Going cuckoo is never for the birds ... "
Marquis de Sade
Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2021/11/24/7101
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What is the origin of the phrase "to go cuckoo"? It seems to have two meanings. In England it usually means to go mad or insane, while in America it seems to be used to mean wildly enthusiastic about something.
"Going cuckoo" means to go insane ... the use int he US to mean "enthusiastic" --- generally from the advertising slogan "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" on tv ...
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The UK use of cuckoo indicates something less than insanity - barmy rather than barking. It probably comes from the repetitive call of the cuckoo, implying that the person concerned is making as much sense as the bird.
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Maybe from Aristophanes' cuckooland
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Congress Goes Cuckoo: Top 5 Bonkers Moments from Recent House Oversight Committee Hearing
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for the birds
definition
informal
not worth consideration; unimportant:
"this piece of legislation is for the birds"
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Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse Fran;ois, Marquis de Sade (2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. Some of these were published under his own name during his lifetime, but most appeared anonymously or posthumously. Born into a noble family dating from the 13th century, Sade served as an officer in the Seven Years' War before a series of sex scandals led to his detention in various prisons and insane asylums for most of his adult life. During his first extended imprisonment from 1777 to 1790, he wrote a series of novels and other works, some of which his wife smuggled out of prison. On his release during the French Revolution, he pursued a literary career and became politically active, first as a constitutional monarchist then as a radical republican. During the Reign of Terror, he was imprisoned for moderatism and narrowly escaped the guillotine. He was re-arrested in 1801 for his pornographic novels and was eventually incarcerated in the Charenton insane asylum where he died in 1814. His major works include The 120 Days of Sodom, Justine, Juliette and Philosophy in the Bedroom which combine graphic descriptions of sex acts, rape, torture, murder, and child abuse with discourses on religion, politics, sexuality, and philosophy. The word sadism derives from his fictional characters who take pleasure in inflicting pain on others. There is debate over the extent to which Sade's behavior was criminal and sadistic. Peter Marshall states that Sade's "known behavior (which includes only the beating of a housemaid and an orgy with several prostitutes) departs greatly from the clinical picture of active sadism." Andrea Dworkin, however, argues that the issue is whether one believes Sade or the women who accused him of sexual assault.
Interest in his work increased in the 20th century, with various authors considering him a precursor to Nietzsche, Freud, surrealism, totalitarianism, and anarchism. Many prominent intellectuals including Angela Carter, Simone de Beauvoir, and Roland Barthes published studies of his work and numerous biographies have appeared. Cultural depictions of his life and work include the play Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss and the film Sale;, or the 120 Days of Sodom by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Dworkin and Roger Shattuck have criticized the rehabilitation of Sade's reputation, arguing that it promotes violent pornography likely to cause harm to women, the young and "unformed minds". he Napoleonic Consulate was cracking down on public immorality and, in March 1801, Sade was arrested at his publisher's office and detained in the Sainte-P;lagie Prison. The stocks of The New Justine and Juliette were seized and the police minister Joseph Fouch; ordered Sade's detention without trial as he believed the pornography laws did not provide for sufficient punishment and any trial would only increase Sade's notoriety. Following Sade's attempts to seduce young prisoners at Sainte-P;lagie, he was declared insane with "libertine dementia" and transferred to the Bic;tre Asylum. After intervention by his family, he was transferred once more to the Charenton Asylum, where his ex-wife and children agreed to pay his room and board. Marie-Constance, pretending to be his illegitimate daughter, was allowed to live with him there. The director of Charenton, Abb; de Coulmier, attempted to run the institution on humane principles with an emphasis on "moral treatment" in accordance with the nature of the mental illness. He allowed Sade to write, produce and perform in plays, and also encouraged balls, concerts, dinners and other entertainments. In 1805, Coulmier had a theater built on the premises with seating for about 200. The performances, which included professional actors and inmates, became fashionable, attracting many among the elite of Napoleonic society. Sade was also allowed to write. In April 1807, he completed Les journ;es de Florbelle, a ten-volume libertine novel. The novel was seized after a police search of Sade's and Quesnet's rooms. Sade later completed three conventional novels at Charenton. Coulmier's novel approach to psychotherapy and the privileges granted to Sade attracted much opposition in official circles. In 1810, new police orders put Sade into solitary confinement and deprived him of pens and paper. Coulmier, however, gradually restored most of Sade's privileges.
In 1813, the government ordered Coulmier to suspend all theatrical performances, balls and concerts. By this time, Sade was in a sexual relationship with Madeleine Leclerc, the teenage daughter of an employee at Charenton. The relationship caused consternation for Quesnet and further allegations of immorality against Sade. In September 1814, the new director of Charenton asked the Bourbon restoration government to transfer Sade to another institution. Sade, however, was now seriously ill. He died on 2 December 1814 after an attack of "prostrating gangrenous fever." Sade had left instructions in his will requesting that he be buried at his property at Malmaison without an autopsy or "pomp of any kind." However, Malmaison had been sold years earlier and Sade was buried with religious rites at Charenton. His skull was later removed from the grave for phrenological examination.[106] His surviving son, Claude-Armand, had all his remaining unpublished manuscripts burnt, including Les Journ;es de Florbelle.