A bit of innocence

[petitepedal ★]

So last night I went with a friend to visit the guy who is on hospice...His S/O is well educated and very smart...sometimes it is painful in a social situation...Anyway she is still grasping for hope.  However, it appears that for at least 3 and possibly as much as 5 years he has been drinking, smoking and pretty much laid on the couch..possibly passed out half of that time...Sad...I believe she move back with him to try and curb this behavior...only detail I know for you medical types is his spleen is the largest the doctor's have seen at Hennepin County Medical Center....that did come up when the doctor came in.

The innocence part comes with a comment my friend made about "Calling a spade a spade"...Immediately, the S/O called her on the comment "inappropriate especially at this time".  My friend said..her family played a lot of cards  and the comment was in that context...but she said to me later she was concerned that the S/O took it as a grave is dug with a spade and that made the topic taboo....I suggested it was probably had some kind of racial thing attached to it...So I Googled it...and yes indeed it was used as a racial slur starting in about 1928....  I was guessing...google confirmed it..but WTF that was 90 years ago....  Neither of us grew up with racial slurs...heck there were no people of color other than the Native Americans in  the area I grew up in.

Google also mentioned that the phrase originated in the 1500's....not in a racial context.

[F_in Ray Of Sunshine]

7 minutes ago, petitepedal said:

heck there were no people of color other than the Native Americans in  the area I grew up in.

Heh. After working here for six months or so, I realized how white my life has been.

There were about four black kids in my HS and a couple of Puerto Ricans. That was it. I had a Chinese friend who used to come up from NYC during the summer and he was like an exotic specimen in my neighborhood.

At almost every place I've worked since then, it's been the same. The place I worked for 25 years had two or three black guys, one Puerto Rican woman and a couple of Vietnamese women. At one point, we had. A CEO who was Vietnamese. That was it.

Then I come here and it's like working at the UN. The other day on my lunchtime walk, I heard three languages and someone speaking with one of those delightful African accents.....in about three blocks.

Its pretty damned cool.?

[LoneWolf]

 

[Wilbur ★]

"Black as the ace of spades" has negative connotations.  "A spade is a spade" is no different than saying "it is what it is" and in my opinion has no negative connotation.  Unless we want to attach one to it of course.  PC gone mad. 

[maddmaxx ★]

PC is all the rage these days.  Books will be burned.  History will be rewritten.  Nothing changes.

[Caretaker]

If you really want to be un-PC ask which foot he used to dig with.

[parodybot]

Many of you humans go around like Robert Conrad with a battery on your shoulder waiting for someone to knock it off.  Why is this?  Do you enjoy being thin skinned and easily offended sanctimonious butt wipes?