When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

Joseph says “am I in place of God” but his response and love is exactly that of God’s. He wept at the thought of accepting them as hired hands.  This is similar to the parable of the lost son, where the son returned with the idea of working for his father, but the father fell on him and wept… welcoming him back.  Christ paid our debt because we could not.  Our father does not want us to live live in fear, guilt, and indebtedness.  We are his children and always have been… he wants us to celebrate that and live in close fellowship with him.

Luke 15:19-24  Lost Son & Compassionate Father

I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.”’ 15:20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him. 15:21 Then his son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 15:22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Hurry! Bring the best robe, and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! 15:23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it! Let us eat and celebrate, 15:24 because this son of mine was dead, and is alive again – he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

To “beat around the bush” is to avoid direct communication when broaching a topic or answering a question.  Beating around the bush can be accomplished in a number of ways—using allusions, implicatures, tangents, rabbit trails, double negatives, answering questions with questions, giving tons of history and context, apologizing for things before you say what you want to say, and any other way of being vague and indirect.

The Bush Game

This figure of speech probably developed in the days when english speakers actually hunted for their food.  If you run straight at an animal, standing in an open meadow, it will most likely see you coming and run away.  This is similar to directly confronting an touchy issue.  The softer approach would involve hitting a bush and catching your prey off guard.  A wild boar might be napping under the bush, or perhaps a ruffed grouse is perched within.  By beating around the bush, you would cause the animals alarm, and as they flee the bush, you’d easily bag them.

The Burning Bush

There is also a theory that this phrase came from the classic story of Moses and the Burning Bush.  In this episode, God had given Moses a clear and direct command, but Moses thought of all kinds of silly questions and objections, trying to get out of the mission God was giving him.

Misuse

In the Marx Brothers film “A Night at the Opera,” Groucho drops in on the opera conductor while he is shaving.  Groucho says “Always beating around the bush, eh Gottlieb?”

A Little History

This is my first idiom post so I chose “hazard a guess”—an figure of speech that I couldn’t BELIEVE my friends didn’t know.  I then told myself I should start taking note of all idioms I use.

Hazard

A hazard is defined as a risk or a danger.  Bad definition cause they are basically just synonyms, but hey.  “Hazard” can also be a verb, to put something at risk of being lost.  When you “risk money” an a gamble, you are HAZARDING that money.

Hazarding a Guess

A more abstracted use of Hazard as a noun is to “hazard a guess.”  You are not putting the GUESS at risk, but you are putting yourself (your reputation or money) at risk.

Tonight I purged my categories list!  Dig it:

Brown noise (also called red noise or Brownian noise) is named after a fellow named Brown who found an equation to model the random motion of particles suspended in liquid.  The sound spectrum that follows this pattern decreases 6db per octave, so it is more intense at the lowest frequencies and less intense at the higher.  It is these lover frequencies that add a balance to the high static-like sounds and makes for a nice muffled sound.  Here is an EQ-ed version that even further boosts the lows.

These samples will loop endlessly, but for some silly reason it isn’t completely seamless. However, you should still be able to sleep to them. Otherwise, download them from my server and loop them in your favourite software.

For more fun with brown noise, as well as white and pink, check out this great noise tool.

Here’s how to replace a sump pump. Installation is pretty easy. You will work with PVC, rubber couplings, and a check valve using channel locks and 6-in-1 screwdriver. I also explain some safety and efficiency principles.

The video was recorded with the online capture, so it ran out at 10 minutes, but I was essentially finished.  Just check your manual for any floater hight adjustments.

Also note, I remove a rock slab in this video for height purposes, but still had a thin tile down there.  Make sure you have SOME flat surface down there, tile, wood, brick,…  Dont put the pump directly on dirt & rocks that could clog up the pump.

Very often we are forced to throw in a garbage word like “it” or “that” just to fill up an implied object slot. For instance, “It’s raining.” What is raining? Dunno. Rain is falling, that’s really all there is to it. Too bad, English needs a noun.

“It” as a Direct Object

I saw a friend’s twitter post today—I love it when clients ask for whimsical designs. Imagine getting paid to draw superheroes!

We could avoid the silly “it” placeholder in this sentence by saying something like “When clients ask for whimsical designs, I am happy.”   However, the point seems lost, and no one wades through that noun phrase long enough to get to the verb (the point of the utterance).

In this utterance, the most salient point is that he loves something.  So, for the sake of clarity, we use the simple “I love X” structure.  In english, “it” is our X.

After setting out the basic function “I love (it),” we are required to define the (it) variable, it if has not already been defined in a local context.  This leads to the structure: I love (it); it==”when clients ask for whimsical designs”

Is it needed?

Is what needed?  We have been defining too many it’s in the local context.  Do we need to use “it” in this sentence?

It seems acceptable; it==”to say ‘I love when clients ask me…’”  However, leaving out “it” in this fashion seems a little awkward.  Does he actually love the time at which clients ask him this?  Does he love the moment they send the email?  Or was it the second he read the email that he so enjoyed?  I think he actually loves the overall situation—the request, the design process, the pay check, and telling us twitterers about it.

I Love it when it refers to a Vague Event

In this case, and in many others, (it)==the situation that follows when Y occurs.  The Y variable is often appears as “when” in english.

So now, lets see how the sentence looks when filling in the variables with their definitions.

Original:

I love (X (Y=”clients ask for whimsical designs”))

Expanded:

I love the situation that follows when clients ask for whimsical designs.