteousness - Increases your attack speed by 10% for 20 sec.
- Judgment of Truth - Increases your attack power by 10% for 20 sec.
- Middle
- Beacon of Insight (Holy) - Places a beacon of insight on an ally, increasing their healing recieved from your next direct single-target heal within 1 min by 30%. When consumed, or when the target reaches full health, it moves to the most injured ally within 40 yards. Limit 1. 320 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 15 sec cooldown
- Seraphim (Protection, Retribution) - The Light temporarily magnifies your power, increasing your Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Multistrike, and Bonus Armor from gear by 30% for 10 sec. 5 Holy Power, Instant, 30 sec cooldown
- Right
- Saved by the Light (Holy) - When you or your Beacon of Light target drop below 30% health, you instantly grant the injured target a protective shield, absorbing up to 30% of their maximum health for 10 sec. You cannot shield the same person this way twice within 1 min.
- Holy Shield (Protection) - Increases your block chance by 10%, and when you block, you deal XXXX Holy damage to your attacker.
- Final Verdict (Retribution) - Empowers your weapon with holy energy, and performs a devastating strike, dealing 210% weapon damage as Holy. Replaces Templar's Verdict. 3 Holy Power, 10 yd range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon
Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Clarity of Will (Discipline) - Shields the target with a protective ward, absorbing XXXX damage within 20 sec. 5,600 Mana, 40 yd range, 2.5 sec cast
- Clarity of Purpose (Holy) - Heals allies within 10 yards of the target for XXXX, split such that more injured targets will receive a larger portion of the healing. Replaces Prayer of Healing. 5,600 Mana, 40 yd range, 2.5 sec cast
- Clarity of Power (Shadow) - Your Mind Spike, Mind Sear, and Shadow Word: Death deal 40% additional damage to targets not affected by your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch. Casting Mind Spike also restores 5% mana and reduces the cooldown of Mind Blast by 1 sec.
- Middle
- Words of Mending (Discipline, Holy) - Your healing and shielding spell casts grant you a stack of Word of Mending. When you gain 5 stacks of Word of Mending, your next targeted healing or shielding spell also casts a Prayer of Mending at them.
- Void Entropy (Shadow) - Consumes up to 3 Shadow Orbs to deal up to XXXX Shadow damage every 3 sec for 1 min. Up to 3 Shadow Orbs, 40 yd range, 1.5 sec cast
- Right
- Saving Grace (Discipline, Holy) - Instantly heals a friendly target for XXXX. Reduces your healing done by 10% for 10 sec, stacking up to 10 times. 14,160 Mana, 40 yd range, Instant
- Auspicious Spirits (Shadow) - Your Shadowy Apparitions grant you 1 Shadow Orb instead of dealing damage.
Rogue (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Venom Zest - Increases your maximum energy by 15. Increases your energy regeneration rate by 5% for every enemy you have poisoned, up to 3.
- Shadow Reflection - Summon a shadow of yourself on the target that will watch you and memorize your offensive ability usage for the next 8 sec. After this time, it will mimic the memorized abilities on its target over the next 8 sec. 20 yd range, Instant, 2 min cooldown
- Death from Above - Finishing move that consumes combo points on the target to empower your weapons with shadow energy and perform a devastating two-part attack. You whirl around, dealing up to XXXX damage to all enemies within 8 yds, then leap into the air and slice into your target on the way back down, dealing up to an additional 500% weapon damage (up to 724% if a dagger is equipped). Damage based on combo points consumed. 50 Energy, 15 yd range, Instant, 20 sec cooldown, Requires One-Handed Melee Weapon
Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Shocking Lava (Elemental, Enhancement) - Your Lava Burst and Lava Lash increase the damage of your next Earth Shock or Flame Shock by 50%, stacking up to 2 times.
- Condensation Totem (Restoration) - Summons a Water Totem with 5 health at the feet of the caster for 15 sec that collects 5% of all overhealing, and grants it to the Shaman as spell power toward their next Healing Wave, Healing Surge, Chain Heal, or Riptide. Instant, 30 sec cooldown
- Middle
- Storm Elemental Totem - Summons an Air Totem with 6000 health at the feet of the caster, calling forth a Greater Storm Elemental to hurl gusts of wind at the caster's enemies. Each gust of wind does damage to the enemy, and then heals all allies within 15 yards for 100% of the damage dealt, split evenly. Lasts 1 min. 8,608 Mana, Instant, 5 min cooldown
- Right
- Spew Lava (Elemental, Enhancement) - Empowers your current Fire totem with the power of lava, causing it to spew globs of lava at random enemies within 40 yards every 0.5 sec for 10 sec. Each glob of lava deals XXXX Fire damage to all enemies within 4 yards. Instant, 45 sc cooldown
- High Tide (Restoration) - Your Chain Heal also bounces to all targets affected by your Riptide, and no longer diminishes in power with each bounce.
Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Soulburn: Haunt (Affliction) - Grants the Soulburn empowerment to your Haunt spell. Your Haunt spell also grants you 15% increased periodic damage for 30 sec.
- Demonbolt (Demonology) - Consumes 30% of your current Demonic Fury to deal up to XXXX Shadowflame damage. The next time you have less than 40 Demonic Fury, all Demonic Fury spent on your most recent Demonbolt will be refunded. 40 yd range, 2.00 sec cast, Requires Metamorphosis
- Charred Remains (Destruction) - Incinerate and Conflagrate deal 60% less damage but generate 300% more Burning Embers. Fire and Brimstone can now also affect Chaos Bolt.
- Middle
- Cataclysm - Conjures a cataclysm at the target location, dealing XXXX Shadowflame damage to all enemies within 8 yards, and applying Corruption or Immolate. 40 yd range, 3.00 sec cast, 1 min cooldown
- Right
- Demonic Servitude - You are now able to maintain your control over even greater demons indefinitely, allowing you to summon Doomguards and Infernals as permanent pets.
Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
- Left
- Anger Management - Every 30 rage that you spend reduces the remaining cooldown of your Readiness-affected abilities by 1 sec.
- Middle
- Ravager - Throw a whirling axe at the target location that inflicts XXXX damage to enemies within 8 yards every 1 sec. Lasts 15 sec. Also increases your chance to parry by 20% for 15 sec. 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
- Right
- Ignite Weapon (Arms, Fury) - Ignite your weapon and deal 100% weapon damage (140% if a one-handed weapon is equipped) as Fire, and cause your auto attacks to deal Fire damage for 10 sec. This ability is not on the global cooldown. Replaces Heroic Strike. 30 Rage, Melee Range, Instant, 1.5 sec cooldown, Requires Melee Weapon
- Gladiator's Resolve (Protection) - Increases the damage reduction provided by Defensive Stance by 5%.
Also allows you to forgo your defensive role, and instead focus only on offensive capabilities, by replacing Battle Stance with Gladiator Stance. Gladiator Stance - A dauntless combat stance. Increases physical damage dealt by 20%, and replaces your Shield Block with Shield Charge. You cannot change into or out of this stance during combat.
- Passive
- Shield Charge
- 20 Rage, 10 yd range, Instant, 15sec recharge, Requires Shields
- Raise your shield and charge a short distance to your target, increasing the damage of Shield Slam, Revenge, and Heroic Strike by 30% for 6 sec. Maximum 2 charges.


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Reality Check: Government Stimulus Payments
Tuesday was the tax deadline across the country, and while residents are paying out now, some money is likely heading their way.
VIDEO: Watch The Report
In this "Reality Check," WISC-TV breaks down what people need to know about the government stimulus payments.
The federal government is sending out stimulus checks to taxpayers in an effort to jumpstart the slumping economy. How the amount of the stimulus check depends on a person's income.
Stimulus checks will be no more than $600 for a single person or $1,200 for married couples. People could get up to $300 for each child under age 17.
There is an income ceiling for singles and couples, so those making too much money might get a reduced payment or no payment at all.
To get a payment, people must file a tax return for 2007.
Those who don't normally file but have an income of $3,000 or more can get a stimulus check by filling out selected parts of a 1040-A form and mailing it by Oct. 15.
The stimulus checks will start appearing in mailboxes in May, but not everyone will get the cash right away. The response time depends on the last two numbers of the main filer's Social Security number and whether that person selected direct deposit for his or her tax refund.
All direct deposit checks will come in May. Social Security numbers ending in 00 through 20 will arrive by May 2; Social Security numbers ending in 21 through 75 by May 9; and Social Security numbers ending in 76 through 99 by May 16.
Everyone else who qualifies will get a check in the mail on a schedule with 00 through 09 starting May 16 and ending with 88 through 99 in July.
The stimulus checks aren't taxable, meaning that they won't affect how much a person owes or would get back on next year's taxes. But taxpayers should keep the letter they receive listing the amount of their payment because they might be eligible for more later.
Those who haven't paid taxes in a while won't get a check because the stimulus payment will automatically go toward the amount owed.
College students probably pay some income taxes if they have a part-time job, so they might be eligible for a stimulus check. College students won't have money coming in if they are a dependent on their parents' taxes, but if they file independently, they could get a stimulus check.
For those who don't get a payment this year because they make too much or too little, there is still a chance they could get a check if their situation changes in the next year.
For instance, a senior citizen with a part-time job who works more hours might qualify later. Or, if a person's income puts him or her outside the maximum level now but they contribute more to a 401(k) or a tax deductible IRA, they might qualify for a check.
People who might qualify based on a changed situation could get a check next year. There will be instructions on next year's taxes about how to get what is owed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to another 99-word drabble in response to the prompt provided by Charli over at Carrot Ranch: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about comfort food.
I'm featuring one of my own from my childhood – with a dystopian twist.
I crumble six crackers into the bowl. Six crackers per ladle, just like Mom used to make.
Steam rises off the red liquid as I pour it. A stray drip hits my glove. I wipe it on my blanket.
I carry my bowl to the sofa and peek outside, trading heat for daylight. Snow covers the ruins. Brisk air blows through the broken pane.
I drop the window covering and hold my bowl near my face. The warmth and smell take me back. Laughter echoes in my memory.
Shaking, I take a spoonful.
Just like Mom used to make.


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Chief Vince Demasi encourages people to attend Mercedes-Benz Corporate Run
No bag checks, gated areas during downtown West Palm Beach race, he says
West Palm Beach's police chief said there won't be bag checks or gated areas during Wednesday night's Mercedes-Benz Corporate Run.
Chief Vince Demasi encouraged people to attend the annual downtown race and enjoy themselves during a news conference Wednesday morning.
"We don't see any need for those types of precautions at this point in time," Demasi said. "If we thought there was an issue, we would certainly take those. (There will be) standard, normal precautions. The best events are the ones that are well attended, and so we encourage people to come down (and) show their support for Boston."
Security concerns have been top of mind for people in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon.
Demasi didn't say if there would be extra police officers on hand, but he reassured the public that there are measures in place to keep everyone safe. He said there won't be any bag checks or gated areas like there are during SunFest, which is a few weeks away.


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Woman who crossed finish line just before bombs went off will run again
If you watch the video closely, you can see them.
There they are - Mendon, Mass., resident Kristine Biagiotti and daughter Kayla, in her custom wheelchair - crossing the finish line as smoke billows in from the right and a day that had been triumphant turns to one of sorrow.
Officially, they were the second-to-last finishers of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
They were also the first mother-daughter team to complete the marathon in its 117-year history; Kristine pushing 18-year-old Kayla, who suffers from a mitochondrial disease, 26.2 miles - and a few final, chaotic feet - on that fateful April day.
"When we got to the top of the street, my brother-in-law and my fiancé (Brian Bridges) jumped in. Brian was going to walk with me through the finish area," Kristine said. "I'm so glad he did - though he was hit with shrapnel, he was standing where he prevented Kayla from being hit."
She said what was a small injury for Bridges could have been a devastating one for Kayla, whose disease saps muscle strength and control, delays development and causes pain and respiratory complications. Bridges was treated for ear lacerations at the Milford Regional Medical Center later that day, receiving stitches but sustaining no permanent damage.
Kristine and her daughter were separated for about an hour in the aftermath of the event, with cellphones not working and people being shuffled away from the bomb site. Eventually, the two were reunited, and Boston police helped the family leave the area.
"I had about an hour of panic - I think it aged me about 30 years," Kristine said. "The whole police department was awesome about tracking things down - we explained our situation, and they helped us get to our handicapped van."
Kristine said the family had worked to shield Kayla, who did not understand the events as they occurred, from the emotional toll of the attack.
"Kayla never realized it was a bomb - she figured it was fireworks for us finishing," she said, adding that her daughter had felt like a "rock star" throughout the experience. "People had been cheering, and our adrenaline was going. Coming through Framingham, kids had been coming up to us and saying, 'You're the K girls! We saw you on TV!' Kayla would put her hand up for high-fives."
Still, she said, members of the family did follow the search for suspects and ensuing manhunt, which led to the death of one alleged bomber and the capture of another.
"We never watched the news while (Kayla) was awake," she said. "Our anxiety was definitely running high, wondering what was going on and what would happen next."
Come this April, Biagiotti will again be running the marathon.
"In light of everything that happened last year, I felt I needed to be a part of it this year - to go out to support, and be a part of, the Boston Strong community," she said. "We're not going to let one or two people take away something that has been so important to New England."
This time, though, she'll be running without Kayla. The expected large crowds and increased number of runners might make things difficult.
"I didn't think it would be the right place if she needed help on the course," Kristine said. "I said to her, 'We'll see what happens next year.'"
Kristine will again be running to benefit the Boston Children's Hospital, to which she credits Kayla's current good health.
"Kayla wasn't supposed to make it to 10, and she's 19 now," she said. "Right now, we're in maintenance mode, with no burning issues, so we're in the position to give back."
Those wishing to contribute may visit: http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/site/TR/Events/BostonMarathon?px=1005784&pg=personal&fr_id=1040.


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Over at Fragile Keys Tim has a wonderful post elaborating on his philosophy, drawn from Jean-Luc Nancy, of "being-with". I can't respond in detail right now as I'm getting ready to head out camping and will be unconnected for the weekend, but I wanted to draw attention to this passage:
This would be the heart of the differend, perhaps: For me, everything is "related" because we all share this common structure of being-related-to, even if this just means being-related-to-myself. Because we are all there, we are all also with something else, even if that something else is myself! Not "related" in some scheme of interconnection, not "forged together" in some purposeful collaboration between humans and/or nonhumans, but simply being-related-there by dint of the fact that being-there is structured ("internally," if you want) as being-with — as being-with-its-(other-)self (withdrawn, subtracted, split, divided, etc.). This is a "with" that cannot be destroyed, since its always literally there wherever any being is.
In my view, the claim that the with cannot be destroyed since it is already literally there wherever being is is a thoroughly dogmatic claim since it fails to account for the conditions of possibility of being-with and being-related. It merely asserts that beings are related, treating this as a primitive ontological factum, without grounding this possibility. I think this is one of the problems with the suspension of the natural attitude practiced by phenomenology that has clearly influenced Nancy (whom I admire with Tim). Because we have suspended the natural attitude, because we have "bracketed the world", we feel as if we are entitled to say we are just related because I'm able to see my student Cameron sitting over there "immediately". Having banished the independent and material world we then feel that we need not attend to things like the fact that I am only able to see Cameron over there by dint of electro-magnetic waves traveling between me and him that both take time to travel and that can fail to travel.
The epoche is fine as a methodological device deployed to allow us to describe experience so as to get at what must be explained, but it becomes dogmatism when it is deployed to legislate ontology on the basis of how we experience the world and when it is used to banish things such as the fact that relations can only occur materially and that as a result of the absence of many material interactions there are many unrelated things. While I think phenomenology has taught us much of value, I also believe that it has done tremendous damage to ontology and metaphysics by leading us to believe that we can infer structures of being from structures of lived experience. Some will say that I'm being unfair to phenomenology here– and yes I know that Nancy is not working solely within a phenomenological tradition, but his inheritance comes out clearly here –but let's not forget that in Ideas Husserl directly says that the natural world cannot be the condition for consciousness because consciousness is the condition of the natural world. This entails that the manner in which lived experience is structured allows us to legislate the structure of being, that being and lived experience are identical. The price of this is incredibly high, requiring us to reject all sorts of things from other disciplines such as the points about time of travel and information theory with respect to relation I've been making.


text:
Episode 3: "And the Winner Is..."S1 Ep3 |See who makes the cut and which of the six finalists win the Jimmy Awards.
Episode 2: "Boot Camp"S1 Ep2 |Watch as the young performers get an eye-opening look at what life on Broadway is like
Episode 1: "The Casting Call"S1 Ep1 |The contestants meet in New York to begin rehearsals and coaching sessions.
About Broadway or Bust
PBS is bound for Broadway with this three-hour documentary series that tells the real life stories of Americas top high school musical performers, vying in the ultimate competition to find the nations best young theater stars. BROADWAY OR BUST premiered Sunday, September 9, 2012.


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Previous Columns/Posted 10/06/99
I keep forgetting to mention this, but a few months ago Entertainment Weekly chose The Word Detective as its "Site of the Day," calling us "Friendlier, funnier, and much, much hipper than William Safire's weekly word news in the New York Times Magazine."
That description, incidentally, may come as a surprise to people who actually know me, but it's probably not as far off the beam as Mr. Safire's own characterization of my writing several years ago as "lighthearted." As my wife said at the time, "Yeah, right, Mr. Lighthearted. You make Attilla the Hun look like Chuckles the Clown."
Anyway, the reason I bring this up now (aside from the pathetic thrill I get from reliving rosy moments from the past) is that I just spent several days trying to figure out why my web site access figures suddenly increased by a factor of ten on October 4. (It turns out that PC World magazine had featured TWD in one of their free e-mail newsletters.)
The problem with this sort of thing (and trust me to find a problem with this sort of thing) is that I often don't hear about mentions of TWD in the media until months later, if ever. Consequently, I could use your help. If anyone notices a mention of TWD in the media (any media, no matter how obscure), please drop me a note. My ego thanks you in advance.
[UPDATE: I know about the mention of TWD in The New York Times of Thursday, October 14. Thanks.]
In return, may I suggest that you pay The Obscure Store and Reading Room a visit? If you've worn your modem to a nubbin searching the web for odd news stories, you can now sit back and relax, because these folks do it for you, and update their findings every day.
And now, as the house lights dim, on with the show...
Support the Right to Arm Bears.
Dear Word Detective: I am curious about two words. First, the word "assassin." How did it derive its meaning? And second, how did the name of Nimrod, the legendary hunter, become synonymous with "an idiot"? -- Travis, via the internet.
Funny you should ask. Your second question tempts me to invite you out to Flapdoodle Manor, the Word Detective rural retreat, where hunting season is just about to begin and the "idiot" sense of "Nimrod" will shortly become very obvious. While our local Nimrods usually set out armed for deer or bear, they inevitably settle for blasting away at tractors, mailboxes, and, for the truly fearless, dairy cows, which I understand can be really hard to hit after a few six-packs.
Nimrod was indeed a fearless hunter in the Book of Genesis, and "nimrod" has been used as a simple synonym for "hunter" in English since the early 1700s. According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, we may have none other than Bugs Bunny to thank for the more modern slang use of "nimrod" to mean "idiot" or "jerk." In one particular 1940s cartoon, Bugs sarcastically referred to the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd as "Poor little Nimrod." Although "nimrod" had already been used mockingly for a number of years, Bugs' popularity probably gave this "idiot" sense a huge boost, and it is now used in contexts that have nothing to do with hunting.
Meanwhile, back at your first question, the first "assassins" were Muslim fanatics who, at the time of the Crusades, pledged themselves to ridding their lands of Christian infidels and other enemies. In preparation for their murderous forays, they would fortify themselves by consuming large quantities of hashish, and thus became known as "hashashin," or "hashish eaters." When the word was imported into English in the 17th century, it was spelled more phonetically, and "assassin" eventually came to mean anyone who commits murder, usually of a public figure, for political, psychological, monetary or religious reasons.
But the stuffed muskrat is to die for.
Dear Word Detective: Recently I've been reading about the Vikings, who used to tour Western Europe about 11 centuries ago and who generally didn't pay their hotel bills. In the course of my reading I've come across the word "berserkers" on more than one occasion where it seems to refer to a special type of Viking warrior. I presume this is where the modern word "berserk" comes from. Is this so and how did this bunch of Vikings get their curious name? -- Brian Harrington, Ireland.
Well, you'd go berserk too if you had to eat what those Vikings ate. I recently heard a shortwave program on Radio Deutsche Welle (from Cologne, Germany) about a restaurant in Iceland that offers tourists the opportunity to sample Genuine Ancient Viking Cuisine. I'm actually rather sorry I listened. It seems that one of the Vikings' favorite dishes was something that sounded (this was radio, remember) like "rottenshark." And, by golly, that's exactly what it was. The Vikings used to catch a shark, bury it in the ground for two months, and then dig it up and eat it. And nowhere in that process did they cook it. People apparently still eat this stuff in Iceland, by the way.
"Berserk," meaning extremely and irrationally violent, does indeed come from "berserker," the term given fierce Norse warriors (though I'm not certain that the berserkers were, technically, Vikings). The berserkers were famous for their frenzied ferocity on the battlefield, and this was in an age when even the tamest army was pretty savage by our standards. The name "berserker" comes from the Icelandic equivalent "berserkr," meaning "savage Norse warrior," which is generally thought to be a combination of "ber" (bear) and "serkr" (shirt or coat). A "berserker," according to this theory, would have been distinguished by the coat or shirt of bear fur that he wore into battle, certainly an appropriate wardrobe choice for someone whose intent was to terrify the opposition.
Today we use the term "berserk," usually in the phrase "to go berserk," to describe someone so violently angry that they are completely out of control and beyond reason, or, in the modern vernacular, "going postal."
Dear Word Detective: A bunch of us proles were talking about the Big Wigs in the Head Shed the other day. This got us to thinking about the origin of the "Big Wig" description. I conjectured that it referred to the English courts where the larger the wig, the more important the position within the judicial system. Am I barking up the wrong tree or am I on the mark? -- Paul Diggins, via the internet.
You're very close, for a prole. Incidentally, before we spawn a slew of questions about your question, I should explain that "prole" is slang for "proletarian," meaning a member of the working class. ("Proletarius" was the lowest rung of Roman citizenship.) Although the shortened form "prole" was first used by George Bernard Shaw in 1887, it was subsequently widely popularized by George Orwell in his 1949 novel "1984."
And now onward to the wonderful world of wigs. Once upon a time (the 1700's, to be precise), there was no hairspray and no blow-driers. Every day was a bad hair day, as it had been for most of human history. Consequently, almost everybody above the poverty line -- men, women, and sometimes even children -- wore wigs. But not all wigs were equal. While Joe Schmoe trudged through life wearing his ratty little two-shilling bargain number from Wigges 'n Stuffe, Lord Gotrocks sported a luxurious, expensive, and, of course, very large wig. Regular folks found these rich people and their fancy wigs so annoying that by the early 1800's "bigwig" had become a mocking slang term for the wealthy and powerful. And though the wigs are mostly gone (or at least a lot smaller), "bigwig" is still used as slang for someone who probably isn't as important as he thinks he is.
Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of the word "hijack" and, more importantly, was it in common usage in 1899? I am writing a novel and think this is a more modern term but want to make sure. -- G.B. Toll, Oakland, CA.
Well, it's not impossible that somebody in 1899 was using the word "hijack," meaning to stop a vehicle in order either to rob it or to steal the vehicle itself, although the earliest example cited in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from 1923. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang lists a use of "hyjack" to mean "an armed robber" by Ernest Hemingway in 1920. Since "hijack" (or some variant) was originally American underworld slang, and since underworld slang is by definition a semi-secret code language used by criminals, I think we can assume that the word may have been around for quite a while before Hemingway or any other mainstream writer picked it up. So I'd say that using "hijack" in your novel set in 1899 is probably plausible, although I wouldn't put it in the mouth of a university professor or an English butler.
Incidentally, it's nice to see that somebody out there in artistic-creation-land is trying to avoid anachronisms, those jolting "that didn't exist back then" howlers that ruin (or at least dent) so many historical dramas. I ran across a web site recently called The Big List of Movie Mistakes (http://www.movie-mistakes.com) that lovingly dissects popular films in search of such clunkers as the thoroughly modern black jockey shorts Mel Gibson can be seen wearing under his kilt in "Braveheart."
As for the origin of "hijack," I'm afraid I have some bad news. Nobody knows, and the theories that have been put forward so far strike me as pretty lame. One attempts to trace "hijack" to the exclamation "Hi Jack!", supposedly the standard greeting offered by a highwayman to his victim. Another, only marginally more plausible in my book, interprets "hijack" as "High, Jack," the robber's order to his victims to raise their hands high in the air. So until somebody comes up with something a bit more plausible, I'm afraid the jury is still out on "hijack."
Dear Word Detective: Can you tell me what the term "jake braking" means? While traveling we saw a sign that said "No jake braking allowed." -- Paul, via the internet.
I'm glad you asked this question, because I too have seen "No jake brakes" signs while driving through small towns in Ohio. I've been meaning to find out what "jake brakes" are and, of course, to make sure that I don't have any. The last thing I want is to end up in some small town courtroom accused of conspiracy to engage in flagrant and depraved jake-braking. I had a friend many years ago who found himself convicted of mopery under similar circumstances, and he still doesn't know exactly what he had done.
It turns out, after a little investigation on my part, that I need not have worried about involuntarily "jake braking," and neither should you, unless you're driving a tractor-trailer rig. After poking around on the internet for a while, I came across a very lucid explanation of "jake brakes" on The Straight Dope web page (www.straightdope.com), which is just chock-full of lucid explanations of stuff like this, incidentally.
"Jake brakes," it seems, are devices used on some large diesel truck engines to slow the truck down. Apparently, if one vents the cylinder of a diesel engine midway through its cycle, the engine, instead of producing power, absorbs power, thereby slowing the truck down dramatically. The sort of engine brake is especially useful when a heavily loaded truck is descending a steep hill and its standard wheel brakes could use a little help. As for the term "Jake brakes," these devices are more properly known as Jacobs Engine Brakes, manufactured by the Jacobs Vehicle Systems Company in Connecticut.
The reason all those small towns have put up those signs is simple: noise. Jake brakes make a distinctive staccato racket when in use (although the Jacobs folks say they don't if they're used properly). And those sleepy little towns don't care for that kind of noise. After all, it might wake the Mayor.
Dear Word Detective: We here at the hospital are always researching something or other and when it comes to medicine and health we seem to be pretty good at it. But it recently came up in conversation that the phrase "you're pulling my leg" doesn't seem to make any sense and that the origin of the expression would likely help put it into context. As a hospital psychiatric team, we are a bit obsessed with having things make sense. We would appreciate your insights. -- Bryan Sabinsky, via the internet.
Obsessed with having things make sense, eh? Isn't there some drug you can take for that? Well, I'm sure there will be soon. Personally, I've always been partial to Frank Zappa's prescription: "Unbind your mind / There is no time / To lick your stamps / And paste them in." But I guess you guys don't get paid to chill out.
"Pulling someone's leg," meaning to spoof someone with a lighthearted gag, is a good example of a colloquial idiom, a popular saying which means more than just the words it contains. If I say that my friend is "a loose cannon," for instance, I am saying that he is unpredictable, not that he is an artillery piece. In the case of "loose cannon," it's fairly easy to pinpoint the literal source of the metaphor: an untethered cannon rolling around on a ship's deck is unpredictable and possibly disastrous. But in the case of "pulling your leg," we have a genuine mystery.
Not that there is any lack of theories, of course. Perhaps the most commonly heard is that the phrase refers to pulling on the legs of someone being hanged in order to speed up the process. The phrase, however, dates from about 1888, long after the technology of hanging had rendered such grisly embellishments unnecessary. A more likely source is the practice of street thieves tripping their victims as a prelude to robbing them. To "pull someone's leg" thus meant to trick, disorient and confuse a person, a meaning which lives on today in our more benign "just kidding" sense.
Or, to put it in modern terms,
Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of the phrase, "...and that was all she wrote?" Who was "she," and why did she decide or have to stop writing? Was it some Jane Austen/Emily Dickinson why-do-I-have-to-call-myself-George-Eliot-just-to-get-published type of pre-Women's Suffrage male oppression deal? It's puzzled me for years. -- Melanie Waddell, Bethpage, New York.
You and me both, and everybody else to boot. The origin of "That's all she wrote" (which is how it's usually phrased) is a subject of considerable debate, although the male oppression angle you suspect is almost certainly off the mark. Most theories about "That's all she wrote" actually leave men holding the short end of the stick.
"That's all she wrote" is a catch phrase, a kind of popular saying that probably began in reference to a particular situation or was drawn from a specific joke or other context, but which has since taken on a life of its own and is used in a variety of contexts. When we say "That's all she wrote" today, we mean "that's all there is" or "that's the end of it."
The standard theory about "That's all she wrote" is that it arose during World War II and refers to the "Dear John letters" received by many servicemen from their sweethearts back home bluntly announcing the end of their relationships. Such letters were so common during the war that "That's all she wrote" may have originally been the punch line to a joke: a GI (in some versions, not even named John) receives a letter containing only the salutation "Dear John," with the "It's over" part left unwritten and implicit. When questioned by his buddies about the rest of the letter's contents, he replies, "That's all she wrote."
When my colleague William Safire explored that theory in print a few years ago, however, he received several letters suggesting that the phrase may have come from a variety of popular American songs about brides abandoned at the altar, or men dumped by their sweethearts. The rupture was invariably communicated by a terse note, leading to the refrain "And that's all she (or he) wrote." Unfortunately, no one has yet managed to pin down the exact song in which the phrase occurs, so the jury is still out on "That's all she wrote."
I own a dog like that, incidentally.
Dear Word Detective: I am trying to find the etymology of the word "balderdash," and have had no successful results. Could you give me some information on the word? -- Ladybg80, via the internet.
Balderdash! It's a great word, isn't it? It's a word that begs to be shouted from the rooftops, especially these days. If I ever get around to shooting my TV, I'm going to bury it wrapped in a year's worth of opinion polls and politicians' promises, and put up a giant neon headstone that reads "Here lies Balderdash."
"Balderdash," of course, means "nonsense," but not just your average, everyday nonsense. Balderdash is high-flying presumptuous nonsense, the presumption being that the listener is stupid enough to believe whatever flapdoodle the speaker wishes to dispense. Politicians are professional balderdash vendors, which brings me to my favorite use of "balderdash," H.L. Mencken describing the prose style of President Warren G. Harding: "He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash."
But now, since I do my best to avoid foisting any balderdash on my readers, I must deliver the bad news: although we know that it first appeared in the late 16th century, no one knows exactly where "balderdash" came from. We do know that in addition to meaning "nonsense" or "a senseless jumble of words," it also originally meant "a frothy liquid," and specifically a mixture of liquids, such as milk and beer. Balderdash also meant, at one time, "obscene language or writing," and may well be related to the old English dialect word "balder" (meaning "to use coarse language") and/or the Welsh "baldordd" meaning "idle talk or chatter." So somewhere in the mists of time is hidden the exact origin of "balderdash," but at least we know that all this nonsense is nothing new.
Polly want a derogatory term
Dear Word Detective: Can you tell me the origin of the word "cracker"? Someone told me that it dated back to the slave days, when slave owners were called "crackers" because they cracked a whip on slaves. Is this true? -- Cygerr, via the internet.
Probably not, although that is one oft-heard theory among many. But before we proceed any further, we'd better back up a bit and explain (especially for our overseas readers) that "cracker" is a derogatory slang term usually used to mean a poor white person resident in the Southern U.S., especially in the state of Georgia, which is sometimes referred to as "the Cracker State." More than simply a regional slur, "cracker" carries the implication that the person is a racist, and is sometimes applied to any white person perceived as harboring racist sentiments, regardless of class or geographic particulars.
There are theories tracing "cracker" to the crack of a slavemaster's whip, or to "corncracker" (slang for country folk, who presumably ate a lot of corn). But the actual source is almost certainly the much older slang sense of "to crack" meaning "to boast or brag," first seen around 1460, and its derivative "cracker," meaning "braggart," which appeared around 1509. The earliest use of "cracker" used in the "poor white" sense discovered so far bears out the connection. In a letter written to the Earl of Dartmouth in 1766, an observer named Gavin Cochrane, referring to bands of outlaws operating at that time in the Southern U.S., noted: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode."
Evidently these outlaws were so successful that their exploits, along with their bragging habits, became legendary throughout the eastern United States. By the early 19th century, "cracker" had become a term applied to poor Southern whites in general.
Dear Word Detective: I was sharing with friends my understanding of the term "antimacassar" and we wondered where the term "doily" originated and when. I have looked at several web sites without success. Will you help? -- Gail Froyen, via the internet.
Of course I'll be glad to help, and next time someone searches the internet for the origin of "doily," they'll find this column at my web page (www.word-detective.com) and they won't have to write to me. Sometimes I have the funny feeling that I'm slowly putting myself out of business.
Before we proceed to "doily," we should probably bring the rest of the gang up to speed on "antimacassar." Rarely seen today, "antimacassars" were small pieces of cloth spread on the backs and sometimes the arms of parlor chairs in the 19th and early 20th century. "Antimacassars" were designed to protect the chair's upholstery against stains left by the greasy hair oil favored by all proper gentlemen of the day. One of the most popular brands of hair goo was Macassar Oil, which took its name from its supposed source, the Makassar region of Indonesia. So the simple combination of "anti" (against) with Macassar gave us the term "antimacassar."
"Antimacassar" is what might be called a negative eponym, eponyms being words that come from the proper name of a person, place or thing. "Doily" turns out to be an eponym too, though (depending on how one regards doilies) a somewhat more positive example. In late 17th century London, a certain Mr. Doiley (or possibly Doyley) was a highly successful milliner, famous for inventing a light woolen cloth used in ladies' summer wear. The invention by which Mr. Doiley attained immortality, however, was a very ornate table napkin often used at dessert. Just how effective the perforated "doily" is as a napkin has been debatable since the beginning. As Jonathan Swift wrote in 1711, "After dinner we had coarse Doiley-napkins, fringed at each end, upon the table to drink with," which doesn't sound like a rave review. But the delicate design and relentless daintyness of doilies still makes them popular as table decorations today.
Dear Word Detective: A co-worker and I were having a discussion on the word "potable." Where does that word originate, and why isn't it just "drinkable"? His theory is that you put water in pots, hence "potable." I say hooey. -- Matt Meade, via the internet.
I say "hooey" too. In fact, I say "hooey" so often during an average day that one of my dogs now answers to "hooey." Of course, she also answers to "tuna," "telephone" and "lint," so maybe I just need a smarter dog. But "I say hooey" makes a fine all-purpose motto, and as soon as I finish answering your question I'm going to have some "I Say Hooey" t-shirts made up.
In the case of "potable," however, I can only declare a "partial hooey" on your co-worker's theory. Although he isn't exactly right, he's not completely wrong: there is a connection between "potable" and "pot."
It all began way back with Indo-European, the precursor to most modern European languages. The Indo-European root word "po" meant "to drink," and gave us the modern words for "to drink" in French, Russian and Welsh, among other languages. In Latin, "po" produced the verb "potare," also meaning "to drink," and "potare" begat "potabilis" ("drinkable"), which led directly to our modern English "potable," which first appeared around 1572.
Now we'll take a few steps back and explain why your co-worker is not completely crazy. That little root word "po" also produced the Latin noun "potio," meaning "a drink," which eventually gave us the English words "potion" and "poison." A related word ("potus"), also meaning "a drink," survived into medieval Latin, where it came to mean "a drinking cup or vessel." This word "potus" gave us a wide variety of modern English words, among which are "porridge," "putty," and, as you've probably guessed by now, "pot."
So while "potable" does not come directly from "pot," they do share a common (and very prolific) ancestor.
As to why we say "potable" rather than "drinkable," there's no particular reason, aside from tradition and a historic preference among English grammarians for fancy-schmancy Latinate constructions. But there's nothing wrong with saying "drinkable," especially considering that we've actually been saying it since around 1611.
And going for pizza, of course, can take hours.
Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of "scut work"? I used this phrase to imply dirty, meaningless, thankless work, and no one in my office understood it or had ever heard it used before. Am I incorrect? -- Lita Ward, via the internet.
I'd be willing to bet that your co-workers knew darn well what you were saying and were just pretending not to understand. I used to work in an office, and one of the most valuable survival skills I acquired was the ability to sense when somebody was just about to propose some especially distasteful chore. I'd stand up, casually jangle the change in my pocket, and innocently ask "Anybody want cappuccino from across the street?" Worked every time.
You're right on the money about "scut work" meaning unpleasant and usually meaningless work. If your co-workers have really never heard the term before, I'm somewhat surprised, given the prevalence of medical dramas on TV these days. One of the places "scut work" is most likely to be heard is in hospitals, where it is applied to the sort of routine and boring tasks assigned to junior interns (themselves known, appropriately, as "scuts" in hospital slang.)
The precise origin of "scut work" is a bit obscure, but it is almost certainly based on the slang term "scut," meaning "a degenerate or contemptible person," which first appeared in the late 19th century (in Anthony Trollope's novel "Henry Heathcote," in fact). "Scut" itself is probably related to the noun "scout," which beginning in the 18th century was slang for a servant at an exclusive college like Oxford or Harvard. This slang "scout" may be related to the "advance explorer" sense of "scout" we use today, or it may be related to yet another "scout," a verb of Scandinavian origin meaning "to mock or reject."
In any case, the use of "scut" to mean "boring, menial work" of the kind often assigned to "scuts" first appeared in English around 1960.
Your wish is my illegal command.
Dear Word Detective: OK, this should be easy but a quick web search revealed nothing. What is the origin of "beck and call," as in "I'm at your beck and call"? -- Alex Johnston, via the internet.
You're annoyed that your web search revealed nothing? I'm afraid you don't understand the revolutionary nature of the internet. Yes, you found nothing, but (presuming you used one of the popular search engines) you probably found at least 61,378 different kinds of nothing. You won't find that kind of variety in any old fashioned library full of dusty old books, bucko.
To have someone "at your beck and call" means to have complete control over every action that person takes, to command their constant attention, and to have them standing ready to obey your slightest whim. (As you can probably deduce from that definition, it's a heck of a lot more fun having somebody "at your beck and call" than being the beck-and-callee.)
The "call" part of the phrase is pretty straightforward: if your master calls, you had better answer pronto. The "beck" part is a bit more obscure. "Beck" is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "A mute signal or significant gesture, especially one indicating assent or notifying a command; e.g., a nod, a motion of the hand or forefinger, etc." If you've ever worked (as I have) for a boss who graduated from the "point and grunt" school of management, that "motion of the forefinger" business will conjure up all sorts of fond memories.
Although the word "beck" used outside of "beck and call" is archaic and rarely heard today, it's really only a shortened form of our familiar word "beckon," meaning "to make a mute signal or gesture," especially to call a person over to you. "Beckon," in turn, comes from an old Germanic word meaning "signal," from which we also derive the modern English word "beacon."
As a verb, "beck" first appeared around 1300 A.D. ("beckon" is a bit older, first showing up around 950). The phrase "beck and call" is much more recent, dating only to about 1875.
Nowadays, ain't no one listenin 'cept the gummint.
Dear Word Detective: When I was growing up in a rural area, everyone had party telephone lines, and if someone listened in on another's conversation, it was called "rubbering." Recently I read that New Jersey is getting rid of the last of its party lines, and it was mentioned that people still "rubber." How did this use of "rubber" arise? -- Birger Benson, Grand Island, NE.
It's good to hear that my birthplace of New Jersey is marching boldly into the 21st century and finally getting rid of party lines, a mere fifty years or so after the rest of the country. Just wait until those folks get a gander at the newfangled gizmo called "television."
For the benefit of readers who were born after the Beatles' breakup, I should explain that a "party line" was an arrangement, very common until the 1950s, where several households shared a single telephone line. In theory, you were supposed to wait until no one was using the line before placing your call. In practice, eavesdropping on party lines was a major source of voyeuristic entertainment in the days before web cams and chat rooms. If you were using a party line, you pretty much had to assume that at least three or four of your neighbors were listening to every word you said.
"Rubber" as slang meaning to listen in on someone else's conversation dates back to the heyday of party lines, the 1920s. The first use of this sense of "rubber" in print cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is in Sinclair Lewis' novel "Main Street," where a character crows, "Say, did you hear me putting one over on these goats that are always rubbering in on party-wires? I hope they heard me!"
But "rubber" as slang had actually been around for quite a while (since 1896, in fact) before it was applied to the behavior of party-line snoops. "To rubber" originally meant "to gawk or gape," and arose as a short from of "rubberneck," which is still used today to mean to twist or crane one's neck (as if it were made of rubber) in eager curiosity to see something.
Dear Word Detective: I've looked in more books then you can shake a stick at, and I can't find the origin of the phrase "more than you can shake a stick at." I have spent more sleepless nights then you can shake a stick at, trying to puzzle out its origins. If you could enlighten me I would be forever grateful. (Well, maybe not forever, but certainly for a few minutes.) -- Mik, via the internet.
I can't claim to have suffered through sleepless nights wondering where "more than you can shake a stick at" came from, but it certainly is a mysterious phrase. It's also fairly old. Its first recorded appearance is found in The Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Journal in 1818: "We have in Lancaster as many Taverns as you can shake a stick at." The sense then, as now, was "a lot" or "too many to count."
The question, of course, is why one would be counting or measuring a crowd of something by shaking a stick at it. Shaking a stick at someone has long been considered, for good reason, a threatening gesture. There is a possibility that "more than you can shake a stick at" first arose in the context of warfare or smaller-scale hostilities, perhaps describing an overwhelmingly superior opposing force (e.g., "More Redcoats than you could shake a stick at.").
Another possibility, and one that I find more likely, is the stick in question was shaken in the process of counting great numbers of something, perhaps used as a pointer while doing a head count of a herd of sheep or cattle. Thus, "more than you can shake a stick at" would simply mean, figuratively, "you could wave your counting stick until your arm falls off, and you still wouldn't reach the end."
Dear Word Detective: I have been puzzled recently by the reappearance of a phrase from my past: "Yeah...That's the ticket!", spoken in a small whiny voice with an up-turned finish. My memory tells me that this phrase was part of an old cartoon from the 40s or 50s, perhaps Bugs Bunny. Or maybe it's from an old gangster film or The Three Stooges. I'm not even sure exactly where to look it up. Please help. -- Joanne West, Dallas, Texas.
I, too, seem to remember hearing Bugs Bunny say "that's the ticket," meaning "that's right" or "that's what we need," in several cartoons, and I think Abbott and Costello also used the phrase occasionally. In any case, we don't have to worry about pinning down exactly which Hollywood icon coined "that's the ticket," because the phrase first showed up in England around 1834, long before movies and TV were invented.
There's quite a bit of debate as to the origin of "that's the ticket." One theory maintains that it's actually a corruption of the French phrase "c'est l'etiquette," meaning "that's the proper thing or course of action." The mutation of an unfamiliar or foreign word into a more familiar word ("etiquette" into "the ticket") is not uncommon in slang, but there doesn't seem to be any direct evidence for such a shift in this case.
More plausible theories about "that's the ticket" take it literally and propose various "tickets" to which the phrase could logically refer. A political "ticket," a party's roster of candidates for office, is one possibility. Or it might refer to tickets given out to the poor by charities in the 19th century, which were redeemable for soup. This theory is given some support by the existence of the similar phrase "that's the ticket for soup," cited by slang expert Eric Partridge as existing in the mid-19th century.
"That's the ticket" might also logically refer to a winning lottery ticket, a possibility that would certainly match the "that's the right answer" or "that's what we need" sense of the term.
Prissy Victorians at it again.
Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of the expression "I don't give a tinker's damn"? -- Dan Whitney, via the internet.
"I don't give a tinker's damn" means that the speaker does not care at all, "tinker's damn" being a very old slang synonym for something "utterly inconsequential." There are two theories about "tinker's damn," but before we get to them, a little discourse on Medieval cookware.
Before the advent of mass-produced kitchen implements, pots and pans were quite expensive, and handed down for generations. Thus, a hole in the stewpot was a calamity, and repair, not replacement, was called for. This was the job of a "tinker" (possibly from the "tinkling" sound of pots clinking together, but more likely from the Middle English "tinnkere," tin worker). Tinkers were itinerant handymen who made their living mending pots and pans and generally fixing household items.
Though tinkers were performing a useful service, they were held in low esteem, and "tinker" was for several centuries also a synonym for "vagrant," "rogue" and even "thief." Tinkers probably used earthy language, probably with abandon, and thus the first theory. Tinkers swore so often, it is said, that their oaths lost the power to shock, and "not worth a tinker's damn" came to mean "worthless."
The second theory maintains that the phrase should be "tinker's dam," not "damn." A tinker's "dam," goes this theory, was a small piece of dough, clay or paper used to block the hole in a pot while solder was applied. When the job was done, the "dam" was discarded, and thus "tinker's dam" came to mean something utterly inconsequential.
And now, the envelope, please. Theory number one is almost certainly correct, and "tinker's damn," which appeared around 1839, is probably simply a variant on "not worth a damn," which also means "something utterly worthless." Theory number two, which was first proposed in 1877, was probably a prissy Victorian attempt to sanitize the "damn" into "dam" with a cute but baseless story.
Take me back to the main Word Detective page.
Take me to the Index of back columns.
All contents Copyright © 1999 by Evan Morris.


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By CNN's Larry Shaughnessy
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta unveiled details of a budget plan that slices half a trillion dollars in spending increases over the next 10 years and serves as a blueprint for the administration's vision of how America's military needs to change.
The savings would begin in October, the start of fiscal year 2013.
Panetta, speaking Thursday at the Pentagon, said he will request a total budget that is $33 billion smaller than the current one. All told, his plan meets Congress's mandate to reduce Pentagon spending by $487 billion in the next 10 years.
To accomplish that, Panetta said, a new strategy was developed for the military force of the future: "The military will be smaller and leaner, but it will be agile, flexible, rapidly deployable and technologically advanced. It will be a cutting-edge force."
For example, he said, the Army will save money by pulling two of its four brigades out of permanent bases in Europe to bases in the United States. But at the same time, the Army will increase rotational deployments to bases so more units will have an opportunity to train with NATO allies.
The Navy will be getting rid of older ships that don't have the latest ballistic missile defense but it will be buying new ones that will have that capability.
And this new budget may be critical for what it doesn't cut, things like spending on Special Operations forces, like the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden, as well as overall numbers of unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator, which have been so valuable in Iraq and Afghanistan. This plan calls for more total spending on those capabilities.
If approved by Congress, the savings next year and the following nine years would be achieved by moves including trimming the numbers of troops in the Army and Marine Corps and retiring nearly a dozen older Navy ships and six Air Force tactical squadrons, as well as smaller pay raises for troops beginning in 2015.
The Army's cost savings will come from reducing the "end strength," the total number of active-duty soldiers. There are currently 556,000 soldiers in the Army, but Panetta would reduce that number to 490,000.
A similar move is being planned for the Marines, which would drop to 182,000 from the current level of 200,000 active duty Marines. Both the Army and Marine end strengths would be slightly higher than they were just prior to 9/11.
"They will be fundamentally reshaped by a decade of war - far more lethal, battle-hardened and ready," Panetta said.
Because there will be fewer soldiers and Marines to support, the Air Force is being asked to reduce its airlift fleet. The budget also calls for a reduction of six tactical air squadrons as well as one training squadron. Panetta insists "none of that will impact our ability to dominate the skies."
The Navy has perhaps the most difficult duty. Panetta and President Obama have both repeatedly said the United States remains committed to the Asia/Pacific region, which the Pentagon now supports largely through the 7th Fleet.
But the budget calls for retiring seven old cruisers and two small amphibious ships. The Navy will also delay buying a dozen new ships by a year or more to save money in the short term.
Panetta just last week announced the department's commitment to the newest generation jet fighter, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is being built for the Air Force, Navy and Marines. But Thursday he said, "in this budget, what we've done is slowed the procurement to be able to complete more testing and allow for developmental changes before we buy in significant quantities. We want to make sure before we go into full production that we are ready."
The portion of the outline that may trigger the most opposition is a plan aimed at troops' salaries and retired troops' health benefits. Panetta promised full pay raises for fiscal 2013 and 2014, but he said, "in order to achieve cost savings we will provide more limited pay raises beginning in 2015."
As for health care, he plans no changes for active-duty troops and their families but, Panetta said, it was decided that "to help control the growth of health care costs, which is now almost $50 billion in this department, we are recommending increases in health care fees, copays and deductibles for retirees,"
"But let me be clear that even after these increases, the costs borne by military retirees will remain below levels in most comparable private sector plans, as they should be," he said.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made clear Thursday that he supports the plan laid out by Panetta, but admitted it does contain risks. "The primary risks lie not in what we can do, but in how much we can do and how fast we can do it," Dempsey said. "I am convinced we can properly manage them."
Of course, this is all a proposal that must go through Congress. Panetta admitted that getting Capitol Hill to buy into the plan won't be easy. "This is gonna be tough. This is a tough challenge," Panetta said. "It's very easy to talk about deficit reduction. It's very tough to do something that in fact reduces the deficit."
He said he hopes Congress does agree to these changes. "It's also an opportunity for members to show the kind of leadership that the country expects of them when it comes to dealing with this challenge."
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Can I add Anthony?


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What's Left Behind
Dark Night of the Soul, the longawaited collaboration between Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous' Sparklehorse, may be clouded by Linkous' untimely death earlier this year, but it makes for a stunning epitaph. With guest vocalists ranging from Julian Casablancas to Wayne Coyne to, yes, David Lynch, the gauzy, cinematic tracks are as indelible as they are mesmerizing.
California Love
After meeting at NYU, the four members of Chief went to their home state of California to record Modern Rituals, explaining all the fuzzy sunshine beaming from their '60s-ish debut. The long-haired, denim-clad twentysomethings pay homage to their influences—Tom Petty, Neil Young—by partnering earthy harmonies with no-nonsense guitar.
More From ELLE
Feel Good
Mystery Jets' relentlessly catchy, wonderfully odd pop music recalls such forerunners as XTC (the starry-eyed "Dreaming of Another World") and ELO (the harmonydrenched "Too Late to Talk"). Like the mood-enhancing brain chemical for which the record, Serotonin, is named, the British band's third effort is happy-making stuff.


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Paranoia, superstitions, and conspiracy theories may result from our need to take control of chaotic moments in our lives. Psychologists Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky proposed in the current issue of Science that "when individuals are unable to gain a sense of control objectively, they will try to gain it perceptually." For example, if your productivity and competence at work are unappreciated and unrewarded, you may feel powerless over the situation. As a result, you might associate random, unrelated events with positive or negative moments at work. You could start seeing nonexistent conspiracy theories against your success, feel paranoia toward your coworkers, and perform good luck rituals to have better days.
In a series of six experiments, Whitson and Galinsky attempted to directly correlate lack of control with illusory perceptions. In the first two, they were able to establish that participants will seek patterns to compensate for unmanageable conditions. To simulate lack-of-control circumstances, they gave volunteers random feedback that was unrelated to their responses. Participants lacking control saw more nonexistent images in pictures and scored higher on the Personal Need for Structure Scale than those who were not treated to random feedback.
Superstitions and good luck rituals may also result from the human need for control. Whitson and Galinsky presented participants three scenarios that each contained two unconnected events, like "knocking on wood before an important meeting and getting one's idea approved." Participants who were asked to remember uncontrolled situations from the past saw more connection between the unrelated events and thought that good luck actions were important in the future.
The relationship between control and false perceptions can be applied to a volatile stock market, as well. Whitson and Galinsky offered two companies to participants after giving them performance statements about each company. The percent of positive statements was the same for both companies, but the total quantity was different. Company A had eight negative and 16 positive statements, while company B had four negative and eight positive statements. Participants were asked to recall how many negative statements there were for each company after making a choice. In an unstable market, 75 percent of participants chose company A over B. They remembered more negativity toward company B because they "overestimated the infrequent type of information (negative) with the infrequently represented group (company B)."
Self-affirmation appears to combat the disorderly feeling from losing control. After lack-of-control conditioning, participants who self-affirmed saw just as few imaginary patterns in pictures as volunteers who were not treated to any type of conditioning.
The next time you feel control sliding away, it may help to remind yourself of all the positive qualities that you possess. Self-affirmation procedures can provide a sense of control that is healthier than illusory pattern seeking. Whitson and Galinsky write that psychological security "reduce the obsessive-compulsive tendencies or sinister attributions engendered by seeing too much meaning and intentions in others' innocuous behaviors."
Science, 2008. DOI: 10.1126/science.1159845


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Review: CoHo's "The Outgoing Tide"
In the opening scene of The Outgoing Tide, now on the boards at CoHo Theatre, Jack, the only child in the family the play focuses on, looks up at a migrating flock of birds and remarks at how amazing it is that they know when to get into formation and fly southward. Bruce Graham's story of aging and death suggests humans, too, know when it's time to leave—but, as from a great party, we find it terribly difficult to get up and go.
It's hard to synopsize The Outgoing Tide's plot without giving away too much. Suffice it to say the play, directed at CoHo by Stephanie Mulligan, is about a man, Gunner, with a rapidly deteriorating case of Alzheimer's disease. His wife, Peg, wants him to move with her from their house on Chesapeake Bay into an assisted-living facility. But after asking Jack, his son, to make a last-minute visit home, Gunner lays out a different plan, disturbing yet undeniably sane.
The Outgoing Tide is essentially a play about the type of end-of-life issues which more and more people are contending with as the population ages. More specifically—and here a spoiler alert is in order—it's about the choice to die with dignity rather than live for living's sake, and the implications of that choice for one's family. This subject matter makes The Outgoing Tide a topical and relevant play. But for this reviewer, the story's central conflict lacked tension—and I suspect that many in Oregon, which enshrined the right to die in state law more than two decades ago, would share that feeling. For Oregonians, the questions with which the characters in this play are grappling may simply be less urgent.
Fortunately, The Outgoing Tide is as much about those questions as it is about family—the responsibilities family members have to one another and the ways in which family shapes our identity. In exploring these issues, Graham has created a clan that is distinct yet relatable, and wonderfully complex. Watching the playwright show the relationships among the sides of this familial triangle is a pleasure, like seeing some dramatic Pythagorean theorem proven.
In CoHo's production, Graham's well-shaded characters receive nuanced performances from a trio of seasoned actors: Tobias Andersen, as the tough, charismatic Gunner; Jane Fellows, as the deeply conflicted Peg; and Gary Norman, who as Jack manages to convey a complicated brew of love and resentment with an economy of expression. Scenic designer Kristeen Willis Crosser also demonstrates great economy: by using exactly the kinds of colors and materials you'd find in a beach house, she evokes the play's bayside setting with just a few pieces (and a lovely painted backdrop).
The Outgoing Tide
CoHo Productions
Thru Nov 9 Although the contemporary end-of-life issues which The Outgoing Tide deals with may not resonate with some viewers, the play's timeless story of family—and CoHo's superb staging—make this a tide worth catching before it goes out for good.


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The same day a video surfaced showing off the near-indestructible glass display of the iPhone 6, Apple on Monday was awarded a patent that would allow it to build electronic device casings made of 100% glass.
In the patent application brought to light by AppleInsider's Mikey Campbell, Apple notes that sufficiently strong all-glass structures would "make the device heavy and bulky." Therefore, to ensure the device stays robust but also light, the company's patent for "fused glass device housings" suggests "multiple glass pieces that are joined using a glass fusing process."
Basically, the fusing process involves merging the pieces of planar and peripheral glass to form a thick material that can be pounded into any kind of desired shape. In the patent application, Apple mentions "cellular telephones, handheld computers, and portable music players."
In some of the images attached to the application, Apple shows glass boxes where displays or circuitry could literally be "slid into place," which could be helpful for larger displays like computer monitors and TVs. In other embodiments, Apple shows how the rear glass panel (opposite to the display) can employ "opaque masking material and colored glass … [to] hide internal device components from view."
In other words, Apple could apply some of the iconic design choices from its "Bondi Blue" iMac from 1998 and apply that same translucent look to its iPhones, iPads and iPods.
Apple has plenty of other glass-related patents — retail stores, staircases, you name it — but this particular patent could be made possible thanks to Apple's new sapphire glass factory in Arizona.
As depicted in Marques Brownlee's video showing off the scratch-proof sapphire glass display for the iPhone 6, Apple has been able to one-up Gorilla Glass with a material that's as thin as paper, completely transparent but impossible to scratch or scrape with knives or keys. If the iPhone 6's display can stand up to the punishment, Apple may consider actually building one of these all-glass devices in the near-future — before any competitors try such a thing. Apple also patented a "crack-proof glass" solution back in 2011.
The inventors of this particular patent, however, include Peter Russell-Clarke, a longtime member of Apple's industrial design team, inventor Michael Pilliod, and Apple's design guru and SVP of "human interface," Sir Jony Ive.


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Romeo Beckham isn't the only family star this week; Victoria just announced that she's launching an e-commerce site, set to debut in early Spring 2013. {Victoria Beckham}
Farfetch.com and the British Fashion Council have partnered up to sponsor the London Show Rooms initiative, which supports up-and-coming English designers via pop-up showrooms. {WWD}
More From ELLE
Cara Theobold, Sophie McShera, and Lily James of Downton Abbey pose for a fairytale-inspired, holiday fashion shoot. {Grazia Daily}
Spotted on Twitter: A photo of Kanye West and Jean Touitou, the founder of A.P.C., cooking up a to-be-announced project. {Coco Perez}
Retail powerhouse Zara unveils its latest concept store in London, allowing shoppers to browse through intimate cubes. {WWD}


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Fashion house Dolce & Gabbana just announced on its Facebook page that French actress and model, Laetitia Casta, will be the star of the brand's Pour Femme fragrance campaign.
If Casta sounds familiar, it's because she was the famous Guess girl in 1993 before becoming a Victoria's Secret Angel in the late '90s. She broke into the beauty biz when she became a spokesperson for L'Oréal. Now, she continues her legacy by pairing with the high-end Italian label.
More From ELLE
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said in a press release, "Laetitia has always bewitched us with her sensual and natural charisma: she is the perfect interpretation of the Dolce & Gabbana woman of today."


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With his piercing baby blues and chiseled features, it's no surprise that Keegan Allen, who stars as Toby Cavanaugh on ABC Family's hit show Pretty Little Liars, has established himself as the series' mysterious, lust-worthy heartthrob. In the show's third season fall finale, Rosewood's troubled bad boy was revealed to be one of the members of the villainous "A-Team"—and when the series returns for its January 8 winter premiere, Toby will come face-to-face with all those he has betrayed, including his girlfriend Spencer, played by Troian Bellisario. But aside from a shared affinity for motorcycles, the bubbly, personable Allen couldn't be more different than his conflicted character. Here, ELLE.com chats with the up-and-coming actor about his Broadway aspirations, those pesky costar dating rumors, and what we can expect from the second half of Pretty Little Liars's third season.
Name: Keegan Allen
More From ELLE
Age: 25
Provence: Los Angeles, CA
Relationship Status: Presumably single
On playing Pretty Little Liars's resident bad boy: "It's fun to play the villain. He's very meticulous, thought-out, and organized, even more so than I am—granted, sometimes that comes off as 'Toby stares angrily into the camera'—but it's fun to play that up. What's even more exciting is that I get to play flip sides of the spectrum, going from being the moral compass boyfriend to the ultimate betrayer."
On what will happen now that Toby has been outed as a member of the "A-Team": "I found out early on that this would happen, and it was a shock. Marlene King, the show's creator, actually came to me and asked if I would be comfortable dismantling the image of Toby. I said, 'I don't actually think it would dismantle him. It would add a whole new layer to him and the show!' I just hope that the fans get to see why this happened, how he got there, and what will happen to his relationship with the girls in the second half of the season."
On the rumors that he was dating costar Ashley Benson: "Whenever single people hang out, for some reason, everyone is like, 'Oh my god. They're dating.' No, we hang out all the time because we get off work and no one else is around, so we're like, 'Do you want to hang out?' I joke around with Lucy [Hale] all the time too—in person and on Twitter—and it's been perceived that something is going on. But it's not. I look at these girls like my sisters. I'm not dating any of them."
On finding out the show had been picked up for a fourth season via Twitter: "Twitter is pretty incredible. I found out before our producers found out about it. An entertainment website posted it and then all of the fans were like, 'Season four pickup! Yay!' I was like, 'Sweet!' I'm just excited to have been part of the journey during the first three seasons—but where the show will go in its fourth season, I have no idea yet."
On going the extra mile to stay in touch with fans: "Originally, my character was only supposed to have a six-episode arc and was supposed to die in 'The Homecoming Hangover' episode, but the fans rose up and told the writers that they didn't want Toby to die. I'm always the one who will stay and talk with people and connect with them. I personally call one of my fans every month. I answer all of my own fan mail. I feel like if they are taking the time to watch the show and get involved, I want to take the time to say thank you."
On his dream Broadway role: "As an actor, to go and see those shows—great plays like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Clifford Odets's Golden Boy—it's so exhilarating. I'd personally love to perform the role of Jerry in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story. He's a transient, lost soul, and an example of humanity at its rawest."
On his cameo role in Gia Coppola's new film Palo Alto, based on the book Palo Alto: Stories, written by James Franco: "I'm friends with the director, so it wasn't scary at all, but it was a lot more intimate. I really love the script, and it had a similar feeling as going to work on Pretty Little Liars, because I really love how our show is written as well. It's a really different character than Toby—in fact, I wouldn't recommend that anyone who gets easily offended watch my part [Laughs]. But it was fun!"
Pretty Little Liars will return on January 8 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC Family.


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Below, we've posted titles and a brief quotation from some of our favorite non-Situationist situationist blogging during February 2009. (They are listed in alphabetical order by source.)
* * *
From 3 Quarks Daily: "Stephen Daldry's The Reader"
"Alan Stone in the Boston Review: The power of The Reader, however, is that it is psychologically believable. Schlink's book is written in short chapters; each offers at least one telling psychological insight about dreams, about memory, about the disconnect between what I do and what I am. Schlink subtly raises the vexing and intriguing problem of responsibility and agency early in the novel." Read more . . .
From Cognitive Daily: "Smells — even smells we don't notice — affect our judgment of others"
"We know from studies on subliminal images and sounds that even when we're not conscious of these things, they can affect our judgments and actions. But researchers have had difficulty finding any effect of odors that we can't consciously identify. A team led by Wen Li saw procedural problems in those early studies: An odor that one person can't detect might still be obvious to someone else. Even the same individual might perceive an odor sometimes and not others ("I thought I smelled smoke, officer!"). Read more . . .
From Cognitive Daily: "The words you can't ignore, even if you see them for 1/10 of a second"
"One of stand-up comic George Carlin's most famous routines was the seven words you can't say on TV (obviously, not safe for work). He repeated the words over and over, and it was hilarious — especially back in the days before most people had cable. These days we've become desensitized to those words, and it's hardly surprising any more to see them laced into casual conversation. Or is it?" Read more . . .
From Dr. X's Free Associations: "Bad Faith or Partisan Blindness on the Right?"
"Sullivan says it's bad faith: This Manzi post would be their argument going forward. Here's why they are not being intellectually honest, and Manzi's post includes the relevant facts. The GOP has passed what amounts to a spending and tax-cutting and borrowing stimulus package every year since George W. Bush came to office. They have added tens of trillions to future liabilities and they turned a surplus into a trillion dollar deficit – all in a time of growth. They then pick the one moment when demand is collapsing in an alarming spiral to argue that fiscal conservatism is non-negotiable. I mean: seriously." Read more . . .
From Dr. X's Free Associations: "The Real Media Bias"
"Eric Zorn argues that the real media bias is against complexity: Like a lot of other Illinois journalists, I've just spent the best part of the last year rhetorically pounding the stuffing out of the very white Rod Blagojevich and taking regular whacks at the disgraceful demagoguery of the similarly pasty John McCain. At the same time I was getting slapped around by detractors for allegedly going too easy on African-American candidate, now President Barack Obama." Read more . . .
From Dr. X's Free Associations: "What Systems Theory Says About Change"
"Corpus Callosum comments on all the fussing: One peculiar irony of the 2008 Presidential campaign is that McCain's theme was "maverick," and Obama's was "change." Those are different expressions of the same idea: do things differently… Those who study family dynamics are familiar with what happens in a social system when someone tries to change. Essentially, the person who is initiating change is told it is wrong. Then he is told to revert to the old ways (change back!), then he is warned of dire consequences. Also, the others attempt to enlist additional parties as allies against the agent of change (this is called triangulation)… This occurs even among others who wanted the change, who welcome the change, and who think it is a good idea." Read more . . .
From Deliberations: "Sometimes It's Hard to be a Woman"
"Being a woman is a negative, all other things being equal, but all other things are never equal." That's me talking, and I can explain. I was quoted last month in an article by Nora Tooher in Lawyers USA about challenges women lawyers face in the courtroom. (The article was inspired by Elizabeth Parks-Stamm's article in the November issue of The Jury Expert about how female jurors respond to successful women; Nora found me because I wrote a short comment to Ms. Parks-Stamm's article for TJE.)" Read more . . .
* * *
For previous installments of "Situationism on the Blogosphere," click on the "Blogroll" category in the right margin.