Last night we started watching the GREAT series, "Elizabeth R" starring Glenda Jackson, who is a Member of Parliament in real life these days. (I guess this would be the British equivalent to President John Quincy Adams' becoming a Congressman after his Presidency...you can see a glimpse of this in another GREAT flick, "Amistad.")Anyway...Queen Elizabeth I had a group of men called The Privy Council. Now, with my understanding of the English language and its idioms, I suddenly realized that "the privy" was the term used for the OUTHOUSE. (The connection, for all you linguistically curious is that "privy" has to do with access to secret information, usually involving a location of privacy; hence, the nickname for the outdoor toilet, I guess.) (By the way, "privacy" is pronounced prih-vuh-ssseee, not pry-vah-see if you're from the right hand side of the Atlantic.)
Well...I'm just sittin' here wonderin' if the Outhouse Council ever REALLY considered the implications of their name, considering how they used to suck up to Her Royal Majesty?!!
It seems to me ANY council of men who get together to decide the fate of individuals, groups, and/or countries should give a little consideration to their title.
Now, think about this one: Most religious organizations have a Board of Trustees to run at least their financial affairs (as required for non-profit corporations in American States) and usually many of their other affairs as well. It just so happens that a secondary meaning of "trustee" is interesting: "Trustee is also a term used for a prison inmate who has special work-related privileges, usually as a result of good behavior." In other words, Do The Crime...Do The Time...Be Good...Get Power Over Other Crooks. (I'm thinking of the trustees who used to have charge of internal cell keys in various English gaols.)
Maybe we should just have groups titled Guys Who Run Things.
Got crossword puzzle mentality?
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