Open and shut?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “open and shut” in particular: The body is quickly identified, raising hopes of an open-and-shut solution.

My comments:

The body of the victim is identified, which helps leading to a quick solution, i.e. making this a simple case to solve.

Put in another way, this is an open-and-shut case.

An open-and-shut case?

Legally, when the court listens to a case, they hear the story from both sides, the plaintiff and the accused. The judge literally opens a folder of files to deliberate the case. When the verdict is reached, the judge closes the files.

In other words, case closed.

An open-and-shut case is one that literally opens and immediately closes – because the evidences are clear and undisputable. For example, if someone is murdered and another person is found alone in the room with the victim then that person is the prime suspect. And if that person is caught holding a blooded knife in hand plus blood stains all over his clothes, then a conclusion is reached readily.

That is, quickly.

In our top example, now that the victim is identified, a quick solution to the case is probable.

Hopefully.

“Open and shut”, in short, is descriptive of a dispute that is easily decided, a situation where the correct decision is without a doubt.

Hence, a solution, legally or otherwise, is easy or quick to reach.

All right, let’s read a few media examples to hammer the point firmly home:

1. Do you eat it for dessert? Fruit. Do you eat it for dinner? Vegetable. Problem solved.

In all the ways that matter to most consumers, tomatoes are not fruit. That was the opinion of Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray, released on this day in 1893.

“Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of the vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans and peas,” he wrote. Score one for that irritating person we all know who insists that tomatoes are properly a fruit.

But he didn’t stop there: “In the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are… usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert.”

“Like a lot of America’s history, the great tomato debate was the product of a tariff,” writes Ethan Trex for Mental Floss. After Congress passed a tariff act that imposed a 10 percent tax on whole vegetables, vegetable merchants tried to bring in some tomatoes and not pay the tariff, arguing (as so many misguided souls have since) that tomatoes are, actually, a fruit. Edward L. Hedden, the collector at the port of New York, was having none of it, and charged the tomato-selling Nix family the tariff.

So they sued, and after six years of arguing, the case eventually made the Supreme Court. “Botanically, the Nix family had an airtight case,” Trex writes. “Legally, things weren’t quite so open-and-shut.” Dictionaries were consulted. Produce merchants were called as expert witnesses.

But in the end, the defense’s argument of “sure, tomatoes were biologically a fruit, but for the purposes of trade and commerce – that is, the things covered by the Tariff Act of 1883 – tomatoes were really vegetables,” won the day.

- Tomatoes Have Legally Been Vegetables Since 1893, SmithsonianMagazine.com, May 10, 2017.

2. Jim Harbaugh expects the four suspended Michigan State football players involved in roughing up two members of Michigan’s team to be punished further, saying he “can’t imagine that this will not result in criminal charges.”

Harbaugh said that defensive back Gemon Green was punched by a Spartan in the Michigan Stadium tunnel shortly after the fourth-ranked Wolverines beat their in-state rival Saturday night and that teammate Ja’Den McBurrows was attacked when he tried to help.

McBurrows is seen on a video shared on social media being pushed, punched and kicked by multiple Michigan State players, who pulled him out of the tunnel and into a hallway that doesn’t lead to either locker room.

Harbaugh said both players have injuries, adding that he did not know whether Green, a starting cornerback for a third straight season, would be cleared to play Saturday night at Rutgers.

“Right now we have an ongoing police investigation,” Harbaugh said Monday. “What happened in the tunnel was egregious. Sickening to watch the videos, the ones that are on social media right now.”

Harbaugh added that an ABC camera placed in a “higher elevation” shows “much more of what took place” during the incident.

“There needs to be accountability,” he said. “There needs to be a full, thorough, timely investigation. I can’t imagine this will not result in criminal charges. The videos are bad. It’s clear what transpired. This is very open and shut. As they say, watch the tape.

- Jim Harbaugh expects Michigan State players to be charged, ESPN.com, October 31, 2022.

3. When it comes to Trump, piling on is a civic duty. We cannot afford to allow him even the slightest chance of retaking power. He needs to be overwhelmed.

Simon Rosenberg – the veteran political analyst who famously predicted that the Red Wave of 2020 would be the Republican debacle it turned out to be – is urging a practical, grassroots approach to the problem. He is openly optimistic about the Democrats’ prospects this year, but he wants us all to be smart about it.

He’s especially concerned about getting information to the depressing percentage of the public who have no real grasp of who Trump really is, let alone the clear and present danger he represents. Right now, they are not paying attention, but Rosenberg wants us to be ready when they are, and to have at our command “The Six Things Americans Are Going To Learn About Trump They Didn't Know in 2020.”

There’s nothing new here, but seeing it in one place is valuable. Think of it as a starter set of Trump’s most monstrous adventures, packaged for easy consumption. Some were actual crimes, some just should have been.

Here, I’ve taken the Six Things and riffed on them – my own variations on Rosenberg’s themes. Feel free to draw on his, or mine, or make up your own.

The point is to pile on.

I’ve not ranked these by severity, because degrees of awfulness are hard to quantify. But here they are – six possible answers to the question “What is Donald Trump?”

First, Trump is a rapist

He has always been a misogynistic slimeball, so who knows which of his sexual conquests rises to the level of rape. Still, there’s no doubt whatsoever that E. Jean Carroll was raped. The fact that her legal victory came through the civil court system, rather than the criminal, doesn’t matter. Dozens of other women, including his first wife, have come forward with similar stories.

Voters need to know that Trump is a sexual predator going back many decades. If the legal system isn’t fully on top of this, that doesn’t mean we can’t be. We don’t need a courtroom to call a rapist, a rapist.

Second, Trump is a fraud

The State of New York has ruled that Trump's business practices have been massively fraudulent for years. He inflated his assets when he needed a loan – which was often – then he undervalued those same assets to cheat on his taxes.

The cases were open-and-shut, and he is now on the court-ordered hook for roughly half a billion dollars. His lawyers can delay the penalties all they want, but there’s no changing the verdict. The courts have declared him a fraud. Voters need to decide if that’s what they want in a president.

- Every American Needs To Know These Six Things About Trump, by LeftJabber, May 30, 2024.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）