Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that hangs,” literally...
flight to cash n.— «But there were persistent rumors in 1974 that the banking system was in danger, Mr. Richardson said. Without the boost of confidence from the Lifeboat, those rumors might have become self-fulfilling, and if one major bank had...