welcome Arge, Jackie is special, and pretty in pink.
from brewers
Table-turning.The turning of tables without the application of mechanical force, which in the early days of spiritualism was commonly practised at seances and sank to the level of a parlour trick. it was said by some to be the work of departed spirits, and by others due to a force akin to MESMERISM.
Turn the tables, To. To reverse the conditions or relations, as, for instance, to rebut a charge by bringing forth a counter-charge. The phrase comes from the old custom of reversing the table or board, in games such as CHESS or DRAUGHTS, so that the opponents relative position is altogether changed.
from brewers 1894 hypertext ed
Turning the tables. Rebutting a charge by bringing forth a counter-charge. Thus, if a husband accuses his wife of extravagance in dress, she “turns the tables upon him” by accusing him of extravagance in his, club. The Romans prided themselves on their tables made of citron wood from Mauritania, inlaid with ivory, and sold at a most extravagant price- some equal to a senator's income. When the gentlemen accused the ladies of extravagance, the ladies retorted by reminding the gentlemen of what they spent in tables. Pliny calls this taste of the Romans mensarum insania.
It is also used for “audi alteram partem,” and the allusion is then slightly modified- “We have considered the wife's extravagance; let us now look to the husband's.”
“We will now turn the tables, and show the hexameters in all their vigour.”- The Times.
