When I was a little kid, my dad had put up this counter-thing in the teeny-tiny kitchen in Bayside. I used to sit on a stool and read the Dentist. See you tomorrow. New York Times Sports Section out loud. That was how I learned to read. If I was moving at a good clip on a Sunday morning, he would sometimes let me read the front page. That was where I first encountered the phrase out of favor.
My four-year old brain didn't get the whole concept quite right. The article was about something called The Kremlin. The article said a man was out of flavor with the Kremlin, but I thought they meant gremlin like the evil dybbuks Grandma Bessie told me about. And for the life of me I could not figure how a person could be out of flavor because who would eat a person? My father was trying really hard not to laugh (or so he would tell me whenever the story came up,) but I just wasn't going to believe a person could be out of flavor or why the Kremlin would want to eat him.
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| My buddy Eleanor of Aquitaine |
Eventually, I came around to understanding the phrase out of favor. There was Queen Vashti who fell out of favor with King Ahasverush, Moshe fell out of favor with the Egyptian court when he killed the task master beating the slave. And one of my personal heroes and these days, close personal friends*, Queen Eleanor (aka Eleanor of Aquitaine,) fell out of favor with her husband, King Henry II, who worked really hard to get rid of her, failed, and died, thereby missing her tour de force as de facto regent while their son King Richard was running amok in the 3rd Crusade. I loved the phrase out of favor. It is so temporal, so transient, and in its own absurd way, romantic. Usually.
I heard the phrase on the news a couple of times late last week, and then I saw it in The Washington Post on Saturday night:
Falling out of favor is something that happens to courtesans and politicians that run afoul of despotic governments. Scientists, unless they are strapping pasta-strainers on your head with electrodes do not usually fall out of favor. Their ideas may be disproved with science, they might be sent back to the lab, but unless they are from the Chuck Woolery School of Science and Game Show Hosting, they arenot outta favor. We see this all the time in this administration. Just look at the attrition rate in the West Wing. Unless your name is Feckless Spawn or Kushner, your job is, at best, on the permanent line.
Oh, and speaking of Chuck, tweet this one on for size:
Chuck Woolery
Seems people who speak intelligently about COVID 19, its impact on the economy, and the reality on the ground for millions of Americans are out of favor with the White House. Teachers who understand the risks of opening schools too soon are out of favor with the White House. Reporters who consistently ask probing questions are out of favor with the White House. Anyone who demonstrates even the briefest alignment with reality is out of favor at the White House.
Convicted felons? Hoo Ha! They are totally IN!
Look, I won't post COVID numbers here; they are changing much too fast. Places that opened while infections were on the rise are in serious trouble now. Let's see what happens with DisneyLand and DisneyWorld visitors in 2 weeks. There are places that are working hard to mitigate the exposure, but that requires visitors willing to play along.
We know that is not always the case. The occupancy rate of ICUs supports that as fact, not conjecture.
But if you are stupid enough to believe the US is handling the COVID 19 pandemic well, and opening restaurants, bar, amusement parks, and schools is the right thing to do, I strongly urge you toss your mask, and go to a Trump rally. And for the record, you and your pea-sized brain are out of favor with reality. The best you can hope for is a quick meet-up with the disease because you're gonna have one. I guarantee it. Your survival rate is not guaranteed.
What depths has this country sunk to when scientists with proven records of public service and successful research and analysis data fall out of favor? Have we lost all sense of truth? Are we unwilling to believe that which we see with our own eyes because that miscreant in the White House tells us, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?"
People who believed it was a hoax and went to COVID parties are dying. Isn't that enough to convince their friends not to do that? Apparently not.
If wearing a mask somehow fucks with your personal, constitutional rights, I hope to hell you're not wearing a seatbelt either. Go light up your cigarette in a bar and see what that gets you.
Ziggy always maintained you can't fix stupid. I think we have entered that realm of the Twilight Zone where we are about to figure that out on a permanent basis.
Four months ahead of Election Day, Trump wants to “reopen and move on,” said another senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations. Those who disagree with that approach are out of favor, the official said.I've been chewing on this ever since.
Falling out of favor is something that happens to courtesans and politicians that run afoul of despotic governments. Scientists, unless they are strapping pasta-strainers on your head with electrodes do not usually fall out of favor. Their ideas may be disproved with science, they might be sent back to the lab, but unless they are from the Chuck Woolery School of Science and Game Show Hosting, they arenot outta favor. We see this all the time in this administration. Just look at the attrition rate in the West Wing. Unless your name is Feckless Spawn or Kushner, your job is, at best, on the permanent line.
Oh, and speaking of Chuck, tweet this one on for size:
Chuck Woolery
@chuckwooleryThe most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it.9:17 PM · Jul 12, 2020
Chuck Woolery@chuckwooleryThere is so much evidence, yes scientific evidence, that schools should open this fall. It's worldwide and it's overwhelming. BUT NO.9:23 PM · Jul 12, 2020
So, I'm wondering why he isn't really sick from it. Meanwhile, based on Feckless Leader re-tweeting we should be getting our science advisories from this guy. From Wikipedia:
Woolery was born on March 16, 1941, in Ashland, Kentucky. After graduating from high school, he served two years in the US Navy.
In 1963, Woolery worked as a wine consultant for Wasserstrom Wine & Import Company in Columbus, Ohio. He was also a sales representative for the Pillsbury Company.Ja, sure, you betcha.
Seems people who speak intelligently about COVID 19, its impact on the economy, and the reality on the ground for millions of Americans are out of favor with the White House. Teachers who understand the risks of opening schools too soon are out of favor with the White House. Reporters who consistently ask probing questions are out of favor with the White House. Anyone who demonstrates even the briefest alignment with reality is out of favor at the White House.
Convicted felons? Hoo Ha! They are totally IN!
Look, I won't post COVID numbers here; they are changing much too fast. Places that opened while infections were on the rise are in serious trouble now. Let's see what happens with DisneyLand and DisneyWorld visitors in 2 weeks. There are places that are working hard to mitigate the exposure, but that requires visitors willing to play along.
We know that is not always the case. The occupancy rate of ICUs supports that as fact, not conjecture.
But if you are stupid enough to believe the US is handling the COVID 19 pandemic well, and opening restaurants, bar, amusement parks, and schools is the right thing to do, I strongly urge you toss your mask, and go to a Trump rally. And for the record, you and your pea-sized brain are out of favor with reality. The best you can hope for is a quick meet-up with the disease because you're gonna have one. I guarantee it. Your survival rate is not guaranteed.
What depths has this country sunk to when scientists with proven records of public service and successful research and analysis data fall out of favor? Have we lost all sense of truth? Are we unwilling to believe that which we see with our own eyes because that miscreant in the White House tells us, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?"
People who believed it was a hoax and went to COVID parties are dying. Isn't that enough to convince their friends not to do that? Apparently not.
If wearing a mask somehow fucks with your personal, constitutional rights, I hope to hell you're not wearing a seatbelt either. Go light up your cigarette in a bar and see what that gets you.
Ziggy always maintained you can't fix stupid. I think we have entered that realm of the Twilight Zone where we are about to figure that out on a permanent basis.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Yes, there is a new novel nearing completion.
I spend way too much time talking to Eleanor of Aquitaine these days.
This is what authors do when they are not doing other stuff.
PS: if you happen to know a good literary agent.....email me.
Mine passed away, and I'm not crazy about her replacement.
AGENT: Wow, that's some book! What's it called?
ReplyDeleteSJSS: The Aristocrats!
You're funny....but looks aren't everything.
DeleteIs flavor vs favor some kind of inside family joke?
ReplyDeleteWhat's with the formatting after the twitter stuff and before Chuck's picture?
Flavor explained in first graph of blog. Not sure about the formatting issue you're having. No one else has reported it. Could it be your browser?
DeleteI see the same formatting problem. That paragraph is appearing as one or two letters per line - so a long vertical line of text on the LHS. I am using Firefox on PC Windows 10. This is the first time I have noticed any issues. Russian hackers?!! :)
DeleteHmmmm. I'm not seeing it on any of my browsers. I know blogger is making some changes, so that might be a contributing factor. Meanwhile, I will check with my tech guru. Please let me know if you have the same problem next week. Thanks for letting me know.
Delete