ETYMOLOGY OF WORDS AND PHRASES, PART 10

Education, Entertainment, History, Humor, Mysteries 4 Minutes

THE WALLS HAVE EARS

“Be careful what you say as people may be eavesdropping.” The Louvre Palace in France was believed to have a network of listening tubes so that it would be possible to hear everything that was said in different rooms. People say that this is how the Queen Catherine de’Medici discovered political secrets and plots.

BIG WIG

Meaning an important person, especially in a particular sphere; in the 18th century, the most important political figures would wear the biggest wigs, hence today influential people are called big wigs.

CAUGHT RED-HANDED

It generally indicates that a person has been discovered in, or just after, the act of doing something wrong or illegal. However, there was an old law stating that if someone butchered an animal that didn’t belong to him, he would only be punished if he was caught with blood on his hands. If one was caught with the meat but his hands were clean, he would not be punished.

RAINING CATS AND DOGS

This idiom has two stories that try to explain its origin. The first explanation says that the origin of this phrase comes from Norse mythology, where cats would symbolise heavy rains and dogs were associated with the God of storms, Odin. The second version says that in 16th century England, houses had thatched roofs which were one of the few places where animals were able to get warm. Sometimes, when it would start to rain heavily, roofs would get slippery and cats and dogs would fall off, making it look like it’s raining cats and dogs!

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

Most people believe this means that family relationships and loyalties are the strongest and most important ones. Even though many might think this saying means that we should put family ahead of friends, it actually meant the complete opposite. The full phrase actually was “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” and it referred to warriors who shared the blood they shed in battles together. These ‘blood brothers’ were said to have stronger bonds than biological brothers.

DON’T LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH

While buying a horse, people would determine the horse’s age and condition based on its teeth, and then decide whether they want to buy it or not. This is the reason why people use this idiom to say it is rude to look for flaws in a thing that was given to you as a gift.

Mardi Gras Tokens

BY THE SAME TOKEN

Bus token? Game token? What kind of token is involved here? Token is a very old word, referring to something that’s a symbol or sign of something else. It could be a pat on the back as a token, or sign, of friendship, or a marked piece of lead that could be exchanged for money. It came to mean a fact or piece of evidence that could be used as proof. By the same token first meant, basically, “those things you used to prove that can also be used to prove this.” It was later weakened into the expression that just says “these two things are somehow associated.”

Irish Shebeen

THE WHOLE SHEBANG

The earliest uses of shebang were during the Civil War era, referring to a hut, shed, or cluster of bushes where you’re staying. Some officers wrote home about “running the shebang,” meaning the encampment. The origin of the word is obscure, but because it also applied to a tavern or drinking place, it may go back to the Irish word shebeen for a ramshackle drinking establishment.

CALLED ON THE CARPET

Carpet used to mean a thick cloth that could be placed in a range of places: on the floor, on the bed, on a table. The floor carpet is the one we use most now, so the image most people associate with this phrase is one where a servant or employee is called from plainer, carpetless room to the fancier, carpeted part of the house. But it actually goes back to the tablecloth meaning. When there was an issue up for discussion by some kind of official council it was on the carpet.

EAT HUMBLE PIE

This has come to mean making an apology and suffering humilitation along with it. However, during the Middle Ages, the Lord of a major would hold a feast after hunting. He would receive the finest cut of meat at the feast, but those of a lower standing were served a pie filled with the entrails and innards, known as “umbles.” Therefore, receiving “umble pie” was considered humiliating because it informed others in attendance of the guest’s lower status.

GIVE THE COLD SHOULDER

It has become a rude way of telling someone they aren’t welcome or to ignore someone. Although it is considered rude today, it was actually regarded as a polite gesture in medieval England. After a feast, the host would let his guests know it was time to leave by giving them a cold piece of meat from the shoulder of beef, mutton or pork.

RUB THE WRONG WAY

In colonial America, servants were required to wet-rub and dry-rub the oak board floors every week. Doing it against the grain caused streaks to form, making the wood look awful and irritating the homeowner.

WAKING UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED

The left side of the body or anything having to do with the left was often associated with something sinister. To ward off evil, innkeepers made sure the left side of the bed was pushed against a wall so guests had no other option but to get up on the “right side of the bed.”

COME UP TRUMPS

This is a variant of “turn up trumps,” which has been used since the early 17th century. “Trump” is a corruption of Triumph, which was the name of a popular card game during that period.

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Published by NebraskaFilly

Army veteran (1976-1979), retired with entirely too much time on my hands

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148 thoughts on “ETYMOLOGY OF WORDS AND PHRASES, PART 10”

      1. Morning!!
        doesn’t matter to me at all!

        hubby’s gonna take me for my haircut this morning…the top of our driveway melted somewhat yesterday and now refroze and it’s a ice rink out there!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. TheseTruths
      TheseTruths(@thesetruths)Offline
      Coyote
      Reply to TheseTruths
      February 6, 2023 01:03

      Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) is boycotting President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address taking place on Tuesday, February 7, telling Breitbart News Saturday that she will not sit there and listen to the 80-year-old commander in chief “continue to lie.”

      “I will not be attending. I do not plan to show up to and listen to him continue to lie,” the congresswoman said, explaining that Biden’s “entire presidency has been filled with lie after lie.”

      “And I’m not going to sit there and listen to him lie and then watch the media and other members of Congress applaud him his lies,” she said, listing a series of examples of Biden’s blunders — from lying about the border crisis to energy prices.

      https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/04/exclusive-rep-mary-miller-boycotting-sotu-address-i-will-not-listen-to-biden-continue-to-lie/

      Liked by 3 people

    2. Liked by 2 people

    3. Liked by 3 people

  8. Troublemaker10
    February 6, 2023 1:40 am

    Truth Social

    Kash Patel
    @Kash

    ·4h
    Watch how fast govt can ‘declassify’ docs to support this balloon farce… just wait, fake news already in on the con job- but trump did it… NOT
    #FWK

    Feb 05, 2023, 8:44 PM

    Liked by 1 person

  10. well isn’t THIS interesting?

    bflyjesusgrl 🍊 😎MEGA MAGA GAME ON😎(@bflyjesusgrl)Online
    Coyote
    February 6, 2023 06:51

    RDS is a BAD DUDE!! Details in her substack are brutal.

    FL has highest number of J6 defendants and Laura Loomer wants DeSantis to start fighting for them… https://t.co/kM1uDLlUX7
    FL has highest number of J6 defendants and Laura Loomer wants DeSantis to start fighting for them… https://t.co/kM1uDLlUX7

    — MAGA Thought UKnew (@muskisright2024) February 6, 2023

    But, after all, why would @GovRonDeSantis help these J6 political prisoners who are being tortured?

    His job during the Iraq War was to oversee the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. And, he allowed Capitol Police to enter FL after J6 to hunt down & arrest Trump Supporters. pic.twitter.com/Mplled5rb1

    — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) January 30, 2023

    Liked by 3 people

  13. dunewall
    dunewall
    February 6, 2023 8:11 am

    Interesting that if a country wants to scope out The US military all they have to do is float a balloon and the news media will pin point every military location for them.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. “Dissecting The New Plea for COVID Amnesty — Recapping the mistakes that were made throughout COVID-19, and what can be done to prevent them from happening again.”

    A Midwestern Doctor
    Feb 3
    EXCERPT: “Many of you may remember Emily Oster’s disingenuous plea for amnesty in The Atlantic. The responses to it were almost all “How about [insert your preferred profanity].” My favorite response was someone choosing to pay to fly this over her house after the article came out:

    In Oster’s plea for amnesty, I felt she was providing an excellent example of a pseudo-apology—she “asked for forgiveness” but simultaneously refused to admit she was in any way at fault for any of her previous actions, and used a variety of linguistic constructs to try to both have her cake and eat it too. I really hate when people do that, so I decided to write a response to her article:
    https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/dissecting-the-deceptive-plea-for

    Many people suspected this article was a test to see if the public was open to a very conservative apology, and it appears that whoever commissioned it got their answer—they would have to offer a bit more the next time around. Three months later, that appears to have happened, and this time we received a better offer:

    Note: the entirety of Newsweek’s article will be presented in screenshots to differentiate it from my commentary.

    Before we go any further, I want to be clear that this piece, like Oster’s (who was also not a doctor), was primarily written for an educated liberal audience (hence why it uses so many of the academic constructs they love). I believe the goal of this piece is to test out soundbites that could be used to address the major issues that the medical establishment has created for itself as a result of how it handled COVID-19. The goal essentially is to have their cake (say something nice that makes everyone happy) and eat it (not have to actually admit what they did wrong or relinquish any of their power by changing the core problematic policies they put forward).

    Because of how much things have changed in the last 3 months, we are now in the position to ask for a lot more than before, which is why a much more candid apology is being given. Nonetheless, I still feel that Emily Oster made a disingenuous apology. However, since there is a lot more nuance here than in Oster’s (as this one attempts to be more persuasive), I felt compelled to place Oster 2.0 under a microscope.”

    https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/dissecting-the-new-plea-for-covid

    Liked by 1 person

    1. agreed.
      i have taught my hubby and my son that an apology does not start with “I’m sorry you…”
      It starts with I’m sorry I…
      take responsibility if you truly want to be forgiven. otherwise you are just transferring blame

      Liked by 1 person

  21. OK, this is long but sooooo funny…..

    “We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence. Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.

    One day I’m mowing the backyard with my cheapo Walmart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.

    It seems as though I hadn’t remembered to unplug it after all. Now I’m standing there, I’ve got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover. Time stood still.

    The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine. It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of shit lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.

    Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you’re all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.

    At this point I’m about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can’t let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences … but Dad always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled. This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil. At this point I’m thinking I’m going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.

    ‘Damn!,’ I think, as I remember I just filled the tank! Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think ‘Oh God please let me die …. Pleeeeaze . But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner’s right foot.

    So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day … he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.

    I honestly don’t know how I got loose from the wire … I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned. There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.

    Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:

    1 – Three of my teeth seem to have melted.

    2 – I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).

    3 – Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.

    4 – My left eye will not open.

    5 – My right eye will not close.

    6 – The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.

    7 – I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don’t understand this???).

    That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow. The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. a) if we didn’t have dogs as pets, what would they do? cats can be outside cats and fend for themselves…dogs???not so much
      b) she’s slipped from edgy to OVER THE EDGE!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. she seems like an attention whore doesn’t she?
      i don’t remember other first ladies showing up at this kind of stuff…
      maybe i never paid attention

      Liked by 1 person

  28. sliding down…we’re back.
    we slid a little going down the driveway, but we almost didn’t make it back up!
    the hairpin turn was so icy, hubby had to back down twice to get a running start to get up that part of the hill. then we finally got up and crested the last part of hill to get in front of the garage door, he had to back up and turn and we slid again…man!!

    Liked by 1 person

  34. R Green
    R Green
    February 6, 2023 9:48 am

    Nancy Pelosi had a ‘total nuclear meltdown’ on January 6th: Trump’s defense secretary says Democrat was ‘shrieking’ about rioters ‘taking selfies’ and slams ‘geriatric’ Congressional leaders for ‘cowering like frightened children’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11716303/Pelosi-total-nuclear-meltdown-Jan-6th-Trumps-defense-secretary-charges-new-memoir.html

    He was heavily critical of the Congressional leadership at the time  – both Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer but also of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.
    …I never could have imagined anything like this—getting reamed out by a histrionic Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell as they implored me to send troops to forcibly expel a rowdy band of MAGA supporters, infiltrated by a handful of provocateurs, who were traipsing through the halls of the Capitol, taking selfies, and generally making a mockery of the entire institution.’
    Pelosi ordered him to ‘get troops to the Capitol now,’ Miller recalled…calling it ironic because of how she and Democrats blasted the use of National Guard troops to quiet the Black Lives Matter protests, which sprang up around the country after the murder of George Floyd.
    He said they first got the request for assistance at 3 p.m. on January 6th. The first rioters broke into the Capitol at 2:12 p.m.
    You’re going to need 10,000 people,’ President Trump said bluntly. I wasn’t sure what to make of his prediction. Where did he get that number? I chalked it up to his fondness for hyperbole.
    Pence called him at 4:08 pm. He noted he was surprised Pence had stayed at the Capitol.
    ‘I had no idea that he had stayed. Surprisingly, he was absolutely unfazed; it was as if he was calling from his office at the White House asking about a routine item. Pence asked how long I thought it would be until the Capitol would be safe enough for Congress to reconvene and continue the Electoral College certification process. I advised him that I had fully mobilized the National Guard and that troops would be arriving in about,’ he said.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I especially liked this part: “In his book, Miller said January 6th was not an ‘insurrection.’

      ‘Yes, the riot at the Capitol on January 6 was stupid and criminal and an absolute disgrace,’ he writes. ‘But it was far from anything resembling an ‘insurrection’ or, as the Democrat slogan repeated ad nauseam suggests, an ‘attack on our democracy.’ The actual attack on democracy is what has been happening in the halls of the very same building for years or even decades, perpetrated by elected leaders of both parties.

      He issued a call for new leadership for the country: ‘But the absurd spectacle served a very specific purpose: to justify the ever increasing concentration of power in the hands of our corrupt and incompetent political elite. They may hold positions of leadership, but they are not really leaders. They may be entrusted with great responsibility, but they never take responsibility when it really counts. Our ruling class is incapable of ruling. And they should not be trusted with America’s future.’

      Liked by 1 person

  35. Bobby Poon
    February 6, 2023 8:23 am

    Chinese donations to University of Pennsylvania totaled $61 million from 2017-19, an increase from $19 million during the previous four years.
    The managing director of the Penn Biden Center from 2017-2019 was Antony Blinken, current Sec of State.

    Liked by 1 person

  36. “Autism May (or May Not) Be Associated with Increased Risk of Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, and Heart Disease — Twenty years ago, moms and dad were clamoring for allopathy to see beyond autism and to address health issues with the entire patient. Now a noisy study seems to indicate three risks.”

    James Lyons-Weiler
    36 min ago

    EXCERPT: “Currently, 1 in 44 children is diagnosed with autism by the age of 8 years in the United States. That’s up from 1 in 10,000 in the 1970s. People with a diagnosis of autism have long had poorer long-term outcomes regarding their health; in fact, their life expectancies are estimated to be between 12 and 30 years lower than people without the diagnosis.

    Researchers from Texas conducted and published a systematic review and a meta-analysis of 34 studies that included 276 173 participants with autism and 7 733 306 participants without autism in search of conditions known to have a morbidity risk.

    They found that having a diagnosis of autism is associated with greater risks of developing diabetes overall (RR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.23-2.01; 20 studies), type 1 diabetes (RR, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.06-2.54; 6 studies), and type 2 diabetes (RR, 2.47; 95% CI, 1.30-4.70; 3 studies). Autism was also associated with increased risks of dyslipidemia (RR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.20-2.40; 7 studies) and heart disease (RR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.42-1.50; 3 studies).

    People with autism were found to be 46% more likely to have heart disease, 64% more likely to develop type 1 diabetes, and 46% more likely to experience type 2 diabetes. Children with autism were nearly twice as likely to develop diabetes (184%) and high blood pressure (154%).

    The study authors reported that they did not find an increased risk of hypertension or stroke, suggesting a different mechanism of disease pathophysiology of heart disease behind the increased risk in autism.”

    https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/autism-may-or-may-not-be-associated

    Liked by 1 person

  37. “Japanese Researchers Sue the Government for Hiding Inconvenient Truths About the Jab — “As a medical doctor and a scientist, I had no choice but to dare to take legal action.”

    The Vigilant Fox
    11 min ago
    Originally Published on DailyClout

    “Today, we filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government for cancellation of the administrative action,” announced Dr. Masanori Fukushima during a press conference on February 2, 2023. Because the Japanese Health Ministry refuses to acknowledge the causal link between vaccines and deaths, Professor Fukushima and a team of researchers said they “had no choice but to dare to take legal action.”

    Masanori Fukushima is an infectious disease expert and Professor Emeritus at Kyoto University — with over 25 years of oncology experience. He has been hammering at the cracks in the vaccine narrative and publicly condemned Japan’s Ministry of Health late last year.
    ———–
    I have checked with a Japanese translator on the accuracy of the following text from the video translation, and he assessed it to be “actually pretty good.”

    Video/transcript: https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/japanese-researchers-sue-the-government

    Liked by 1 person

  38. Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF over Mont Chiran, France…

    Snow on the beach in Greece…

    Amazing fireball plunges into Merapi volcano in Indonesia…

    Chocolate Frog

    Drive Thru at Carl’s Jr. in Mammoth Lakes, CA last night… Mammoth Mountain has seen 378-504″ of snow already this season…

    Liked by 1 person

        1. in a three foot pool…I’m fine.
          but anything where i can’t easily stand with my head far above the water? nope. it freaks me out.
          I love hot tubs and taking baths but i can easily stand up. (but showers? not loving those)

          Liked by 1 person

              2. i feel bad for hubby–he loves boats and sometimes suggests we rent one to drive on the lake here. I tell him to please do it without me, but he won’t, sigh.
                which is why I love when my daughter comes up and brings her kayaks…that he will go and do with them.

                Liked by 1 person

              4. i have.
                we did rent a boat once or twice.
                then I discovered he loved motorcycles and and did too…so we opted for one of those and he still kayaks with my daughter and granddaughter

                Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m not really a big worrier about landfills and trash but even I wouldn’t leave all that debris behind!!! WTF were they thinking? Themselves, that’s it!!!! Says a lot about people who do that shit!

        Liked by 1 person

  44. add MORE members to congress? they don’t represent us now!!
    entire article
    Within weeks of allegations that his wife engaged in insider trading when she acquired $15,000 worth of Amgen stock, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has introduced legislation to expand the number of Congressmen and women in D.C.

    The Restoring Equal and Accountable Legislators in the House (REAL House) Act aims to increase the number of representatives and increase their “diversity,” as well as the diversity of the Electoral College because Blumenauer thinks that congressional districts are too large.

    “The number of constituents living in a single congressional district has dramatically increased since the number of House members was arbitrarily capped in 1929,” Blumenauer said. “Current district sizes threaten the direct constituent connection on which the House was founded.”

    Currently, there are 435 voting members of the House of Representatives, a cap from when the U.S. population was only 122 million people.

    “The REAL House Act will help our government better reflect our districts and constituents’ needs,” Blumenauer said in a statement online. “To restore the House’s direct link to the public and to foster greater diversity among members and the Electoral College, we must increase the number of representatives.”

    The proposal did not outline how much it would cost to increase the size of the U.S. government by his suggested 149 seats.

    Since 1929, Blumenauer argues the U.S. population has more than doubled to 328 million people and, as a result, the size of congressional districts has nearly tripled while the number of representatives has remained stagnant.

    “The average congressional district now includes 800,000 constituents. If Congress fails to act, by 2050, each member of Congress is on track to represent more than one million people,” he said.

    In December 2022, the Democratic National Committee approved a move to remove Iowa as the first state on the party’s presidential nominating calendar—as has been tradition since 1972.

    Instead, South Carolina is slated to replace Iowa in 2024, as is President Joe Biden’s preference given his performance in the Palmetto State in 2020. Biden has said the state better reflects the diversity of Democrat voters.

    Last month, Congress revised the Electoral Count Act, established in 1887 in a way that creates new rules for the presidential elections. For example, there is no question now that the vice president of the United States cannot discard any state’s electoral votes, while lawmaker objections to the results of a particular presidential election require support from both Chambers.

    Blumenauer’s concern that congressional districts are too large emerged after the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) highlighted that, following Blumenauer’s wife’s purchase of Amgen stock, its price increased by 24 percent presumably because a week before, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) acquired $290 million worth of the Amgen medication, Nplate, in the event of radiological emergencies.

    Blumenauer is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and its health subcommittee, which may have given him advanced insider knowledge that the drug was being purchased by the U.S. government as it takes action to prepare in the event of a nuclear attack, according to FACT.

    “Given the information that they have access to, under the ethics rules, members of Congress who sit on committees must meet a higher standard,” said FACT executive director Kendra Arnold. “Every time the public sees a transaction like this, it causes them to question the motivation of our elected officials, which is something the ethics rules are specifically designed to prevent.”

    Blumenauer did not respond to requests for comment.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/oregon-democrat-proposes-increasing-congressional-diversity-by-adding-seats_5024554.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport

    Liked by 1 person

      1. EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        they want to apportion new seats BY DISTRICT SIZE. so the bigger the area (thinking commiefornia and ny) would get MORE SEATS. HELLS TO THE NO!

        Liked by 1 person

  46. “Ending the USG COVID-19 Public Health Emergency — What does the “intent to end” on May 11, 2023 actually mean for you?”

    Robert W Malone MD, MS
    34 min ago

    EXCERPT: “Finally, we may be seeing a winding down of US Federal Government responses to the COVIDcrisis. January 30, 2023 is a date destined to go down in history as the beginning of the end of the draconian US Federal Government’s “public health” measures, which have been implemented in a step wise (ratcheting) manner beginning late January, 2020. What does this really mean, in a practical, real-world, kitchen-table sense of things?

    Depending on when you define the point in time where SARS-CoV-2 entered the population of humans, the COVIDcrisis has extended for about three years- in contrast to the two year long “1918 Swine Flu” epidemic involving a different RNA respiratory virus attributed to causing over 50 million deaths world wide. As of January 31, 2023, there have been 6,812,798 cumulative deaths from COVID-19 per the WHO.

    In terms of raw cumulative mortality (not adjusted for changes in total global population) that would make the 1918 H1N1 outbreak (which probably had other infectious cofactors) about seven times more lethal than COVID-19. Adjusted for population (1917 global population about 1.8 billion, current global population about 7.8 billion) that would be a relative mortality of around 50M/1800M= 2.7% (1918 H1N1) compared to 6.8M/7,800M = 0.087% (2020-2023 COVID-19). In the case of the 1918 RNA respiratory virus outbreak, there were few if any significant medical countermeasures (such as antiviral drugs or vaccines) available, and quenching of the outbreak was primarily consequent to development of “natural immunity” within the global population.

    Assertions that the considerably lower absolute and relative mortality associated with COVID-19 (relative to both H1N1/”Spanish Flu” as well as relative to the gross over estimates from Imperial College/Professor Neil Ferguson) can be attributed to modern medical countermeasures developed and deployed during the course of the COVID overlooks the proven poor performance – both efficacy and safety- of vaccine, monoclonal antibody and drug products.

    Comparing these high level mortality statistics reveals that the global distribution of COVID-19 attributed “mortality” is not even, and a strong case can be made that access to and deployment of these “medical countermeasures” is not only not correlated with access and uptake of these treatments, but may even be inversely correlated. Compounding the challenges in objectively assessing aggregate “mortality” or case/infection fatality rate are the perverse incentives to overcount morbidity and mortality which may exist in various “first world” economies (notably the United States) and other variables which may result in under- or overcounting disease and death attributed to SARS-CoV-2.”

    https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/ending-the-usg-covid-19-public-health

    Liked by 1 person

  50. That’s it! I’m buying a squirrel feeder and a bag of black oiled sunflower seeds, which they LOVE! I also discovered they will eat dried meal worms – since I had most of a bag left (the birds wouldn’t eat them), I poured them out at the base of the tree, added some bird seed on the ground, and replenished the corn. Hopefully, that will keep them busy for a while at least!

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