{"id":43020,"date":"2025-09-27T11:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=43020"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T16:48:21","slug":"the-things-you-run-across","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2025\/09\/27\/the-things-you-run-across\/","title":{"rendered":"The Things You Run Across"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While random reading I ran across this in &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/skepticalinquirer.org\/2025\/08\/from-tractors-to-cell-therapy-clinics-unproven-medical-procedures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>From \u2018Tractors\u2019 to Cell Therapy Clinics: Unproven Medical Procedures<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; Curtis E. Margo, <em><strong>Skeptical Inquirer<\/strong><\/em> (September\/October 2025, paywall) &#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Historian James Harvey Young (1915\u20132006) ] named the chapter [in <strong><em>The Toadstool Millionaires<\/em><\/strong>] featuring Elisha Perkins \u201cGalvanizing Trumpery.\u201d He created this memorable pun by linking the dual meanings of the verb to galvanize with the word trumpery from fifteenth-century French (tromperie, \u201cto deceive\u201d), which later in English would come to mean \u201cworthless\u201d and \u201cof no or little value.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure this is a pun, although the subject, Mr Perkins, was engaged in electricity-related scamming (in the late 18th century), and <em>galvanizing<\/em> has an electricity-related definition, also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theengineeringchoice.com\/what-is-galvanization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>electrogalvanizing<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But that is beside the point, which is really below me, but it being a Saturday morning a bit of humor is in order, and if it&#8217;s at the expense of proponents of uninhibited wealth-pursuit, so much the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While random reading I ran across this in &#8220;From \u2018Tractors\u2019 to Cell Therapy Clinics: Unproven Medical Procedures,&#8221; Curtis E. Margo, Skeptical Inquirer (September\/October 2025, paywall) &#8230; [Historian James Harvey Young (1915\u20132006) ] named the chapter [in The Toadstool Millionaires] featuring Elisha Perkins \u201cGalvanizing Trumpery.\u201d He created this memorable pun by \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2025\/09\/27\/the-things-you-run-across\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43022,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43020\/revisions\/43022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}