Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.
Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts: Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen!
This month's question is: Do you use AI in your writing and if so how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?
No, to all the above, mostly because I don't know how. 😂😂😂
Origins: a recurring post in which I delve into the history of a word or phrase.
The origin of THIS phrase was a complete surprise to me! I love learning new bits of trivia about our wonderful language.
It's been around since the 15th century so we're talking 1400s! It comes from sellers at the markets. They used to put piglets and other small animals into "pokes" or bags which were then easy to carry away once they were sold. However, some unscrupulous farmers would try to substitute the piglet for...you guessed it, a cat. If the buyer didn't inspect the bag before carrying it away, they were in for a big surprise, and perhaps a face-full of mad cat. You might have noted the words pig and poke. This is also where we get the phrase "buying a pig in a poke."
Title: Letting the cat out of the bag!!
Abstract: A figurative portrayal of the rift within the Republican party resulting from the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. Here New York senator and would-be nominee William H. Seward watches as the radical antislavery senator from Massachusetts Charles Sumner releases a snarling cat, the "Spirit of Discord," from a "Republican Bag." The cat bolts toward New York "Tribune" editor Horace Greeley and Lincoln, who wields a rail in his defense. Greeley exclaims, "What are you doing Sumner! you'll spoil all! she aint to be let out until after Lincoln is elected,--" Lincoln, also alarmed, rejoins, "Oh Sumner! this is too bad!--I thought we had her safely bagged at Chicago [i.e., the Republican national convention at Chicago], now there will be the old scratch to pay, unless I can drive her back again with my rail!" Sumner replies, "It's no use talking Gentlemen, I was'nt mentioned at Chicago, and now I'm going to do something desperate, I can't afford to have my head broken and be kept corked up four years for nothing!" The mention of his broken head refers to the widely publicized 1856 beating inflicted on Sumner by South Carolina congressman Preston S. Brooks. Seward warns, "Gentlemen be cautious you don't know how to manage that animal as well as I did, and Im afraid that some of you will get "scratched." Henry J. Raymond, editor of the "New York Times," stands in background shouting, "Scat!--scat!--back with her, or our fat will all be in the fire." Notes: Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1860-27.; Probably drawn by Louis Maurer.; Title from item.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Today's Weird Word is: Malarkey
No quotes this month because I'm LETTING THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG.
NO MARLARKEY!
Some of you may know this already if you've seen any of my Facebook posts.
After 7 longs years, I'm home in the Virgin Islands. I will be gone the whole month of August.
So...
What am I Thankful For?
Being home,
visiting with family and friends,
and taking sea baths.
What are you thankful for?
I have seen your FB posts and am delighted for you. Seven years seems like a lucky number. My sister is visiting from Australia after seven long years. Continue enjoying your visit, Bish.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time on your trip home. It's awesome you get to see your family.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, he was elected president and ended slavery anyway.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine how much someone got scratched trying to put the cat in the bag in the first place?
I feel bad for both the pigs and the cats in those bags.
ReplyDeleteHi Bish - love your time being home ... but your words are interesting ... where they stemmed from ... I thought 'letting the cat out of the bag' was disclosing a secret ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteI am currently reading Erik Larson's new book "The Demon of Unrest" so got a good laugh from your article about "letting the cat out of the bag".
ReplyDeleteI loved your succinct and honest answer about AI. I know next to nothing about it and only that smidgin because I love to dabble in things I don't understand. My grandmother's saying about pigs in pokes now makes sense. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea where that phrase had come from! But I definitely used to say it because my cat loved to go into paper grocery bags. I would usually say, "well, I guess the cat is IN the bag."
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your time at home! I had recently heard a different and less pleasant explanation of the source of "let the cat out of the bag," though it still comes to the same thing as suggested in the political cartoon (had to do with the cat o' nine tails being stored in a bag...).
ReplyDelete