Wiki Answers explains the current meaning is to give someone the chance to prove their honesty or reliability. It originated to mean evaluation of the quality of whiskey. The U.S. government sought to pay off debt in the late 1700s by taxing whiskey distilleries. That caused many producers to make “bootleg” whiskey, and some had low alcohol content. You could determine whether alcohol content was high or low by capping some in a glass bottle and shaking it vigorously for a few seconds. The whiskey had low alcohol content if the top-layer of froth lingered. The “head” of froth disappeared almost immediately in whiskey with high alcohol content. The test had to be done with hard shaking, or a “fair shake.” The expression became a metaphor for business transactions and the measure of a personal character by the early 1800’s.
Author Archives: RF_Alum
Iraq after American Troops
I’ve been reading about Iraq after American combat troops were withdrawn in December 2011, and it isn’t a pleasant story. Almost 1,000 people have been killed in September 2013 in Iraq “…as car bombs have become a near daily occurrence in a country seeing its worst surge of violence in five years.” Iraqi civilians have been “…caught in a resurgence of al-Qaeda terrorism that has been growing since the United States pulled out forces two years ago.” Continue reading
The Tipping Point
The subtitle of this book by Malcolm Gladwell is “How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.” This is a very popular and best-selling book that was loaned to my wife by a friend. There are many interesting aspects of the book, but I found some of it disappointing. I thought it sometimes rambled and there was repetition. The book describes styles, events, books, etc. that have reached a tipping point to become wildly popular, but I didn’t feel it was explained why the tipping point was reached. For example, there is a detailed description of how “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” evolved into a very popular book, but I really didn’t find an explanation, except that it was the perfect “book group book.” Continue reading
On the Lam
This is a strange expression, because “lam” or “lamming” means, according to the free dictionary, to give a thorough beating, thrash, strike, or wallop. “On the lam” has no connection to that definition. The New York Times says the expression means running away or to be a fugitive from the law. One theory is that Allan Pinkerton had explained that pickpockets would utter the word “lam” after lifting a wallet as a signal to get out as soon as possible.
Department of Energy Study of Fracking
Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is used to enhance oil and gas production, and the recent news has been positive for the process and unwelcome for those opposing the practice. A Denver Post editorial says, “Fracking has been conducted for decades and is now a routine procedure in the vast majority of drilling operations and yet federal and state regulators have not identified one confirmed instance in which fracking chemicals have migrated through layers of shale to groundwater.”
Citizens of cities along the Colorado Front Range have passed referendums that prohibit fracking within their city limits. There are many people who oppose any process that produces hydrocarbons for energy, and they consider hydraulic fracturing negatively because of the success of that process. Colorado Governor Hickenlooper has angered them by taking the position that the cities do not have the right to prohibit the activity, which is controlled by state law. Continue reading
Sugar and Obesity
There is an extensive article about sugar in the August 2013 National Geographic magazine titled “Sugar Love (A not so sweet story).” It refers to “…a colossal American health crisis. High rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease: the legacy, some experts say, of sugar…” The article describes how the domestication of sugarcane 10,000 years ago in New Guinea began a deadly series of events. Columbus planted the New World’s first sugar cane in Hispaniola and millions of Africans were enslaved and shipped to the New World to work on sugar plantations. The slave trade has ended, but the addiction to sugar continues. The article describes how a time of famine led to evolution of humans who can get by on very little sugar but are addicted to the rush it gives while sapping their energy and “…beaching them on the couch.” Continue reading