Sunday, August 6, 2023

Aptronyms



“History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership.” Brooks

***

The government ain’t us. Failure to grasp this reality explains why the normally quite sensible Larry Summers mistakenly thinks that, because “the economy looks stronger than expected,” Fitch’s downgrading of U.S. government debt is “bizarre and inept.” Fitch did not downgrade the U.S. economy; it downgraded the debt issued by a particular organization – the U.S. government.--Bordeaux

***

According to the Census Bureau:

  • 45.3 million immigrants were living in the U.S. as of 2021.[76] [77] [78]
  • immigrants comprised 13.6% of the U.S. population in 2021.[79]
  • from 1850 to 2021, the portion of the U.S. population comprised of immigrants ranged from 5% to 15%, with a median of 13% and an average of 11%:
Immigrants in the United States

[80]



Aptronyms

The playwright Richard Sheridan put meat in the names of his characters, called 'aptronyms, which reflect the traits of their owners--Anthony Absolute, Lidia Languish, Lady Sneerwell--and when English did not accommodate, he made them up--Malaprop. And we look for this in our real world; I knew a surgeon named 'Slaughter" and an obstetrician named "Conception." So it was with mixed emotions I saw the Pirate's battery last night. The pitcher was a new guy the Phillies gave up on (with his 90 mph fastball) and their catcher, off waivers, playing here --the team of last resort--rather than retiring, Jason Delay. The Pirate battery: Falter and Delay.

Sheridan would be thrilled.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

History and Government are Violent You are not James Swaggart might be extremely violent