Cottleston Pie

The Army Special Forces is spamming me! Some "undisclosed-recipients" and I got spam today from Army recruiter Sgt. Hood. He reports:

.... For a limited time, the Army will offer you the opportunity to attend Infantry Basic Training, Jump School, and Special Forces Assessment and Selection. This opportunity is normally reserved for soldiers who have served for a period of 2 to 3 years, but at this time, it is available you with out any special prerequisites. ....

By looking at the email headers, I was able to determine that he sent the email from a usarec.army.mil server to the unique email address I list in the University of Texas directory. He did not mention the University connection or any other reason why I should be the recipient.

I am disinclined to respond positively. I'm not much one for kowtowing.

Finding the etymology of figurative expressions can be difficult . I was able to track down some interesting pages with various expression etymologies, but no "tilting at windmills."

It was easy enough to learn that the expression comes from the novel Don Quixote who ineffectually attacked windmills, being under the illusion that they were giants.

But why tilting? Fortunately, the OED supplied the critical detail that made it all clear: tilting is jousting.

tilting,vbl.n.1

1. a. The action of TILT v.1 in sense 5; charging on horseback with a lance against an opponent, or a mark; justing [ jousting ].

  1610 HOLLAND Camden's Brit. (1637) 250 Having unhappily slaine his onely sonne while he trained him at Tilting. 1617 MORYSON Itin. I. 190 On the right hand as you come in..is a place for Tylting, called Tournelles. 1730 A. GORDON Maffei's Amphith. 250 The Armour People put on at tilting with Lances. 1893 K. A. SANBORN Truthf. Woman in S. California 172 The tournament is exciting, where skilful riders try tilting at rings, trying to take as many rings as possible on lance while galloping by.

c. transf. and fig.

  1668 HOWE Bless. Righteous (1825) 175 A perpetual hostility, a very tilting at his cross. 1878 STEVENSON Edinburgh (1889) 2 Perpetual tilting against squalls.

joust, just, v.

3. spec. To engage in a joust or tournament; to run at tilt with lances on horseback.

13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 872 Oaines sir Gij er com Gayer, To iuste wi him he drou him ner. c1386 CHAUCER Knt.'s T. 1628 Al that Monday Iusten they and daunce. 1390 GOWER Conf. III. 63 To se..The lusti folk iouste and tourneie. 1485 CAXTON Chas. Gt. 41 Sende to Iuste ayenst me somme of thy barons. c1489 —— Sonnes of Aymon i. 32 They Iousted moche worthyly but Reynawde iousted beste vpon his horse bayarde. a1548 HALL Chron., Hen. VIII 85 The kyng..in his owne person Iusted to all comers. 1608 SHAKES. Per. II. i. 116 There are Princes and Knights come from all partes of the world to Iust and Turney for her loue. 1755 JOHNSON, To joust and to just. 1773-83 OOLE Orl. Fur. XXVI. 524 Every chief..He call'd to joust, and dar'd them to the field. 1805 WORDSW. Prelude IX. 455 Methought I saw a pair of knights Joust underneath the trees. 1825 MACAULAY Ess., Milton (1851) I. 15 Knights, who vowed to joust without helmet or shield. 1868 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. II. viii. 261 Not justing with his lance as in a mimic tourney.

Source: Oxford English Dictionary

What a wonderful expression—tilting at windmills—but that reaction is to be expected from someone who will reply, "Cottleston pie."

Two weeks ago, Jesus rear-ended my car. There was an accident on I35 South that was causing, and would cause for some time, horrible backups. So I drive onto the frontage road on an alternate route to my grad class. As I approached the intersection of the frontage and 51st, the light turned yellow. It was yellow long enough as I approached that I braked to stop. I might have squeezed safely through the beginning of the red even if I didn't make the yellow, but I thought it wasn't worth the risk of a ticket. So I stopped. I braked firmly to stop. But it wasn't a really hard stop. No brake screech or tire squeal. No abnormal overshooting the stop line.

The driver behind thought I was going to run the yellow or red and he was going to run the solid red. But I stopped. And then a fraction of a second later, he hit me.

I dialed 911 and asked for cops. I stepped out. The other guy stepped out of his car. I was fine. He appeared fine. I told the operator it was a non-injury accident.

I had been hit by an old black 1992 Camaro with a couple fake-bullet-hole stickers on the side. The driver was a twenty-one year old Hispanic male who spoke very little english.

A couple of other drivers pulled to the side and watched. They would later take off, handing me slips of paper with their names and phone numbers on them as witnesses should I need it (I didn't).

A cop showed up. He was primarily interested in getting us out of the roadway. I'd been waiting until a cop showed up before moving. Turned out he was an AISD (Austin Independent School District) officer on his way home and couldn't process the accident as APD (Austin Police Dept) would. He waited around until APD arrived. He was relaxed and friendly as a fellow getting off work and with no real job to do except stand outside on a beautiful sunny afternoon might be.

The APD officer arrived. She was appropriately efficient and affable (and an attractive young woman). She also spoke Spanish, so unlike the AISD officer and me, she could speak to the other driver, Jesus. Jesus had neither license nor insurance. The officer wrote him a citation for that and for read-ending me.

I got my car fixed at Rebreu Body & Frame. The direct-behind impact by the low front-end of the Camero damaged only the bumper-cover and the flying Camero parts had put some scratches and Camero-paint on my trunk lid. Still was not inexpensive to fix -- $815. I paid $250, my uninsured motorist deductible. I'd dealt with Rebreu before (three times now; once my fault, twice someone else running into me), would do so again, and recommend them to others.

Here's a picture of the damage, though it does not show how flexible the bumper cover became after having been crushed and the scratches and flecks of paint on the trunk lid aren't really visible in this photo either:

About two weeks later after the accident, traveling to class at about the same time, I35 traffic slowed and guess who I passed in the lane next to me? Yep, Jesus in the same Camero with a damaged front-end and fake bullet-hole stickers. I resisted the urge to wave.

When I arrived at my polling location at 9 a.m., I got behind a line maybe twenty-five people long in the open air. The line snaked out the front-door of an apartment complex office. The old woman behind me said that the line was much longer when she'd come by at 7:30 a.m. The temperature had dropped from the 80s we were experiencing in days previous down to the 50s. The sky was dark and occasionally spitting rain droplets.

The man at the door started calling for people with last names M through Z. I just stood there in a little wonderment. Just one person approached the front door. The official at the door called again. My name falls in that range, so I approached, feeling strange to jump the line, and thus landed just third in line inside.

The big paper registration books had been divided evenly alphabetically A-L, M-Z, but by some coincidence almost everyone showing up to vote had A-L last names. Woo-hoo for mine then! The total process took less than fifteen minutes including standing in line time and casting a ballot that included a write-in.

Everyone knows about the big presidential race, but I'm watching some Texas House seats closely.

During the last legislative session (Texas nominally is in session only every other year, but our governor called a few special sessions and managed to waste lots of money this year with no accomplishments to show for it), I was very ill-represented by Jack Stick. He was really a DeLay lackey and appeared (on cable access broadcast of the legislature) to love being part of the GOP frat. The Austin American-Statesman gives strong endorsement to Jack's challenger Mark Strama, as well as a stinging review of Jack's follies.

Now I've moved and the incumbent Todd Baxter appears to be a Jack-Stick-alike. So it is a no-brainer for me to vote for Kelly White. The Stateman's endorsement agrees, and lists a number of follies that Baxter shares with Stick.