Thursday, October 11, 2007

 

Sauce For the Gander

There are a few proverbs and sayings which used to baffle me. Because they are figurative flies trapped in amber, the words stay the same while the language evolves. The worst one is: That's the exception which proves the rule. Don't exceptions disprove the rule? Why yes they do and the original speakers of that saying knew that. The word 'prove' at that time meant 'put to the test' not 'establish as a fact.' Another one is: What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. What?

I know a gander is a male goose, but is a goose a female? And what's all this sauce business?

Anyway, what is good for one party is good for another party is a 20th Century bland version.

Here's why I brought the goose/gander sauce thing up.


When the administration of George Washington University thought these fliers were actually produced by a campus conservative group, Young Americans for Freedom, the penalty discussed was expulsion Now that a group of seven GW students - Adam Kokesh, freshman Yong Kwon, senior Brian Tierney, freshman Ned Goodwin, Maxine Nwigwe, Lara Masri and Amal Rammah - have confessed to making the fliers and falsely attributing them to the conservative group (much worse than just making the fliers, which ordinarily would have to have had at least some first amendment protection) the position of the administration is: Well, let's not be too hasty here.



Do they think we don't notice this stuff?

UPDATE: The small conservative paper, The Washington Times, makes the very same point.

UPDATE II: Reader Mike reminds me that the saying is sometimes: What's good for the goose is sauce for the gander. That version is even more incomprehensible. For it to make any sense, you have to know if sauce is good. I think it is, but would a goose think so? How about a gander? Do they regularly get sauce? I love old saying, but some are better than others. Still no word on what will happen to the real perpetrators of the above hate 'crime'. Nothing is my best guess.

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Comments:
Hmmm, I always thought it was "what is good for the goose is good for the gander" the gander being a word meaning flock of geese. Shows you what I know (very little).
 
You're so far to the left you even misinterpret equality sayings along socialist lines. Thanks for lightening my mood today.
 
Must of been how I was raised. Glad to hear I made you smile.
 
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