Interesting Links for 05-04-2024

[andrewducker]

1. If you like scary, fun mysteries then "Dead Boy Detectives" looks like it will be a fun TV series

(tags:tv dc sandman comics )

2. Where does the phrase "Beyond the pale" come from?

(tags:language history English )

3. Unemployment cuts pollution, increasing lifespan

(tags:pollution lifespan unemployment economics )

4. US support for Israel depends on protecting civilians, Biden warns in stinging rebuke

(tags:Israel Palestine USA )

5. Mario meets Pareto (bringing economic thinking to Mario Kart)

(tags:Mario economics visualisation )

6. An overview of what's planned for the Dalry area of Edinburgh

(tags:edinburgh transport )

Comments

2. pale

[fanf]

I expected it to mention the English Pale around Dublin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale

Re: 2. pale

[andrewducker]

It did kinda:
When first used, the reference was to English jurisdiction, and over the centuries “the pale” (sometimes capitalized) has been used to refer to areas of Ireland, Scotland, and France (that is, the territory of Calais) when they were under England’s control.

Re: 2. pale

[nickys]

Yes, the article keeps repeating that the first usage was 19th Century and referred to areas occupied by Jewish people, and only at the bottom admits to the earlier use in English medieval colonial areas.
... not great given that we know that quite a lot of people only read the first few paragraphs.

[autopope]

I'm guessing the Pale of Settlement in the Russian empire took its name from the earlier usage?

[andrewducker]

Yeah, the quotes in the article certainly indicate that it's exactly that:

The OED’s earliest citation for the use of the phrase in writing comes from Russia and the Jews: A Brief Sketch of Russian History and the Condition of Its Jewish Subjects (1890), written by an author identified as “A. Reader”:

“The Jews … as soon as the contract was completed … had to return within the ‘pale’ of settlement.”

[channelpenguin]

Somehow, I knew a "pale" was a post and that the phrase made sense as being about going beyond a boundary. I have NO idea why I knew "pale" was a post. Possibly because the extremely broadest of accents I had to deal with as a child would have pronounced "pole" as "pale"? (They certainly pronounced "door" as "dare". Not sure if it's Glaswegian or Ayrshire - East Kilbride spoke some random bastard breed of the two.).

[errolwi]

See also 'beyond the black stump' in Australia.

[calimac]

2) An even weirder misuse than "beyond the pail" that I've seen recently is "full proof" (for "fool-proof"). Googling it shows first, that the error is actually rather common; second, that "full proof" is actually a technical term in liquor distilling.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. Doesn't surprise me. There must be many similar ones based on homophones.

[autopope]

Don't get me started on "free reign" (nonsense) vs. "free rein" (what the author really meant to use -- to give the horses pulling a carriage or cart enough slack to trot or run), and the less-frequently-tripped-over "free rain".