Ever watch a game or an argument or a situation to the "bitter end." Did that make you wonder how the end became bitter?
Ponder no more. Here's the story of the "bitter end."
This little term about the continuing to the end of a difficult battle or tough issue is nautical in nature. All my references discuss seamanship, where the "bitter end" is that part of the chain or anchor cable that is secured inside the vessel and is seldom used.
The bitt was a heavy log mounted to an axle where the chain or cable was attached, thus if the anchor were let out all the way the "bitter end" was reached.
As Capt. John Smith described it in his "Sea Grammar" of 1627, "A Bitter is but the turne of a Cable about the Bits, and veare it out (let it out) by little and little. And the Bitters end is that part of the Cable doth stay within boord." Simply said, when you've run out of cable you're at the end.
The word was also spelled "better," and apparently by viewing Smith's spelling there were a lot of options in spelling in those days as Defoe used "better end" in his "Robinson Crusoe" to describe a particularly nasty ocean storm.
For those of you who like options to consider in your word origins, I offer a second one I found, one that has less support than the first. This choice, to which I subscribe, addresses the "bitter end" as the last dregs of wine found by wine tasters centuries ago as they reached the bottom of the barrel.
I've never let an anchor out all the way, but I have tasted bad wine. Take your pick, I know what my experience tells me.
- Just a travel tip, don't plan to tour Brazil in August. Brazil has the highest murder rate in the world (45,000 a year) and August is typically the month in which most murders occur.
- Twoey understands completely. Eleven percent of all people who have ended a romantic relationship have done it because of their cat.
- In what may be more than a remotely related statistic, 30 percent of cat owners allow their cats in bed.
- Sadly, Cardinal Francis Spellman was probably speaking a truth when he deduced, "There are three ages of man -- youth, age, and 'you're looking wonderful'."
- Managing knowledge workers or folks who need to think about solutions? Have a large container of peppermints on your desk for them, and offer them frequently. The concentration of office workers is improved by the smell of peppermint.
- Playgrounds and their hosted equipment have gotten pretty fancy since the days of my youth, but at least my elementary school playgrounds were a little better than the first on in America. Boston, Mass., holds the distinction of setting up the first kids' playground in America. Although it was little more than piles of sand placed in the yard of a children's mission in 1886, it was still the first time a play area was set aside for little children.
- "I really don't want to die intestate," said Tom unwillingly (one for my lawyer friends).
Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.