|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The stinky thing about "blackball" is that some clubs have a rule that a single blackball means exclusion of an applicant.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
The ball was originally a pebble (calculus).
From Ovid's Metamorphoses
Mos erat antiquus niveis atrisque lapillis, his damnare reos, illis absolvere culpa; tunc quoque sic lata est sententia tristis, et omnis calculus inmitem demittitur ater in urnam. Quae simul effudit numerandos versa lapillos, omnibus e nigro color est mutatus in album, candidaque Herculeo sententia numine facta solvit Alemoniden.
It was an ancient custom of that land to vote with chosen pebbles, white and black. The white absolved, the black condemned the man. And so that day the fateful votes were given--: all cast into the cruel urn were black! Soon as that urn inverted poured forth all the pebbles to be counted, every one was changed completely from its black to white, and so the vote adjudged him innocent. By that most fortunate aid of Hercules he was exempted from the country's law. [transl. by Brookes More]
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,283
Members9,179
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
442
guests, and
3
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
|