the jerry-built house

is written in the currently common style of no caps (common, i.e., to many writers of modern verse), with my one eccentric exception I make of cap pronoun I. To have employed mixed caps otherwise would have ruined the wordplay on jerry-built. The confusion was intended ... and frankly, it's what makes the silly poem work. Thanx, Chuck

on stilts. Thanx, Chuck

Though I've long been familiar with the disparate spellings of jerry/jury as in jerry-built/jury-rigged (and virtually everyone pronounces both jerry/jury in this context as jerry, which tempts confusion in the spelling of the jury in jury-rigged), I haven't till now deigned to check their etiologies. And when I did---lone bold!---wikipedia came to my rescue, as in the following direct quote: "Jury-rigged", which means "assembled in a makeshift manner", is attested since 1788. It comes from "jury mast", a nautical term attested since 1616 for a temporary mast made from any available spar when the mast has broken or been lost overboard. The OED dubiously recorded a suggestion that this was short for "injury mast", but recent dictionaries say that it is probably from Old French _ajurie_="help or relief", from Latin _adiutare_="to aid" (the source of the English word "adjutant"). "Jerry-built", which the OED defines as "built unsubstantially of bad materials; built to sell but not last" is attested since 1869, and is said to have arisen in Liverpool. It has been fancifully derived from the Biblical city of Jericho, whose walls came tumbling down; from the prophet Jeremiah, because he foretold decay; from the name of a building firm on the Mersey; from "jelly", signifying instability; from French _jour_="day" (workers paid day-by-day considered less likely to do a good job); and from the Romany _gerry_="excrement". More likely, it is linked to earlier pejorative uses of the name Jerry ("jerrymumble", to knock about, 1721; "Jerry Sneak", a henpecked husband, 1764; "jerry", a cheap beer house, 1861); and it may have been influenced by "jury-rigged". So much for today's lesson that spotlights jerry-built/jury-rigged. And that's enough a that outta me, don't you think? Thanx again, Chuck

Here wishing everyone had too much time at hand. What's money unless at least some of it's discretionary? Same thing's true with time. And I for sure don't want to imply that money's not tight here. That I could certainly use more of. (More time wouldn't hurt either, of course.) Yours, Chuck PS: I might add that though from one day to another I may pen a serious piece, my greatest, most giggliest happiness flowers/sprouts when writing humor. Even the silliest stuff.

memories fond ... times long gone ... The piece drew together as a sort of child's ditty. In fact, I picture a small town's child skippety-hopping under an afternoon sun down an old dappled tree-shaded/sheltered twisting walkway while absently mouthing this piece in cheerful singsong. I'm glad you so picked up on that quality of it. Yours, Chuck

impressed, Mark, that you verbed the "jury-rigged" with such laudable spelling. It's so tempting for nowadays folk to spell it jerry-rig. I think the confusion stems from the jury being pronounced as jerry by virtually everyone ... and of course the two terms jury-rigged/jerry-built have such similar current meanings. I checked their respective etiologies (see above comment to moonman). (Don't know what happened to him. His profile's been changed drastically. I hope nothing's the matter.) Thanx for reading/commenting. Yours, Chuck