Today's Daily Dispatch

‘FAMILY’ HISTORY?

Posted December 19, 2008

In the round of familial phrases there was a discussion of the “Grandfather Clause.” The possible origin of the idea and the phrase, though I could not swear to that—comes from the post-Reconstruction South.  States seeking to disfranchise black citizens created all sorts of new voting requirements.  There were literacy tests and poll taxes and, sometimes, a grandfather clause stating that to be eligible to vote you had to be able to show evidence that your grandfather had voted in an election prior to a given date carefully chosen to predate the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Those setting these new rules knew quite well that they were unconstitutional but the federal government declined to intervene at the time.

Zoe Sherman of Brighton, MA

---

CRUISIN’ FOR A CONTUSION…

Posted April 02, 2009

The difference between a bruise and a contusion is that a contusion is a medical term; a bruise is a lay term. A contusion is a blow to the soft tissues and may result in an echymosis (the medical term for a bruise) which is blood under the skin resulting from breakage of blood vessels. There may or may not be breakage of the skin on either of these. I believe you might have had the definition of an abrasion that you were reading on the show; I’m not sure.

Gertrude E. Nixon, M.D. of Eufaula, AL

---

QUIT YOUR SNIPING…

Posted February 22, 2009

Who says snipes don’t exist? They are an Eastern marsh and shorebird, as people who live along the Eastern shore could tell you. We sent the tenderfoot out in search of a bird that would never be found in the forest, not a mythical one.  Snipes, perhaps another species, is also found in Great Britain, where scouting began, so it may have its origin over there.

NOTE:  We received hundreds of letters on this- to our great surprise since Richard features himself quite the closet ornithologist.  He did misspeak, but then again, this is a guy who was sent looking for a few feet of shore line, a left-handed Monkey Wrench, a sky hook and a smoke bender.  Our thanks to James Hay of Santee, CA for those memories- and to all the others who wrote.

Donald Kaspersen of Concord, NC

---

View Daily Dispatch Archives