As if that wasn't enough, I also learned that Ben and Jerry were inspired to try to make grape ice cream at the request of Jerrys sister, Becky. The big deal here is that no-one has ever managed to make Grape ice cream . Anyway, they apparently succeeded by incorporating the skin of the grapes which allowed the stuff to actually freeze - but someones dog ate it and died because apparently anthocyanin is poisonous to dogs.
Which is probably why there is no Grape Ice Cream available.
- and my point is ?
The internet is a repository of unverified facts and misinformation.
Seriously though, it's become a minefield of inaccuracy.
 |
| The storm on Saturn is 8 times the size of Earth... |
Popular satirical site 'The Onion' even has its own parody of 'Buzzfeed' called 'Clickhole' - so frighteningly similar that the irony is almost invisible - I kid you not, the irony is embedded so deep now that truth is a liability, speaking of which (irony, that is) I recently got into an online 'tussle' when I called into question the necessity for a fake 'racist' allegedly war-time 1940 comic.
My point was that with many 'real ' racist titles that spewed rhetoric at the time, why add a fake title in the name of 'irony' ?
What happened next will amaze you.
Anyway, that link takes you to the article, but my point is why ?
Like a remake of Bladerunner, why ?
Like a parody of a parody, why?
Is our 21st Century world like a serpent eating its own tail ?
When the primary source of factual information is Wikipedia (to which anyone can contribute anything ) then there are problems.
Like trolling comments on You Tube, it's 'Par for the course', as we used to say:
well, at least I did, and many people I've known.
"That's par for the course"
Meaning that something or some form of behaviour was accepted given the circumstance : for instance, drunken frolics on a stag night.
"That's par for the course"
Was just an accepted figure of speech,
One that I never knew the origin of .
So I decided to remedy that gap in my knowledge immediately, thereby taking control of my own trivial knowledge.
No more being buffeted by the waves of random things that flood into my personal reality from the online world !
For instance, when I woke up this morning , I did not expect to learn that Saturn had a storm cycle of thirty years.
Or the thing about poisonous grape juice.
So I thought, hey! Enough is enough - let me reclaim my ability to think nonsense of my own , thank you Mister Interweb !
So - according to the Cambridge Dictionary, the first Google search result I received, (note: not the esteemed Oxford Dictionary, so I'm already worried: after all Cambridge was the base of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War and forever since has worn the shadowy cloak of republicanism and is likely a hotbed of malcontents and revolutionary academics...)*
"Par for the course" refers to behaviour that is generally not good, but is expected, given the circumstances.
There are a slew of online sources offering various meanings and interpretation of the phrase, and for this, I'm glad, because it actually worried me that perhaps the phrase had already passed into obscurity from everyday parlance.
And there's another glaring example of unusual wordplay.
Parlance.
Of course, 'parlance' is from the old French ' to parler', to talk - but perhaps the key is really the word 'Par'
There we go again - now I see that the word 'par' might be the central thing here.
Par itself seems to be an indicator of 'standards' or averages - feeling 'below par' meaning not so well.
Par also features in golfing terminology.
So perhaps it's par for the (golf) course
So there we have it.
My pointless quest to discover the origins of the phrase 'par for the course', has led to a slew of trivia worthy of the very irrelevant internet world I sought to ignore.
I only hope that in times to come, my irrelevant rambling posts can be seen as perfect examples of how not to apply 'Occams Razor' to an issue.
From the lofty heights of storms on Saturn to my own 'storm in a teacup', I have presented a meaningless post filled with trivia.
Still, I'm glad I got to use the word 'Saturn' in the title.
It has a nice ring to it.
*this assertion is entirely groundless,but I reserve the right to make spurious claims.
