So now we're in a snit, are we? Is that what naturally follows - when one is snippy, one then has a snit?Main Entry: snit
Pronunciation: 'snit
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1939
: a state of agitation
From World Wide Words we learn more about the word snit.
It’s a neat turn of phrase, but to write that does indeed suggest you don’t know what it means. A snit is a fit of rather childish temper, a tantrum or perhaps a sulk. Though word meanings arouse many emotions in subscribers, snits are not usually among them.
Several people have in the past asked where this word comes from, so this is the perfect moment to look into it. All the dictionaries bar one I’ve consulted dismiss the matter with their dispiriting stock phrase “origin unknown”. The exception is Jonathon Green’s Cassell Dictionary of Slang, which mentions the name of Clare Boothe Luce.
Clare Boothe was a talented woman, variously an editor, playwright, politician, journalist and diplomat. The Saturday Review of Literature of 23 December 1939 remarked about snit that “nobody in Georgia seems ever to have heard of either the word or the state of being until Miss Clare Boothe isolated and defined it”. This must have been in reference to her play Kiss the Boys Goodbye of the previous year, in which she used it. Through that play (a successful one that was listed as one of the ten best of the year), she most certainly popularised it, and may well have invented it (most dictionaries are cautious about the origin because nobody can actually prove she did).
From World Wide Words.
Perhaps they should become Muslim instead.
The question remains for us who are the laity - who is really abandoning the communion, who has been warned over and over and put in time out and given a deadline for taking actions that are indeed tearing apart the communion?
And what are we going to do about it?
Ah, but we're just having a snit.
2 comments:
I am just finding this whole Muslim issue insane! I have long been against the term "Jews for Jesus" because if you are Jewish and accept Jesus then you become a Christian. Which is fine, just don't call yourself a Jew. The point I used to make was that you wouldn't find Christians for Mohammed. I guess I was wrong there. How can anyone argue for keeping this woman in the Espiscopal Priesthood? She needs to be told to either recant or leave. Very simple.
BB, your earlier point about the Catholics, is a bit misleading, in my humble opinion, becuase the current Pope has gone back to the argument that the Catholic Church is above all other Christian Denominations, so even the most evangelical of churches isn't going to be in communion.
I do agree, snit is an adult acting like a child. Oh wait, much of what I have seen has been adults acting like children on both sides. Everyone has become so entreached that they can't see the other side has any validity at all. If the ABC had any sense at all he would invite everyone so that they could sit down and follow the biblical commandment: “COME, LET US REASON TOGETHER”
Isaiah 1:18
Similarly tradtional liberals would say that those who choose to change to the Nigerian Church or any other have that right. They have the right to worship as they see fit. Why is it okay for the West to have evangalized the rest of the world but woe to the rest of the world if they try to come here. And let's stop patronizing Africa, I saw this editorial in the Post yesterday and it spoke volumes to me:
Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa
By Uzodinma Iweala
Sunday, July 15, 2007; B07
Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the "African" beads around her wrists.
"Save Darfur!" she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!
My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.
"Don't you want to help us save Africa?" she yelled.
It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.
This is the West's new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.
Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive/" I am African" ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted "tribal markings" on their faces above "I AM AFRICAN" in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, "help us stop the dying."
Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent's corrupt leaders, warlords, "tribal" conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like "Can Bono Save Africa?" or "Will Brangelina Save Africa?" The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and "civilization."
There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one's cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head -- because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West's fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West's prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.
Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been "granted independence from their colonial masters," as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?
Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments -- without much international help -- did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.
Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn't want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.
Uzodinma Iweala is the author of "Beasts of No Nation," a novel about child soldiers.
Careful, Mel - folks might think you're in a snit.
bb ;-)
PS Great post.
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