Some odds and ends, even though it isn’t Monday . . .
Son Thomas asked where the expression Hobson’s Choice comes from.
Until I looked it up I thought that the term meant that there was really no choice at all, but that is not correct. The proper definition of the term is that a person has a free choice but only one choice is offered. The person being offered the choice may choose to walk away instead, to take it or leave it.
The expression is named after Thomas Hobbs (1544-1631), who owned livery stables in Cambridge, England.
Although he was the owner of 40 horses, he didn’t want the most popular horses being hired time after time leading to overuse and injury. Clients could therefore only hire the horse that was nearest the door, that horse being continually rotated with others from the 40 such that each horse had its turn, if not in the barrel then certainly in the stall. If they didn't want that horse, there was no ther choice. Take it or leave it..
I advised someone yeterday that this is one of my favourite graffiti:
In looking up that graffito to show him, I came across a couple of others that use the “beam me up” phrase . . .
Something else I came across recently . . .
Sent to me by son Thomas:
How true is that!
This is another that makes a valid point. . .
. . . and one that I found funny:
This limerick has been posted before on Bytes but is worth posting again. It came up in office discussion yesterday about latin legal phrases:
With minuscule organs of sex.
Arraigned for exposure,
He maintained with composure,
"De minimis non curat lex."
The Latin phrase is a legal dictum that translates to “The law does not concern itself with small things.”
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