There is no dispute that this expression is used to describe a cheap or misery person. However, we have choices for the origin. World Wide Words says the word “skate” was used to express contempt, and it evolved into “cheapskate” in the late nineteenth century. The term was originally used to describe a worn-out horse, a mean or contemptible person, or a second-rate sportsman. Wiki answers has two other possible explanations for the origin, and both are more colorful. One is that skates that strapped onto your shoes were so cheap that they often fell off, and were literally cheap skates. The other is that in the early 1900’s there was a panhandler named Kate Robinson who inherited a fortune, but continued to beg. Thrifty people were told “you are as cheap as Kate,” which when said quickly becomes “cheapskate.” My vote is that the last explanation is the most interesting.
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Energy Victory, Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil, Part I
This book by Robert Zubrin details our current dependence on foreign oil, the consequences of that dependence, and what we could do about it. There is too much information to cover in a single review, so this part will be about the current situation and the consequences. The first sentence of the Preface warns, “America is losing the war on terror.” The author lays much of the blame for that on the wealth being looted to buy oil from the Mideast as a result of our failure to have a competent energy policy, and that money is financing the war against us. Petro dollars have been and are funding Islamic schools that graduate the fanatics who will plan and execute future terrorist acts. Iran is developing nuclear weapons with the proceeds from oil.
The author is no fan of Saudi Arabia, and he provides a history of that country to back up his position. Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammed ibn Abd al Whahhab formed a partnership in the mid-eighteenth century to foster their belief that the Islamic world had a duty to wage jihad. Their religion deemed that humanity was divided into Muslims, infidels, and polytheists. Once the Muslims conquered an area, the infidels (including Christians and Jews) would be allowed to live as inferiors. The polytheists (Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and “insufficiently orthodox Muslims”) were to be killed without delay. Saud married Wahhab’s daughter, and the Saudi royal family was formed. They began their jihads, and inhabitants of Shiite areas were massacred. In 1932 Ibn Saud proclaimed the conquered areas to be Saudi Arabia and all inhabitants to be personal property of the royal family. He formed alliances with American businessmen to avoid the imperialistic British. Roosevelt signed a treaty with him in World War II to ensure America’s fuel supplies. Continue reading
Talk Through Your Hat
The Phrase Finder says that the expression means someone is talking nonsense, and that they are pretending to have knowledge on a subject on which they are ignorant. Reference is given to Farmer and Henley Slang and Its Analogues, 1888: “Dis is only a bluff dey’re makin’ – see! Dey’re talkin’ tru dere hats.” The possibility is raised that the expression originated from the practice in the UK parliament where you had to be seated and wearing a top hat to raise a point of order. This is followed by “topping,” or “talking out a bill,” which means filibustering with rambling nonsense. However, it is pointed out that stories about top-hatted members of the UK parliament becoming a dominantly U.S. expression doesn’t seem to be likely. There is speculation the idiom originated from men holding their hats over their faces while pretending to pray. I think it is more likely that it is a variation of “talking off the top of your head,” where an empty hat would set, which means you are speaking speculatively without much knowledge.
The Apple of My Eye
World Wide Words says this phrase was used in several Bible passages and by Shakespeare, but that it has been around “as long as the language.” The first recorded example was in the words of King Alfred at the end of the ninth century. Sight is considered to be precious, the pupil of the eye was called the apple, and to be called “the apple of my eye” was considered the highest form of endearment. The Latin original for pupil was pupilla, or “little doll.” “It was applied to the dark central portion of the eye within the iris because of the tiny image of oneself…that one can see when looking into another person’s eye.”
Pakistan is More Dangerous than Egypt
The focus of the world is on the demonstrations and clashes in Egypt, and there are many reasons why that is worrisome. There is always cause for concern when economic pressures make large numbers of people willing to march against a repressive government. However, we should be more concerned about Pakistan, which has about 100 nuclear weapons and is not the picture of political stability.
Pakistan has been a nominal ally of the United States and has been at war with India three times. BBC News reported the recent assassination of Governor Salam Taseer by one of his bodyguards. The guard said he killed Taseer because the Governor had voiced opposition to the blasphemy law when he came to the defense of a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Taseer had also recently spoken out about “illiterate clerics” who had issued the fatwa religious decrees resulting in assassination of the two Bhuttos. There were demonstrations calling the guard a hero for carrying out the assassination of a man who was defending a blasphemer, and other demonstrations mourning the loss of the Governor who had advocated moderate reforms.
The NY Times reported there are tens of thousands of Pakistanis working in their nuclear weapons programs, and part of their efforts involve building reactors to make a new generation of plutonium weapons. (You can see Pakistan join the nuclear club toward the end of the 15 minute “Video of Nuclear Detonations 1845-1998” available in the December 2010 archive on this site. India exploded its first bomb in 1974 and Pakistan’s was in 1998.) Pakistan countered criticism of their expanding nuclear programs with reports emphasizing their belief they are following “…a responsible policy of maintaining credible minimum deterrence…”
There are reports that the United States has provided hundreds of millions to Pakistan to secure their nuclear materials and weapons. However, it is difficult to imagine the possible futility of those expenditures and the consequences if Pakistan would fall to a government friendly to Iran.
Tickled Pink
The Phase Finder describes this idiom to mean you have had a happy experience that has caused you to flush with pleasure. The expression apparently originated from observation that emtional pleasure causes the same kind of flushing of the face created by physical tickling. I recall reading that tickling can become tortorous if carried too far. The companion expression “tickled to death” is used to descibe someone who could not be happier, but the literal meaning is that someone has been tickled to the point breathing becomes difficult. The term “tickled to death” appeared in the St. Nicholas childrens magazine in 1907, and the term “tickled pink” was used by an Illinois newspaper The Daily Review in 1910. For those who want a scientific explanation, the flush (or a blush) is caused by an emotional response that tells the brain the tiny vessels in the face need more blood.