Bona Fides

Anyone who hears the news even a little bit each day will have heard about President Trump's immigration policy and trying to identify who is a "bona fide" relation to the someone who is already in this country.

'Bona fide' became such a oft-repeated word that it qualified for the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal's 'Word on the Street' column. This column takes the new, oft-repeated word in news stories and gives its origin and various meanings. It's a William Safire service to the English language.

Any time the government attempts to define something they use a word or phrase that itself needs a definition. In my prior life in the health insurance world the word 'reasonable and customary' was, and still is, a catch phrase that attempts to define what something should cost, and therefore what the reimbursement for it should be. It is a hornet's next.

It is easy to spot these terms because you start to hear lawyers on TV tell you what they mean. They remind of when I was a prospective juror in Federal Court 30 years ago in Brooklyn and Judge Glasser asked me what my wife did for a living. I told the court, "she's a housewife."

Well, the judge, trying to show his politically correct, liberal side, started to lecture me that wasn't she more than that? I held my ground, and said, "she's a housewife. She has no job outside the house. No reimbursement from a job. There's no other paycheck coming into the house. She doesn't mind being called a housewife. She likes it."

The judge was still prickly about my choice of words, so much so that he had another another retort to my insistence on using the word "housewife."

I ended the exchange by cracking everyone up and asking, "am I going to need a lawyer?" I was eventually excused.

So bona fide has found itself in a legal battle of definitions attempting to establish who is a "bona fide" relative. The beat goes on.

Anyone who follows obituary writing knows that same sex relationships are now acknowledged,with the deceased either having a partner, or a husband or a wife whose gender turns out to be the same. It can be a bit jarring to read that a male is survived by their husband, but with repetition, the edge wears off.

And now I notice that a deceased's mother will be described as a "homemaker" if there is no work endeavor that is outside the home to speak of. I wonder if the judge is still around and writing to the New York Times about their word choice.

If anyone saw the documentary 'Obit' they will realize that the obituary writers try and corroborate as much personal information as they can about spouses, siblings and offspring. I love to read about nonagenarians who might have x number of grandchildren, and then x number of great-grandchildren. I've even read of a very new who were survived by great-great grandchildren. Talk about Ancestry.com!

But when I read of the passing of Kelan Philip Cohran, 90, a Chicago jazz musician, I don't think I ever read of a deceased whose survivors were described this way:

Mr. Cohran is survived by 23 children from multiple relationships, as well as 37 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

That is a guy who was a bona fide producer who bought birthday cards in bulk.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com