15 July 2012
Blowing Smoke
15/07/12 06:56
This week I put Rhinoceros on the grocery list.
Marsha looked at it and then questioningly at me.
“Well,” “I WAS going to make tuna surprise but now you’ve spoiled the surprise.”
She just shook her head and then went out on the deck.
For some reason Marsha says I’m not a good liar.
I’m not really sure why either. I mean I have some great excuses. For example this week I showed up for work with a big scratch/cut/bruise/scab on my forehead. (And I do mean big. I have a LOT of forehead.) When people asked about it, I looked at them and calmly said “Oh that’s a duelling scar.” Nobody believed me. They also didn’t believe me when I said I got it when I stormed the beach on Saipan in ’42, or that I got it when I rolled my Shelby Cobra on Rodeo Drive last weekend. All great stories, that nobody went along with. What DID they believe? When I told them I was working in the garage, climbed up the ladder and discovered that the track for the garage door was precisely where I had left it. Why did they believe that and not that I’d gotten it when a mountain lion jumped me on the way to the bathroom?
I think people have become too skeptical.
A term often used for not telling the truth is blowing smoke. Actually there are a number of more colourful variations on the term blowing smoke, all of which trace back to 19th century America. In the day of Patent Medicine Shows, smoke was often used as a “medicine” and people were “treated” and claimed to have been “cured” by the application of smoke. Smoke was applied to, um, well, wherever you’ve heard mentioned in a term that included the phrase blowing smoke. This was somehow supposed to make it better. It didn't, hence the connection between blowing smoke and not telling the truth.
If smoke WERE able to cure things though, BC should be the healthiest place on earth right now. That’s because it was incredibly smoky this week. Smoke blown in from both fires in the U.S , and many times larger fires in Siberia. For most of the last week we could not even see the mainland. The sun was yellow and it smelled like a burning forest. We found this a bit surprising as with the rain, forest fires were the last thing on our minds.
http://welcometowilliamslake.ca/index.php/the-news/local-news/5777-smoke-in-the-cariboo.html
http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/smoke-haze-over-whistler-from-asian-forest-fires/Content?oid=2308979
and I thought BC is a non smoking area.
Elsewhere in Canada people were even seeing “Fire Rainbows”:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1223944---fire-rainbow-lights-up-local-skies
Of course, fire rainbows have nothing to do with fire or rain but they are pretty.
Fortunately, by the end of the week the weather had changed and I discovered that the mainland was also precisely where I had left it. As we’re on an island, any time I can’t see the mountains for three days I worry we may have floated out to sea. Sometimes continental drift can happen really fast and I’d hate to wake up some day and find that we were off the coast of China. Really, it could happen.
Trust me.
Pix: Our hydrangeas are blooming and a day at the beach
Marsha looked at it and then questioningly at me.
“Well,” “I WAS going to make tuna surprise but now you’ve spoiled the surprise.”
She just shook her head and then went out on the deck.
For some reason Marsha says I’m not a good liar.
I’m not really sure why either. I mean I have some great excuses. For example this week I showed up for work with a big scratch/cut/bruise/scab on my forehead. (And I do mean big. I have a LOT of forehead.) When people asked about it, I looked at them and calmly said “Oh that’s a duelling scar.” Nobody believed me. They also didn’t believe me when I said I got it when I stormed the beach on Saipan in ’42, or that I got it when I rolled my Shelby Cobra on Rodeo Drive last weekend. All great stories, that nobody went along with. What DID they believe? When I told them I was working in the garage, climbed up the ladder and discovered that the track for the garage door was precisely where I had left it. Why did they believe that and not that I’d gotten it when a mountain lion jumped me on the way to the bathroom?
I think people have become too skeptical.
A term often used for not telling the truth is blowing smoke. Actually there are a number of more colourful variations on the term blowing smoke, all of which trace back to 19th century America. In the day of Patent Medicine Shows, smoke was often used as a “medicine” and people were “treated” and claimed to have been “cured” by the application of smoke. Smoke was applied to, um, well, wherever you’ve heard mentioned in a term that included the phrase blowing smoke. This was somehow supposed to make it better. It didn't, hence the connection between blowing smoke and not telling the truth.
If smoke WERE able to cure things though, BC should be the healthiest place on earth right now. That’s because it was incredibly smoky this week. Smoke blown in from both fires in the U.S , and many times larger fires in Siberia. For most of the last week we could not even see the mainland. The sun was yellow and it smelled like a burning forest. We found this a bit surprising as with the rain, forest fires were the last thing on our minds.
http://welcometowilliamslake.ca/index.php/the-news/local-news/5777-smoke-in-the-cariboo.html
http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/smoke-haze-over-whistler-from-asian-forest-fires/Content?oid=2308979
and I thought BC is a non smoking area.
Elsewhere in Canada people were even seeing “Fire Rainbows”:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1223944---fire-rainbow-lights-up-local-skies
Of course, fire rainbows have nothing to do with fire or rain but they are pretty.
Fortunately, by the end of the week the weather had changed and I discovered that the mainland was also precisely where I had left it. As we’re on an island, any time I can’t see the mountains for three days I worry we may have floated out to sea. Sometimes continental drift can happen really fast and I’d hate to wake up some day and find that we were off the coast of China. Really, it could happen.
Trust me.
Pix: Our hydrangeas are blooming and a day at the beach