Mind your Ps and Qs

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The Phrase Finder explains the only thing that is clear about this expression is that it means you should “Be on your best behavior; be careful of your language.” The choices on the origin are:

  1. Minding pints and quarts while tallying drinks in English pubs (there’s little to support this one)
  2. Advice to printers and school children to avoid confusing the lowercase Ps and Qs (the favorite)
  3. Mind your pea (jacket) and queue (wig) (difficult to imagine why anyone would confuse the two)
  4. “Pee” as a coarse coat and “kue” as a man’s wig (again, difficult why those would be confused)
  5. Derived from an admonition to children to “mind their pleases and thank-yous” (which isn’t believed to lead to Ps and Qs)

Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill Dies in Colorado

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Supporters of the “End of Life Options Act” in the Colorado legislature caved in to politics and moved the bill off the legislative calendar. The act was “…closely modeled after the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon, which has worked well for 17 years, without a documented case of abuse or coercion.” The proposed law would have allowed “…mentally capable, terminally ill adults the option to request a doctor’s prescription for medication they could take if their suffering becomes unbearable, to painlessly and peacefully die in their sleep.”

The failure of the Colorado legislature to act is a classic case of political special interests successfully trumping public opinion. A poll had indicated 68 percent of Coloradans wanted a right-to-die law, but it was not to be. Legislators who were inclined to support the bill were fearful that their support would be used against them in their quest to be re-elected. Thus we have the perfect example of what is wrong with our political system. Our elected officials were willing to put their political careers ahead of the will of the people.

Terminal illness does not discriminate. All of us will die, and some of us will die comfortably and peacefully. Others will die after experiencing extreme suffering. The actions by the Colorado legislators will require those who wish to make our own end of life decision to take a trip to Oregon.

Ghost Writer

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Charles Earle Funk’s book “A Hog on Ice & Other Curious Expressions” explains that “Ghosts, as everyone knows, are invisible, unseen. So it is with the ghost writer; he is the unseen and anonymous person who writes for hire…Until a decade or so ago such persons, were just called ghosts—somebody thought it a bit more dignified to add ‘writer’.” Much (perhaps even most?) of the works of public officials are written by anonymous and talented ghost writers.

Another Attack on GMOs

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A Denver Post editorial describes how Boulder County, Colorado commissioners have bowed to “…a coalition of anti-GMO activists and representatives of the organic and natural food industries…” They voted to phase out GMO crops on county-owned farmland despite “…overwhelming consensus among scientists and prestigious scientific bodies that the foodstuffs are safe.” The president of a group representing the farmers points out an important advantage of GMO crops. “I haven’t sprayed insecticide on my corn in six years.” Crop yields have increased significantly, and, “…in the case of sugar beets, dramatically so.” However, to meet the demand of the activists, the Boulder commissioners ordered its staff to draft a plan to phase out GMO crops on county-owned farmland.

The move apparently is designed to force organic farming, which is “…a risk-fraught option…” The county provides major financial incentives to would-be organic farmers, but “…19 of 24 organic farmers who took advantage of the country’s program have failed in the past five years.” The editorial closes with the comments, “It is one thing to incentivize organic farming to promote agricultural diversity. It is quite another to banish high-quality, high-yield crops because of anti-scientific fears. Boulder County struck the right balance years ago and shouldn’t reverse itself now.”

Sleep Like a Log

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This is a companion expression to the one posted last week, “sleep like a top.” Both mean to sleep soundly, but “sleep like a log” makes more sense to me. Logs truly are immobile while tops only project the image of immobility while they are spinning. The Phase Finder adds that some have suggested “sleep like a long is derived” “…from the sound of sawing being like the sound of snoring.”

Water from the Sky, Water from the Ground

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I grew up in New York State. If a stream ran through my property there, I could pump water out of it.

Not so in Colorado or many other states. Every drop of water out west belongs to someone: As it falls from the sky, as it runs across the land, as it sinks into aquifers. There’s a saying in Colorado that “whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting.” In Colorado, people still shoot each other over water. The Great American Desert never disappeared and may be coming back with rising temperatures and increased drought.

I had to learn that it’s illegal to have a rain barrel in Colorado – illegal to collect the rain that fell on my roof. Not that county sheriffs spent a lot of time searching for scofflaws – but it was unexpected for many transplant like myself.

But that’s about to change.

Danielson of Wheat Ridge and state Rep. Daneya Esgar of Pueblo sponsored a bill in the Colorado Legislature, House Bill 16-1005 (pdf), that would allow homeowners to collect rain from a residential rooftop. The bill passed the state House with overwhelming bipartisan support on Feb. 29, and passed the state Senate 27-6 on April 1. It’s now waiting for Gov. John Hickenloope to sign it into law.

Homeowners will be limited to 110 gallons of storage capacity, but this represents a change in the state. It represents some compromises – a bad word in some people’s mind these days. But Colorado is not alone:

Record droughts and a host of other water-supply worries have prompted numerous other states [15!] to enact laws that impact the use of rain barrels

Climate change, drought, and population growth is impacting the land we love. This will force us to confront water issues whether we like it or not. I live in southwest New Mexico now, with no irrigated “yard” at all and only container-raised herbs and one or two tomatoes each year. But I still own Colorado water rights, still marvel at how cheap it is to lease water for alfalfa and how expensive it is to buy water for a home.

We have some hard choice to make in the future, some choices about priorities – lawns vs food vs hay vs tradition vs cities vs… I don’t know what. There will be losers and winners, but it’s a topic we must address.