Tonight's Final Jeopardy was a Triple Stumper, but should it really have been? A Latin phrase that originally was used when a doctor or apothecary (fancy word for a pharmacist!) substituted one medication for another. I didn't get it neither, but despite the murkiness of the clue it still should have rang a bell since quid pro quo is one of the most commonly used terms, or at least read out/heard about Latin phrases due to one man in particular: Donald Trump, the infamous Ukraine weapons-for-incriminating facts-about-Joe-Biden scandal that lead to impeachment (but not conviction) and is now even more of an issue due to Ukraine actually desperately needing weapons. Somewhat sad that the term, a reasonable term for compensation/payment/trading something for something else (and really, is the whole concept of Christmas present-exchanging), is now forever a negative image in most people's minds due to Trump but also due to its ties with sexual harassment (requesting sexual favors in exchange for something at the office). I even was involved with a quid pro quo event when I ran for 1L Class President in law school, when I gave out a pen to a classmate and (I didn't ask for it specifically, but I guess my actions insinuated some sort of compensation) he voted for me in the election, citing the universal concept of quid pro quo. (There's actually a bunch of Latin phrases in the law like caveat emptor and res ipsa loquitor, which clouded my thinking on that FJ question). And what was I doing running for class president during the crucial first semester of law school, you might ask? I ask myself that too; I was just a different person in 2008, still striving for popularity and fame, visions of grandiosity, never had a real job and nothing close to any real legal experience unless you consider going to court to legally change my first name, and oddly wishing with all my might to go back to 2004 so I could still compete in high school chess. Weird dude, don't know how he graduated law school, really.
2nd part of the blog that I didn't know how to segue into from the first: RATS! In every city I've ever lived in I've seen rats. Horrible, horrible rats......although, are they that much different from squirrels, really? I never cringe when I see a squirrel walking around in front of me or even grosser yet, climbing a tree and getting close to face level.......so why are so many of us (especially my wife MJ, who shudders at the sight of a rat half a mile away, while we're sitting in the car, with no danger of that rat ever touching her or even getting in the proximity of her) so grossed out by rats? Is it the way that the rats scurry around, the darting and shooting out of corners? Is it the thin, slithering tail that's more sinister than the fluffy, bushy tail of the squirrel? Is it because we associate rats with garbage and dirtiness which in fairness they are usually around all the time? It's some combination of all those, but it's also because of the SIZE of some of the rats I see. Maybe it's me but they've gotten huge, like I don't think my shoe could even cover the size of one. Oh and like elephants, I think humans don't want to think about things crawling around our feet and maybe getting in our feet (snakes give a similar vibe)- gives you goosebumps just thinking about it doesn't it? Maybe the only thing that will make MJ cringe worse than cockroaches, and that's saying something considering she just set up a new batch of roach traps around our apartment today to "kill the roaches where they sleep" as the kit she bought from the gas station advertises.
You know what the SECOND largest rat in the world is? (oddly specific number, it's because No.1 is like the nutria/capybara, and that's not something everyone knows) It's the beaver, the log-rolling dam-building rats of streams and rivers. I would have no problem seeing a beaver up close, but rats? I've seen too many roadkill rats on the side of the road to have a good image of them.
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