per CNN.com Breaking News.
Wow, could the US get even more divided?
and there goes the handbasket…
I was thinking the other day about Bush, past and present hurricanes, and “intelligent design,” and decided that
- • If there is indeed such a thing as intelligent design, and
• If it is behind the path of destruction of oil rigs and Republican regions
Then that intelligence is telling W that even though W believes in God, that doesn’t follow that God agrees with W.
And now Renquish has died. Chosing his replacement (while an opportunity to show moderation and restraint) is likely to set of a firestorm among hysterical, unyeilding persons on all sides of many issues.
M
Precisely.
By the way, what the heck is a handbasket?
I think there’s an expression about “bottoming out” or something. The idea is that one has to get really screwed up before one can begin to get better.
We may be there. Katrina, Iraq, gas prices, Supreme vacancies, …
If we hit bottom now, maybe we can start to get better around Nov, 2006.
I never thought I’d wish we could have more time with Judge Rehnquist. His departure will provide another opportunity to avoid facing the real problems the country faces.
About the judge. I never liked him but is there something kind and positive to say about him?
I’ve read that he was very good in the role of Chief Justice. All the justices liked him, he was good to work with. He was fair and even handed in the way he assigned opinions to be written, not showing favoritism to judges he was aligned with ideologically.
Best wishes,
Jerry
A basket with a handle.
Denny Wrote
DaleWisely wrote:
Denny wrote:
and there goes the handbasket…
Precisely.By the way, what the heck is a handbasket?
A basket with a handle.
One you go to hell in.
David
Roger
Perhaps the end times are truly getting nearer?
By definition, true.
This is what Cranberry’s link, uh, links to:
[Q] From Brian Walker: “Can you please tell me anything about the origin of the phrase going to hell in a handbasket?”
[A] This is a weird one. It’s a fairly common American expression, known for much of the twentieth century. But it’s one about which almost no information exists, at least in the two dozen or so reference books I’ve consulted. William and Mary Morris, in their Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, confess to the same difficulty. A handbasket is just a basket to be carried in the hand (my thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary for that gem of definition). The Dictionary of American Regional English records to go to heaven in a handbasket rather earlier than the alternative, which doesn’t appear in print until the 1940s (Walt Quader tells me that Burton Stevenson included a citation in his Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases from Bayard Kendrick’s The Odor of Violets, published in 1941). But DARE quotes a related expression from 1714: “A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it”, which suggests that it, or at least phrases like it, have been around in the spoken language for a long time. For example, there’s an even older expression, to go to heaven in a wheelbarrow, recorded as early as 1629, which also meant “to go to hell”. I can only assume that the alliteration of the hs has had a lot to do with the success of the various phrases, and that perhaps handbasket suggests something easily and speedily done.
I’d’ve copied and pasted that myself but on this computer the mouse is a blank screen that you run your finger across and I don’t yet know how. 