I fear I may blow a funny fuse watching the inner party explain how inflation, gas shortages and a declining stock market are the fault of white supremacists invading Ukraine. It means nothing, but it should make for good theater. Of course, Trump will be out there on the campaign trail and you know he will be slinging mud at McConnell. The GOP has managed to stock their ticket with zombies from party central, but those zombies will have no choice but to say mean things about Washington while campaigning. I have to say, this may be a hilarious election season from a dissident perspective, as it is nothing but bad news for the uniparty. The big spending bill that just passed signals the end of the line for the Ukraine story in Washington as events on the ground turn negative for them. This is no doubt this is coming at the direction of the party, who may be figuring out that it is a loser issue. Ukraine is starting to slide down the page for the New York Times and the Washington Post. You can see the shift already, as we head into the unofficial start of summer. Next up for a starring role on the big stage is the election. There are efforts to revive the franchise but rebooting Covid is going to be a tough sell, even to people on the Left. That means the topic has pretty much fallen out of the news cycle now. Looking back, the last Covid e-mail was back in in the winter. For a long time it was close to a daily occurrence, then it settled into the same pattern as other topics. Something I did not notice while compiling the show was that I have not received any Covid questions or comments in a while. It is just a grab bag of topics that have accumulated since the last mailbag show back in the winter. The title for the show reflects the fact that the show has no theme. This week I empty out the mailbag and address the complaints that have come in since the last time. I need a little break to catch up on some other items, so this is a good time for that. No show next week as it is a long weekend in the United States. helter-skelter, hanky-panky, roly-poly, willy-nilly, hocus-pocus), coupling 'jibber' and 'jabber' would have been a natural formation at any time in the last 400 years, and it may have been commonplace for many years before it finally appeared in print.The show this week is the season finale, so to speak. Given English-speakers' love of reduplicated words (e.g.

gabble, yabber, gab, jabble.) The earliest sighting of 'jibber-jabber' recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1922, but that doesn't mean that was 'the year it first appeared'. (There are a number of similar words in English all meanig much the same thing - e.g. 'Jibber' (spelt 'gibber') was used by Shakespeare 'jabber' is recorded in 1499. Jibber-jabber is a coupling of 'jibber' and 'jabber', which are themselves variants of the same onomatopoeic verb meaning 'To speak rapidly and inarticulately to chatter, talk nonsense'. : Not having even the 'foggiest' idea is having no idea at all not even a badly formed, undefined one. : As for the second part, something that is 'foggy' is unclear, hard to discern - for fairly obvious reasons - so a foggy idea (if such a phrase existed) would be a vague one. Also, where did the phrase 'I haven't the foggiest idea' come from? : : Where did the phrase 'jibber jabber' come from? I need the year it first appeared. In Reply to: Jibber jabber posted by David FG on Novemat 08:58: Posted by Victoria S Dennis on Novemat 16:32