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whatsupyukon.com
IDIOMATIC ORIGINS
April 20, 2022 column with
Josephine Holmes
Josephine Holmes is a freelance writer and the copy editor at What’s Up Yukon. She is a prairie girl, at heart, but loves the Yukon and has been a sourdough since 1994. The other thing she loves, aside from spending time with family, is being called “Grammy.”
BYE-BYE, BIRDIE!
physiotherapist recently. If someone says you are Half a block “a canary” or “a canary away, this thought in the coal mine,” popped into my it is not head: I’m a canary. an insult A little more context might be helpful … ne intrinsic characterIn pre-panistic of introverts is a demic times, at propensity towards over- a physio appointthinking. And overthinking was ment, my therwhat I was doing as I drove to the apist looked at me, mid-treatment, and announced, “You’re a canary.” No doubt she caught the look of confusion. Then she All Northern. All Fun. gave me a sideways glance and a reassuring smile as she quickly added, “I’m a canary in the early 1900s when it was distoo.” Elizabeth’s comment was the covered that canaries were an eforiginal muse for this column’s fective early-warning system for idiomatic content: “a canary in the presence of toxic gasses, such as carbon monoxide. With that the coal mine.” Never would a canary, ever, be revelation, the trills and warbles seen in a coal mine, unless under of imprisoned songbirds could be duress. And that is what happened heard in mineshafts everywhere, so much so that they no doubt brought a little comfort into the depths of what was otherwise a dark, dreary, dirty worksite. If Pet Supplies & More the trills and warbles ceased, the silence was “heard” and the miners’ avian alarm was checked immediately. A vacant perch meant that the mine should be exited expeditiously. Before you start feeling mildly outraged at the fate of these songbirds, they often recovered from the effects of the gas. In an article titled “The Tunnellers,” in the Nottingham Evening Post (13 May 1936), it was noted that a compassionate wartime commander extended a three-strikesyou’re-out pardon to canaries that were being used to detect Check out our NEW website: gas, wherein a canary, if gassed Like us on Follow us on as well as on thefeedstorewhitehore.ca three times (and obviously having recovered), would be discharged Ask about Delivery: 633-4076 9006 Quartz Rd Whitehorse, YT from duty and be dubbed “P.B.” thefeedstore@northwestel.net Hours: Mon - Fri. 9AM - 6PM, Sat. 9AM-5PM
I’m a canary
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PHOTO: Pixabay (Private Bird) . Still, birds should not be caged, let alone imprisoned in a mine, and the practice, which lasted until the late 1990s, is no more. Now, early-warning systems are, thankfully, feather free. If someone says you are “a canary” or “a canary in the coal mine,” it is not an insult. It may, rather, be a compliment. It may mean that you are more sensitive to things around you (that you sense things before others do) or that you respond to things more quickly. The idiom has also been used to reference climate change indicators; for instance, the rate of glacial melting is definitely “a canary in the coal mine” for climate change. Back to the thought, I’m a canary. It is a good realization. And one I would not have had without the insight of my physiotherapist. The good news is that we no longer have to say, “Bye-bye, birdie!” n (No canaries were harmed during the writing of this column.)
