The Phrase Finder comes to the rescue once again. The expression means something is a certainty. It is “…a pseudo betting term…a pleasant-sounding alliterative phrase which indicated short odds—dollars are valuable but donuts aren’t. The phrase parallels the earlier English expression ‘a pound to a penny’.” The phrase originated in the mid-19th century, with the earliest printed example found in an 1876 edition of The Daily Nevada State Journal.
Author Archives: RF_Alum
Credit Cards and Insurance Costs
We recently received notice that our auto insurance will be coming up for renewal. Reading through the several pages of privacy notices and disclosures finally led me to the last page warnings about opening new credit card accounts. There are discussions about the importance of paying balances on time, which wasn’t a surprise. However, I thought many people might not be aware that the “insurance risk score” considers how many new accounts you’ve opened in the past twelve months and the past five years. According to the insurance company, “Research shows that consumers who open a large number of accounts experience more insurance loses.”
I was skeptical about the statement, thinking we have a long term relationship with our insurance agency and they undoubtedly understand our record of filing claims without checking how many new credit cards we’ve requested. I called our agent and was told that insurance companies do look closely at credit cards as a part of their assessment of “insurance risk score,” and opening new credit cards definitely can increase costs of both auto and home insurance. I was told that three new cards in three years would be considered a negative in calculating that score. I inquired whether cancelling seldom used cards would be a good idea and was told cancelling a card is equivalent to opening a card. This was making less sense to me all the time. Why would cancelling a card not be considered a positive if opening accounts is considered to be a negative?
I hope I can learn more. My cynical thought is that insurance companies are happy to have found a way to charge more. They are assisted by all the stores that offer discounts if you apply for their cards. The money saved by having those store cards might be more than offset by additional insurance costs.
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
The UK Phrase Dictionary explains that the expression means “From the highest authority.” Bettors are always eager to hear which horse is likely to win a race and are eager to hear what stable workers and trainers believe. “The notional ‘from the horse’s mouth’ is supposed to indicate one step better than even that inner circle, that is the horse itself.” The Syracuse Herald published a comment in May 1913, “I got a tip yesterday, and if it wasn’t straight from the horse’s mouth it was jolly well the next thing to it.”
The Fate of the Earth
This book by Jonathan Schell presents a stark prediction of the nuclear apocalypse. I found the writing style to be too grandiose, but kept slugging away to consider the author’s point of view. As an example of it being grandiose, the cover tells us, “Schell has taken upon himself the task of speaking for man, and acting for man; and it can be hoped that what he has written here will lead the way for many.” More to the point of the content, “Schell describes, within the limits of what is dependably and unarguably known to science, a full-scaled nuclear holocaust.” He writes as if he needs to convince readers that nuclear war would be bad. The book was written in 1982 when multiple books were written predicting the end of civilization. I recommend this one as being a good example of that genre.
The first section of the book is titled “A Republic of Insects and Grass,” which describes what would survive a nuclear holocaust. Note there is no indication any humans would survive. The book begins with irrefutable facts about the number of nuclear weapons and megatonnage that have been built since the first nuclear detonation at Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The book then gives a brief primer of the horrible effects of a nuclear exchange. President Dwight Eisenhower recognized the risks in a 1956 letter that said, “…one day both sides have to ‘meet at the conference table with the understanding that the era of armaments has ended, and the human race must conform its actions to this truth or die.” There are many examples of political figures making statements that reinforce or confirm that comment. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in 1974, “…the accumulation of nuclear arms had to be constrained if mankind is not to destroy itself.” President Jimmy Carter said in his farewell address that after a nuclear holocaust, “…the survivors, if any, would live in despair amid the poisoned ruins of a civilization that had committed suicide.” (Those were surprising words for a President who authorized more nuclear weapons programs than any other President.) Continue reading
Silver Bullet
The Phrase Finder says the expression refers to, “A direct and effortless solution to a problem.” There was an ancient belief that silver had magical powers. There are records of spears and bullets being made from silver to battle evil enemies. Nineteen century fiction has numerous references to silver bullets being used “…against werewolves, witches, the Devil, and all manner of creatures…” The use of the expression for the current meaning didn’t become popular until the Lone Ranger radio show began describing how the hero “…arrived from nowhere, overcame evil and departed, leaving behind only a silver bullet and echoes of ‘who was that masked man’?” There was a warning published in 1951 about viewing the atomic bomb as a magic weapon. “This is not a silver bullet which can deliver itself or otherwise work military miracles.”
Oil Spills from Man and Nature
Several news agencies published articles on the fifth anniversary of Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion describes the disaster. According to the Associated Press eleven workers were killed and from 100 to 172 million gallons of oil were spilled into the gulf during the three months it took to cap the well. The lower estimate is from British Petroleum (BP). Today the “Gulf of Mexico looks clean, green, and whole again, teeming with life—a testament to the teeming resilience of nature.” There are, however, problems that remain. There continues to be oil on the seafloor, dolphin deaths have tripled, nests of endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles have plummeted, deep sea coral have suffered, etc. Many probably thought the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill couldn’t be topped, but Deepwater Horizon more than eclipsed that 10 million gallon spill.
If there is any good news about oil spills, it might be that nature has been dealing with cleanup of oil in the oceans for eons. One study has estimated that between 80 and 800 million gallons of oil has seeped out of the ocean floor off Santa Barbara, California at the rate of 20 to 25 tons of oil each day. I know there are seeps in the Gulf. We learned on a family vacation to Texas that you didn’t walk barefoot on our beach. You wore cheap beach shoes and tossed the tar-coated shoes when you were finished your vacation.
I’m not trying to minimize the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. That spill released waves of oil into the Gulf, and the sea life, birds, and wildlife paid a high price. However, nature has been dealing with “cleanup” of oil spills long before we began to get involved. Some of it evaporates, some of it is dissolved, but microbes have the greatest effect. Researchers studying the spill (and science has received a tremendous infusion of money for studies) found that most of the oil was degraded by microbes. It appears that they “stopped eating, leaving a small fraction of compounds in the sediments.” A marine chemist said that research is now focused on why the microbes left a small fraction of the compounds in the sediment.
Hopefully our oil exploration is safer because of what Deepwater Horizon taught us, and maybe our researchers will learn how to encourage microbes that love to feed on spilled oil.