Babies and Bathwater
A woodcut illustration in a German book from 1512 depicts a woman tossing out a baby along with wastewater from a bucket. This is the first known use of the idiom, “Throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” Some say this phrase came from the idea of a family sharing bathwater (from oldest to youngest) until, finally, the last one—the baby—could barely be seen in the dirty water. Whether this story is true or not, we can be grateful for the invention of modern plumbing!
how to be strong
Unfinished business. Too much to do.
friends in the fray
Tim Kreider wrote about modern-day busyness in a New York Times opinion column. His piece titled “The ‘Busy’ Trap” included a personal experience in which he contacted a friend about getting together. The friend replied that he was busy but might be persuaded to “ditch work for a few hours” if “something was going on.” Kreider didn’t press for a rendezvous. He described his friend’s busyness as “some vast, churning noise through which he was shouting.”
