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Anu informs us that A Potemkin village is, in other words, whitewash taken to the Nth degree.
Is this a common usage of the term whitewash? I can't recall hearing the term outside of sport - a whitewash being a very one-sided game, usually reflected by the scoreline. While I can see a vague similarity between the two usages, I would never have used it to mean a cover-up, ruse, or however else Anu's usage can be expressed.
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Very commonly a governmental attempt to cover up some mistake by publishing a phoney defense is called a whitewash. A barefaced lie attempting to conceal the truth.
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Whitewash is commonly used hereabouts in the sense of "ruse" or "coverup."
Webster's defines "whitewash" to include "2: to give a speciously pure or fair appearance to: as a: to gloss over or cover up (as vices or crimes) b: to exonerate or clear (as a person) of charges by means of a superficial or perfunctory investigation or examination or through artful or biased presentation of data"
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And wouldn't it be true that there are those who connive with whitewashers--or connive at whitewashing? Doesn't the derivation of conniving have to do with blinking the eye?
Curiously,
WW
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If by blinking the eye you mean winking at, as in tacitly condoning then I would say, in my experience, no. To me it implies a more active, if covert, participation. M-W on line agrees with you, relegating my definition to 2b status.
Oh, derivation. Yeah. It's from the Latin word connivere, meaning to close the eyes.
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Thanks, Faldage, for looking into that with eyes wide open.
So, that monkey who sees no evil is a conniving little ape, huh?
WW
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that monkey who sees no evil is a conniving little ape
Well, not if you know the difference between apes and monkeys it isn't.
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Is it apes tell no tails?
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That's sort of like saying the difference between turtles and snakes is that snakes have no legs, but otherwise that'll do.
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Whitewash is commonly used to mean a cover-up or to disguise some event by enacting another event which looks "sweet". Nixon attempted to whitewash the Watergate affair using several different ruses.
In non-American circles, I think this use of whitewash would certainly be more common than the sports-related use, although, of course, we do understand that one as well ...
So go ape, the lot of you!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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what's the difference between a legless lizard and a snake...?
You'd have to ask a herpetologist that. Perhaps your legless lizard has some internal remnants of legs invisible from the outside. I am sure that there are differences between monkeys and apes that go beyond the simple matter of tails or lack thereof; the tail issue is sufficient for a quick identification. Moths and butterflies, on the other hand, are not as easily identified; there are differences in the way the wings are held at rest and what the antennae look like but there is some overlap in the antenna thang that I know about. Not sure about the wing thing.
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I can't recall hearing the term outside of sport - a whitewash being a very one-sided gameI believe the sports usage means not merely any one-sided result, but specifically one in which the losing team is held completely scoreless. http://www.bartleby.com/61/68/W0136800.html: whitewash: 3. A defeat in a game in which the loser scores no points. It is evident how the basic definition (quoted below) gives rise to the defintion as "thin concealment", but unclear how it gives rise to the sports usage. NOUN: 1. A mixture of lime and water, often that is used to whiten walls, fences, or other structures. TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To paint or coat with or as if with whitewash.
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Anu informs us that A Potemkin village is, in other words, whitewash taken to the Nth degree.
In this I would, with all due trepidation and respect, disagree with Anu. IMHO, a Potemkin village feigns the existence of a non-existent thing; a whitewash conceals the defects in an existent thing.
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Dear Keiva: That's why Anu took whitewashing to the Nth degree. It was a bit of whitewaffling.
Best regards,
WordWaffle
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In non-American circles...Sorry, I couldn't resist
...and in other *mixed circles, we still know and use it most often as Tom and Huck did when they painted a fence... of course now a days we're just gettin' rid of all the tagging on our garages.
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Hi, doc, nice to see you posting.  I'm looking over my shoulder to see if Helen may be approaching, because I have no doubt that she knows all about whitewash. One characteristic of the actual substance is that it is very thin when dry, and thus wears away very quickly, exposing the not-so-nice-looking surface beneath. A legless lizard has a noticeably different head and mouth than snakes do--though I wouldn't want to get close enough to one in the wild, to discern that.
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...and a cat is a snake with legs, ears, and fur.
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> In non-American circles, I think this use of whitewash would certainly be more common than the sports-related use...
I agree - if I had to bet on it, I'd say whitewash in the sporting sense is a more recent usage form in Oz.
It's probably just as common to hear that one team gave another a "shellacing" (sp?) as it is to hear about a whitewash.
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The same idea was expressed by Jesus in the first century and translated in the King James Bible (1611) as "whited", so the idea of superficially dressing up an ugly thing was not new in Potemkin's time.
St. Matthew 23:27
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
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Stales, the word is "shellacking". Shellac is a type of varnish. Interesting that there are two picturesque words for the same thing, both using a term for a surface coating.
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re:...to see if Helen may be approaching, because I have no doubt that she knows all about whitewash. One characteristic of the actual substance is that it is very thin when dry, and thus wears away very quickly, exposing the not-so-nice-looking surface beneath.[/bue]
No more than most-- unless your talking about laundry! but whitewash is also thin when wet-- its about as thick as light cream-- where paint is thicker and has more body.. so its failry easy to slap on..but its hard to whitewash anything with out getting spatters on yourself!
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It is evident how the basic definition (quoted below) gives rise to the defintion as "thin concealment", but unclear how it gives rise to the sports usage.
I always thought it was in reference to the blank space on the scoreboard for the whitewashed team. I know that there would probably be a "0" there, but maybe in the good old days the scores would get painted on in a "tally" format (four vertical lines with the fifth a slash through them all to form groups of five) and then painted over after the game. If that were the case, a shutout might look like one team's space on the board had been whitewashed.
I have no proof of the above, it is merely theory, possibly sparked by subliminally remembered bits from Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies/other old cartoons?
[uncultured aside]When my mother used to listen to "classical" music on the radio my stepfather, brother, and I used to attempt to be the first to identify the Tom & Jerry or Looney Tune cartoon the music was "from."[/uncultured aside]
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Regina v. Ojibway
Blue, J.: - This is an appeal by the Crown by way of a stated case from a decision of the magistrate acquitting the accused of a charge under the Small Birds Act, R.S.O., 1960, c.724, s.2. The facts are not in dispute, Fred Ojibway, an Indian, was riding his pony through Queen's Park on January 2, 1965. Being impoverished, and having been forced to pledge his saddle, he substituted a downy pillow in lieu of the said saddle. On this particular day the accused's misfortune was further heightened by the circumstance of his pony breaking its right foreleg. In accord with the Indian custom, the accused then shot the pony to relieve it of its awkwardness.
The accused was then charged with having breached the Small Birds Act, s.2 of which states:
2. Anyone maiming, injuring or killing small birds is guilty of an offence and subject to a fine not in excess of two hundred dollars.
The learned magistrate acquitted the accused holding, in fact, that he had killed his horse and not a small bird. With respect, I cannot agree.
In light of the definition section my course is quite clear. Section 1 defines "bird" as "a two legged animal covered with feathers". There can be no doubt that this case is covered by this section.
Counsel for the accused made several ingenious arguments to which, in fairness, I must address myself. He submitted that the evidence of the expert clearly concluded that the animal in question was a pony and not a bird, but that is not the issue. We are not interested in whether the animal in question is a bird or not in fact, but whether it is one in law. Statutory interpretation has forced many a horse to eat birdseed for the rest of its life.
Counsel also contented that the neighing noise emitted by the animal could not possibly be produced by a bird. With respect, the sounds emitted by an animal are irrelevant to its nature, for a bird is no less a bird because it is silent.
Counsel for the accused also argued that since there was evidence to show the accused had ridden the animal, this pointed to the fact that it could not be a bird but was actually a pony. Obviously this avoids the issue. The issue is not whether the animal was ridden or not, but whether it was shot or not, for to ride a pony or a bird is of no offence at all. I believe counsel now sees his mistake.
Counsel contends that the iron shoes found on the animal decisively disqualify it from being a bird. I must inform counsel, however, that how an animal dresses is of no concern to this court.
Counsel relied on the decision in Re Chicadee, where he contends that in similar circumstances, the accused was acquitted. However this is a horse of a different colour. A close reading of that case indicates that the animal in question there was not a small bird, but in fact, a midget of a much larger species. Therefore, that case is inapplicable to our facts.
Counsel finally submits that the word "small" in the title Small Birds Act refers not to "Birds" but to "Act", making it the Small Act relating to Birds. With respect, counsel did not do his homework very well, for the Large Birds Act, R.S.O. 1960, c.725, is just as small. If pressed, I need only refer to the Small Loans Act R.S.O. 1960, c.727 which is twice as large as the Large Birds Act.
It remains then to state my reason for judgment which, simply, is as follows: Different things may take on the same meaning for different purposes. For the purpose of the Small Birds Act, all two legged, feather covered animals are birds. This, of course, does not imply that only two-legged animals qualify, for the legislative intent is to make two legs merely the minimum requirement. The statute therefore contemplated multi-legged animals as well. Counsel submits that having regard to the purpose of the statute only small animals "naturally covered" with feathers could have been contemplated. However, had this been the intention of the legislature, I am certain that the phrase "naturally covered" would have been expressly inserted just as "Long" was inserted into the Longshoreman's Act.
Therefore, a horse with feathers on its back must be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be a bird, and, a fortiori, a pony with feathers on its back is a small bird.
Counsel posed the following rhetorical question: If the pillow had been removed prior to the shooting, would the animal still be a bird? To this let me answer rhetorically: Is a bird any less of a bird without its feathers?
Appeal allowed.
......-- from (1965) 8 Crim.L.Q. 137-139 (Canada)
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a Potemkin village feigns the existence of a non-existent thing
From the A.W.A.D. email:
While this setup depicted an illusion of prosperity, the real condition of the village was hidden behind this facade.
There was a village there; it wasn't invented out of whole cardboard. It was not a feigned existence of a non-existent thing; it was dressing up as prosperous a village that was impoverished
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There was a village there; it wasn't invented out of whole cardboard. It was not a feigned existence of a non-existent thingFaldage, I am not sure with what authority the writer of the writer of the quoted e-mail speaks. The AHD definition at http://www.bartleby.com/61/0/P0480000.html (quoted below, emphasis added] seems to me to support of my reading that the term is limited a feigned but non-existent entity. Potemkin village NOUN: Something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance: “the Potemkin village of this country's borrowed prosperity” (Lewis H. Lapham). ETYMOLOGY: After Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who had elaborate fake villages constructed for Catherine the Great's tours of the Ukraine and the Crimea.The WAD-description differs from this etymology, in that it assumes a real (though whitewashed) village exists. (WAD: put up elaborate cardboard houses ... in the villages) I suggest this asumption is contrary to the published dictionary authority.
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Sparteye, that was great! Tell us another one, any time! 
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Keiva quotes: ETYMOLOGY: After Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who had elaborate fake villages constructed for Catherine the Great's tours of the Ukraine and the Crimea....
Are all stage sets Potemkin villages? I hear a pantomime horse's hooves trotting in the wings of a Potemkin village...
Beast regards,
DubDubious
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we still know and use it most often as Tom and Huck did when they painted a fence
Yes, musick!...I was going to mention Mark Twain's famous scene in Tom Sawyer where Tom suckers his friends into whitewashing the fence for him, and sits back and takes credit and pay for all the work. Perhaps this is where "whitewash" gained its connotation for connivance, putting one over, slanting the truth, etc.
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covered
Was it stipulated anywhere in the law, Sparteye, if "covered" designates any requirement of area as in totally, partially, or a specific portion of coverage thereof? Because, if not...then the horse is not "covered," only a small portion of the horse's back is "covered." Therefore, I don't see how this could hold-up in appeal.
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Early returns from the Research Department suggest that Potemkin Village *may be a blovian metaphor. Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0839897.html suggests "[t]he allegation that he had sham villages ('Potemkin villages') built along her route is, at best, an extreme exaggeration, for Potemkin was in fact an able administrator..." Research at greater depth continues.
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So they don't have professional politicians???
TEd
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they don't have professional politicians???
They do, but they're worried about the competition.
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Re: Tom suckers his friends into whitewashing the fence for him,.... Perhaps this is where "whitewash" gained its connotation for connivance,..
but i have always heard this kind of conning to be Tomsawyering.. I have been known to engage in it.. and to fall prey to it.. (i've been tomsawyer'd!)
its a classic sort of passive/aggresive action.. (kids do it all the time! )
I think the idea of whitewash (or nowdays, a quick slap of paint) being used to cover up defects, to "give the appearence of new, or clean" is very differented than being tricked into doing someone elses work...
in the worst of the 80's, NY used to board up abandon, burned out building by covering the window openings with sheet metal.. some one had the bright idea of silk screening designs on the sheet metal; curtains, window sill plants, cats, etc. these designer window covered were used where ever a landmark happened be be close to a bad area.. the buildings near the Bronx Zoo was one area.. the idea was to give the illusion the neighborhood was better than it seemed.. a quick glance and you saw 'inhabitated apartments'. reality was burnt out, abandon buildings.. critics at the time refered to the whole project as creating Potamkin villages.
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Was it stipulated anywhere in the law, ... ?
The above-posted article is a parody which was published in a Canadian law journal years ago. The "opinion" has more holes than a sieve, legally, but it's funny anyway.
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The first clue was the name of the judge! And it would have been stretching things to have made Ojibway a Crow.
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Perhaps one of the USn lawyers can enlighten me here. Was there really a USn judge called Learned Hand? Or was that just a pen name, and if it was, what was his/her real name?
Bingley
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Was there really a USn judge called Learned Hand? Or was that just a pen name, and if it was, what was his/her real name?
There most certainly was, bingley: "one of the great judges of the twentieth century, whose work has left a profound mark on our legal, intellectual, and social landscape. ... Learned Hand is widely considered the peer of Justices Holmes, Brandeis, and Cardozo." And thank you, bingley, for prompting me to do a bit of research; I am now eagerly running off to purchase the biography. A few quick quotations of Justice Hand:
"If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice. (1951)
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest." p. 190-191, The Spirit of Liberty (1944).
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