FC 153 on ‘Shifting Semantics’ elicited good comments. I’ll share some of them with you:
Lakshmi Raman says: “I am astounded to learn how and how much language has evolved. Leave alone semantics, our young now have suspended with prepositions, conjunctions, and articles in smses (sorry, ‘texts’). And as for acronyms used, I think I am out of date- I am still at IMHO & FOMO, which are last generation slang. I learnt some new ones with today’s FC. Thank you, Prasanna.”
Ashvini Ranjan Says: “Coming to think of it, in India, our every day is a ‘Lingua Franca’ moment. Seamless! It's like Bollywood meets Sandalwood meets Hollywood. Not to forget, a dash of Kollywood was thrown in! But FC 153 did bring a ‘Majama smile. Too good bro.”
Tarun Kunzru says: “Election after election politicians use the ‘same antics’ of words… And we literate fall for it!!”
Binit Agarwal makes these informative comments: “It is always interesting to read about semantics. Given its geographical extent, English is surely the language with the most interesting stories behind the words. But also because it is such a flexible language, which is always ready to include within its fold foreign words. An interesting word I discovered recently is 'Micawberish': It means to be like Mr Micawber, a character in David Copperfield, who used to idle around and trust fortune to make everything right. It is now used for somebody who is irresponsibly optimistic. Another word with an interesting semantic origin is 'Gauche' which means someone awkward, tactless or lacking social polish. It is a loan word from French, where it simply means left hand. Back when the word was transported, left-handed people were considered as being awkward and tactless, giving rise to the current meaning. I would like to recommend 'The Meaning of Everything' by Simon Winchester, which is on the origins of English, its words, and how the Oxford English Dictionary was created, a monumental achievement of the modern era.”
🌩 Any Port In A Storm
The other day, during a conversation, someone remarked that people who have been laid off are taking any job they can get as if it was the last resort or because beggars can’t be choosers.
I could quite understand the contextual correctness of the idiom ’beggars can’t be choosers’ simply because you take what you can get. But I struggled to appreciate if this idiom and the phrase ‘last resort’ were synonymous.
I thought ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ was more synonymous with the idiom “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” which was featured in FC 86. Please click here to read: 🔗https://mrprasanna.substack.com/p/filter-coffee-086
Last resort is synonymous with ‘no other option’. You evaluate all possible options and conclude that only one of them is now open to you. Yet, the option to not pursue that ‘last option’ may still be an option. Imagine a patient in a comatose and critical condition. Her Advance Medical Directives say DNR. The last option to put her on life support and initiate some invasive or aggressive procedure is preempted by this directive to the contrary leaving the doctors helpless. In the case of a ‘beggar’ he has to take what is given to him, begging being his last resort.
In the real business world, the buzz phrase is ‘risk management’. There is of course the process of identification, evaluation, mitigation and managing a given risk. Minimising the impact of an unavoidable or unforeseen risk is the key. This could involve acceptance of a solution which may not be perfect but one that helps tide over the situation.
The idiom ‘Any port in the storm’ explains precisely the situation when the captain of a ship has no choice but to anchor at the nearest port during a storm that puts the ship and all aboard in peril. The idiom represents real-life situations when we face a hurdle and are willing to accept a way out even if it is not a perfect one. The idiom goes a step further to suggest that any solution is acceptable in such situations. ‘Any port’ represents ‘any solution’ and ‘storm’ represents the ‘hurdle’ we encounter.
We are familiar with the expression “go-to person”. She is the person a friend would approach when confronted with a daunting situation and avoids going to any other person. The go-to-person becomes the preferred port and not any port but for the friend the go-to-person is the port in any storm that the friend faces. This presents interesting perspectives.
Can a man Friday be a go-to person? Maybe not, though he is someone who is a trusted assistant who runs all kinds of errands. The phrase ‘Man Friday’ has its genesis in ‘Robinson Crusoe’ written in 1719 by Daniel Defoe. Robinson found a young person on a Friday who would do all kinds of jobs for him.
Did you know that at some point in time, girl-Friday too came into vogue referring to a girl who would do all kinds of clerical work? It was then believed that the title girl-Friday’ would impart respectability and this became quite popular when the movie ‘His Girl-Friday’ featuring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel was released in 1940 (available on YouTube). However, after the 1970s use of this phrase was discontinued as degrading women, following affirmative action in the US labour industry. But man-Friday is here to stay on all days of the year 😀
Recently there were floods in north India, particularly in Kulu & Manali. I read an account by a set of travellers as to how they were caught in between and took refuge in a lodge that reeked of all kinds of smells and had uninviting beds that could literally bug them. They paid the lodge-keeper more than what they may have paid a decent budget hotel but could hardly sleep. For the travellers the lodge was literally ‘any port in a storm’ and for the lodge-keeper, it was a case of calamity resulting in a windfall. The following day when the floods receded they managed to hitch a ride in a mini truck, a kind of vehicle they never travelled in before. In a usual situation, they would have refused to have any truck with truck drivers. The truck too was symbolic of ‘any port in a storm’. If you missed it, see my post on ‘Trucks’ 🔗Filter Coffee #137 - by M R Prasanna
The Lodge and the Truck episodes make the point that you will accept help even from sources not to your liking if you are faced with a situation where there is no choice. Asking for help can be discomforting and offering to help can be comforting. Volunteering to help without waiting to be asked is a much superior gesture than helping only when asked for it.
Dear Readers if you have heard of or experienced an ‘any port in storm’ situation, please share it with all of us.
I shall now end this post in a lighter vein:
The captain realized his ship was sinking quickly as the storm raged.“Does anyone here know how to pray?” he asked. One man took a step forward. “I know how to pray, Captain.” “All right,” the captain said, “you pray while the rest of us put on our life jackets. We’re one short.”
****
During a huge storm, when some people are driving away, they offer a stranded man a seat in their minivan. He says, “No, thank you. I believe in God, and God will protect me from this storm.”
The floodwaters start to rise, and the man is standing on his balcony. A family in a fishing boat come by and offer space on their boat. The man says, “No, thank you. I believe in God, and God will protect me from this storm.”
The storm gets worse. His house is nearly completely engulfed in water, and the man is clinging to his chimney. A National Guard helicopter comes by and lowers a ladder for him. He says, “No, thank you. I believe in God, and God will protect me from this storm.”
The man drowns shortly thereafter and fuming, he marches up to God and says “I've been your loyal devotee all my life. I put my faith in you to save me in that storm, and you let me drown. How could you do something like that?”
God looks at the man and says, “I don't know what else you expected from me. I sent you first a van, then a boat, and then a helicopter too.”
Dear Readers, I hope you enjoy reading this. Please imagine you have nothing else to read and this comes to you as any port in a storm! See you next week, Ciao.
Many seniors at the fag end of their life have to necessarily connect to some one willing well like any port in a storm
I enjoyed your blog, Pras, as always.
The cartoon following the “Any port in a storm” para has an embedded little comic gem, noticeable (on my phone) only after expanding the frame - the casks that people are hanging on to, say “Old Port” !
ANY port in a storm indeed! I would prefer the original, from Oporto.