Wednesday Non-sequitur(s)

Everyone knows I love words and phrases. I especially enjoy finding out their origins and original usages. Here are 3 that I think you'll scratch your head about........

• "clement"
• "sloe-eyed"
• "hell in a handbasket"

The first is fairly easy, yeah. "Clement." Gotta look at this one from a different perspective.....Well, everyone's familiar with inclement weather. We hear it all the time. As a matter of fact, this week we've had three straight days of it! But how many of you have ever written or spoken to someone saying, "Gee we're having such clement weather this week!" The definition of clement comes from the old English, and is.....inclined to be lenient or merciful. Also, mild. "Clement" then, means mild or calm. I suppose in conversation, one might say that a Pastor or Reverend has a clement disposition; something you couldn't say of a politician on the stump!

"sloe-eyed" I'd seen this term perhaps twice before in my life. Once (believe it or not) was in an article describing camels as needing to be "sloe-eyed with bedroom eyes and lashes." That last sentence is soooo bizarre that it actually defines why the word stuck in my head for so long! The next time I read it in literature it was used to describe a facial characteristics of Mediterranean and North African women - perhaps Kipling used it. Finally, I ran across the word for the third time this morning in a National Geographic article, "With that sloe-eyed look of indifference that has been elevated to performance art in Naples and environs, Cardoncello shrugged his shoulders and produced a bottle of Lacryma Cristi..." The actual definition of the word sloe, means the dark purple plum-like fruit from the Blackthorne bush. "Sloe-eyed" means having dark slanted eyes. So, now I can see how this relates to certain women....and even to people from around Naples having dark eyes......but I'm still perplexed about the slant-eyed bit, and frankly more than a bit "unsettled" about the camel description!

"hell in a handbasket" I'll guarantee that all of us have heard someone utter, "You're going to hell in a handbasket" or worse yet, "We're all going to hell in a handbasket!" I know I can! I can hear my Pop using it to describe any number of woe's to betide mankind! I can even describe a handbasket my mother carried when she was picking string beans in her garden. But nowhere - not in any reference book I've come across can I, (or anyone else), find an explanation of where this phrase came from, who said it first and what it meant. A literal translation could mean that we're all going to get screwed together in a very large basket - but that would sort of preclude the "handbasket" part wouldn't it? Even if someone were just taking me to hell in a handbasket, at 6'4" and 290 lbs., it's going to require a helluva big guy with a really strong basket! Oh, I know what Dad meant when he said it! Everyone knows what it means when you hear it - but who said it first, where did it come from and what did it mean? Give me that and I'll send you a dollar!

Migraines and errant thoughts.