Tuesday, January 29, 2008
I've never met a phore I didn't like
Metaphors are some of the most colorful usages of the English language. They are essentially analogies made generally between abstract concepts and concrete physical events. These analogies are often implicit, and are understood either by logic or familiarity. For example, when we say that "someone is spinning his wheels" in the context of work, most people would derive the meaning by simple logic even if they have never heard the expression before. What it really amounts to is a comparison between a lack of productivity despite the efforts, and a car that gains no travel distance because of the lack of traction on the ground. What is really challenging for word enthusiasts is the derivation of the origin of such metaphors despite the simplicity of the associated meaning. For example, I will challenge my readers to find the origin of "Pulled out all the stops". There is no question as to the meaning of such metaphor.
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Takes me back to the "old days," when I played my way through college, hands and feet on the pipe organ for the Episcopalians on Sunday mornings, for the Methodist Youth Fellowship on Sunday evenings, for the Seventh Day Adventists on Saturday mornings, and for their respective choirs in rehearsal on Thursday, Wednesday and Tuesday evenings. What with subbing for my Roman Catholic colleague on holiday midnight masses, I was well acquainted with organ stops.
However, the only times I really pulled out "all the stops" was for wedding recessionals and when playing the Dies Irae at the occasional appropriate high-church Episcopal ("call me Anglican") service.
Yes, on the older organs one didn't press down on little ivory tabs; one pulled out those two-inch circular flat knobs to admit keyboard-actuated air to a given rank of pipes. When they were completely pushed in, they "stopped" the flow of air to that rank of pipes, hence, they were "stops."
The air compressor on the oldest organ was a set of bellows operated by apprentice altar boys; I had to be sure that at least three of them were available for the Dies Irae.
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