I just posted the second half of a review about Candice Millard’s book, “Destiny of the Republic, A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.” D. Willard Bliss was the doctor who took control of President James A. Garfield after he had been shot by a madman. Bliss probed to try to find the bullet with unsterilized fingers on several occasions. Garfield died from the massive infections introduced by the inept medical treatment. The author observes that the expression “ignorance is bliss” could have been applied to describe Dr. Bliss. According to Reference.com, the phrase came from the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” by Thomas Gray. The quote is “Thought would destroy their paradise. No more. Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”

I settled on this expression because I just posted the first half of a review of Candice Millard’s book, “Destiny of the Republic, A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.” The book is about the remarkable James A. Garfield, who was shot by a madman and died some time later because of inept medical care.

Mahalo.com explains that the expression originated with the sound a person makes when they are being killed, but that it has evolved to mean to protest loudly and angrily. The example given is, “If I don’t get a good raise I’m going to yell bloody murder.”

Wikipedia defines McCarthyism as “…the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence.” The term originated during the “Second Red Scare” in which there was fear of Soviet influence and espionage. The term was coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Senator Joseph McCarthy, but has evolved to include activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the “Hollywood blacklist” that came from those hearings. I’ve written a three part review on this web site of the book “Blacklisted by History, the Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy. The most recent review is in two parts about the book “No Sense of Decency” that takes the negative side of Joe McCarthy’s life and times. I’ve also posted a discussion about the subject on the blog link of this web site.

There is compelling evidence that the biggest mistake McCarthy made was significantly underestimating the magnitude of Soviet espionage during and after World War II. However, his reputation will be forever branded by the term “McCarthyism.”

I’m posting a description of this word because I’ve been reviewing books about Joe McCarthy in that link of this web site, and he was described as “a fraud and a hoax” by one of his fellow senators. (You’ll learn Joe made the mistake of taking on powerful people and that he underestimated the extent of Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government if you read the reviews.) Regardless of that other subject, Wikipedia defines a hoax as “…a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as the truth.” Thomas Adv’s A candle in the dark published in 1656 mentioned hocus pocus as the origin of the word “hoax.” Magicians uttered lengthy phrases including the term hocus pocus to distract the audience from their sleight of hand. The phrase also was used to imitate (or mock) Catholic priests performing transubstantiation (the ritual of turning bread and wine into Body and Blood).

This expression originated in Shakespere’s Hamlet, and refers to Marcellus saying “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” He is warning that all is not well in the political hiearchy. It seems that the current king Claudias was involved in his father’s murder to gain the throne. I’m posting this expression because I just completed a three part review of “Blackmailed by History about Joe McCarthy, and what I’ve learned from reading books about “Tailgunner Joe” is that politicians will stop at nothing to further their careers.

I thought this would be a good expression as a companion to the review of a book about Joe McCarthy I’ve begun posting on that link. (Part I and Part II have been posted, and III will be up in about a week.) Joe left a safe world to volunteer in the Army Air Corp in World War II, and was assigned to be a tail gunner in the Pacific. The phrase originated from a patriotic song written in 1943 about a damaged warplane miraculously making it back to base. The song starts out by describing the plane as missing, and in the second chorus:

“Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer, Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer, Though there’s one motor gone, We can still carry on, Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer.”

The expression continues use to describe succeeding despite poor conditions or shortage of resources.