one a day for all of ay-may
Yesterday I spoke these words aloud, "Ahh....close but no cigar." Upon reflection, I realized that I have no idea what this expression actually means. I think it should be removed from even the outskirts of our vernacular. No one gives away free cigars anymore for getting a right answer. I'm not sure that this practice was ever done, actually. Who has a sackful of cigars they carry around with them to give other people when they happen to answer a question correct? Honestly. And who decided that a cigar (of all things (for goodness sake)) would be the worthy reward for a correct answer?
What would you do if you opposed smoking and yet received a cigar for a correct answer? Could you trade it in for, say, a handful of lima beans? Does the person with a sackful of cigars simultaneously carry around a sackful of lima beans that the non-smokers could take advantage of? If they don't, that's a bit discriminatory to the non-smokers of the world, don't you think? Oh, I see...only the "SMOKERS" get rewarded if they get an answer right. All you non-smokers get nothing but a smile and a thumbs up.
It's this type of discrimination that slowly erodes our communities, our neighborhoods, our cities and eventually our country. "Close but no cigar" caters to smokers at the expense of non-smokers in theory, for it assumes that only those who smoke are worthy to receive a reward for precision and excellence. It indirectly indoctrinates the next generation to see a divide between humanity - the worthy are those who smoke cigars...and the unworthy don't. The slippery slope begins there. Soon, the smokers see the non-smokers as not only not worthy, but as lower, as "less human." Once they are seen as inferior, they can be marginalized and caricatured. And once this happens, they can be oppressed and treated with blatant hostility, injustice, and disrespect. Do you want to see this happen?
Do you want to see a world divided like this - saturated with oppression, discrimination, and injustice? I suggest you do as I do, and refrain from the expression "close but no cigar."
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3 comments:
I always thought the expression came from a canival game. The one where you take a mallet and hit the board that sends the pellet up to hit the bell. If you don't hit the bell but you get close the guy says, "Close but no cigar!" Which makes me guess the ultimate prize was a cigar. Although I think the meter had many prizes on it so I guess the cigar was the lowest prize so it means you almost got the worst prize but you just didn't hit it hard enough. So that's where I thought it came from but I can always be wrong.
man, i am with you. i think that the erosion of our communities has everything to do with grass seed. when people don't plant enough grass seed in a newly tilled yard and a hard rain comes, it washes all of the dirt down the storm drain and untimately into our rivers when then get deposited with this yard dirt and are forced to change paths (for more information at this point, see 7th grade history textbook, Mississippi River). This path change not only erodes banks of the river, but it eventually erodes families. And families as you know, are what makes the clouds come, and if no more clouds, no more ostrich pies, and if no more ostrich pies, well, i don't know what will happen, but i'm sure it won't be good.
I'm in. I love a good boycott
-JLal
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