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[TD1]

Yes.... past tense....

[Trekkin]

Blood covenants have never been considered stronger than family (blood) bonds. The entire point of a blood covenant is to share blood - to become as family, because just like your family's blood runs through your veins by birth, your covenant-brother's blood now runs through your veins too.

Are you deliberately ignoring Trekkin's reference?

To be fair to him, I didn't actually explain the siblinghood in question: apparently two children who nursed from the same person were considered to be related as though siblings, at least insofar as establishing familial relationships for the purpose of avoiding incestuous marriages. (Although on page 12 it says they considered blood brotherhood to supersede brotherhood through common descent, I'm not seeing a source for it.)

What really bugs me about the other way around, though, is that I'm not aware of any other reference to water as a proxy for friendship in the way blood signifies family ties. "The water of the womb" as amniotic fluid makes some sense (we do speak of a pregnant person's 'water' breaking, for example), but what kind of water do you proverbially share with friends? There are references to 12th-century German poems in which blood ties are asserted not to be ruined by seawater (that is, distance) but this says nothing of thickness, covenants, or friends.

Absent any indication that water meant friendship, I'm inclined to think the Arabic version just got ported over and translated for people without this concept of milk-based siblinghood.

EDIT: The timeline would also make sense if you credit that the "El-A'asha" credited with it in the text is Maymun Ibn Qays Al-a'sha, who died in 625.

[Lord Shonus]

"Blood is thicker than water" comes from the phrase "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" which means the exact opposite.
It actually means that blood shed in battle bonds soldiers more strongly than simple genetics.

This is a modern myth. The phrase "Blood is thicker than water" predates modern English, while the "water of the womb" variation dates back to the 1970s at the earliest.

That specific phrasing is modern, yes, but the "blood means blood brothers" interpretation is referenced in The Blood Covenant - A Primitive Rite And Its Bearings On Scripture from 1893, in reference to the Arabic variation that holds that blood is thicker than (maternal) milk.

It's certainly not about bloodshed in any event, but the idea of deliberate blood covenants as a stronger bond than family (specifically siblinghood) considerably predates the 1970s -- and blood oaths themselves are old as all get out.

While this is an older reference than I've seen before, the more common variation dates back at least as far as the German work Reinhart Fuchs in the 1100s, with no apparent connection to the Arabic variation. As scriver states, the traditional blood brotherhood and similar rites were "make us family where we were not before", indicating that family ties were never ranked below other ties as the modern "water of the womb" quote implies.

[Naturegirl1999]

So some have changed its meaning. It seems like some are trying to give the idea that a covenant is more powerful than family. Curious

[scriver]

Blood covenants have never been considered stronger than family (blood) bonds. The entire point of a blood covenant is to share blood - to become as family, because just like your family's blood runs through your veins by birth, your covenant-brother's blood now runs through your veins too.

Are you deliberately ignoring Trekkin's reference?

Yes. It's not the same saying to begin with (it's not even related), and it's not relevant to the part I'm responding to either.

[Naturegirl1999]

Yes it is weird. However it could very well be the future of jobseek. I worked at Casey’s before and wanted to transfer. Manager 1 told me to get Manager 2 to call her. I talked with Manager 2 and he told me to fill out transfer application online, which I did when I got home. I never heard back. There are many Help Wanted signs at Casey’s 2. I worked at Casey’s 1 for ~6 months in the kitchen. I have a visual impairment, despite it, I was still able to do the tasks. I don’t think Manager 2 wanted to have a person with one working eye working there, even though I am able to do what I need to do. I received training and can do what is needed. I can learn training for other positions too, if Manager 2 would give me a chance. It’s a shame one can’t apply in person anymore or maybe a mini interview or something. Manager 2 didn’t ask much about what I did in my previous job.

[Trekkin]

While this is an older reference than I've seen before, the more common variation dates back at least as far as the German work Reinhart Fuchs in the 1100s, with no apparent connection to the Arabic variation. As scriver states, the traditional blood brotherhood and similar rites were "make us family where we were not before", indicating that family ties were never ranked below other ties as the modern "water of the womb" quote implies.

I'm aware of the Reinhart Fuchs quote, but I have trouble crediting that as the origin when it's not saying or meaning the same thing. The translation of the quote is "I also hear it said, kin-blood is not spoiled by water," where the water in question is literal seawater. There's no comparison of either viscosity or the relative strength of friendships and blood relationships implied, so if that's the origin, we've got to somehow get from "we still care about family even when we're oceans apart" to "family matter more than friends" while also changing the literal text of the proverb.

The Arabic origin, on the other hand, is referring to Raḍāʿ as opposed to blood covenants and explicitly contrasting the two -- which makes sense. Raḍāʿ is the term for an idea predating Islam that breastfeeding produces a form of consanguinity, and under Islamic jurisprudence it prevents marriages in the same way. It also had some of the same political implications we might recognize from arranged marriage, and in much the same way, the relationship is established before the participants have any say in it. "Blood is thicker than milk," then, would seem to be saying that people care more about the people with whom they choose to associate than those with whom they are bound under this sort of arranged consanguinity -- and that makes sense as a description of human behavior if not as a prescriptive ranking of the importance of different relationships. I'd probably care more about my friends than my arranged milk siblings too, if I had any. Moreover, it's closer to the modern saying both literally and in meaning.

EDIT: I also can't find any reference to the "friends vs family" meaning earlier than the 1600s, and the "Qamus" my souce upthread refers to as the source of the Arabic version is probably the Al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ, an Arabic dictionary compiled from even older works by al-Fayrūzābādī (1329–1414.)

[Iduno]

I was just assigned homework.

A ten minute presentation.

For a job interview, a session to last 3-5 hours (with other interviewees), for a tier 1 job, that the recruiter has me pegged for at less than I was making at my old job, wherein the manager of the department, who lives in Europe, is flying out to attend and lead.

Presentation to be submitted the day prior to the interview.

Am I right to be finding this to be really frigging weird? Is this the future of the jobseek?

Well, better luck on the next job. See if you can get them to wait for you by claiming "you're just a bit late." They're wasting your time, so no reason not to return the favor, and hopefully they'll waste a few hours before realizing you aren't coming.

[Doomblade187]

That is very odd, Nazca, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. Unless, of course, they were being super dickish.

[Akura]

Stuck late at work again, because I was left with a 30-minute task 10 minutes before my shift ended, because anyone who could have done it earlier or even helped me do it then was sent home early. Also got yelled at twice today by customers who found things priced incorrectly because of course it's MY FAULT that they're like that despite both items being priced by those bitch sisters.

Almost died on the way home because my mom paid zero attention to the oncoming lane when making a left onto the highway. Probably would have if the other driver hadn't been paying far more attention.

[Naturegirl1999]

Stuck late at work again, because I was left with a 30-minute task 10 minutes before my shift ended, because anyone who could have done it earlier or even helped me do it then was sent home early. Also got yelled at twice today by customers who found things priced incorrectly because of course it's MY FAULT that they're like that despite both items being priced by those bitch sisters.

Almost died on the way home because my mom paid zero attention to the oncoming lane when making a left onto the highway. Probably would have if the other driver hadn't been paying far more attention.

Oh my
Why do people pay little attention on the roads? Glad you’re ok

[Lord Shonus]

I have a one-mile drive (using a no-pedestrian expressway bridge over the river, any other route is ~20 miles) to and from work. The other day I witnessed two near accidents caused by impatience (one guy got tired of the traffic and made a sudden turn into the right lane, directly in front of another vehicle, another was annoyed I didn't slam on the gas the femtosecond the light turned green and whipped around me into cross-traffic that was still in the intersection), at least one of which would have been fatal if the non-fault driver hadn't been paying attention.

[Naturegirl1999]

I have a one-mile drive (using a no-pedestrian expressway bridge over the river, any other route is ~20 miles) to and from work. The other day I witnessed two near accidents caused by impatience (one guy got tired of the traffic and made a sudden turn into the right lane, directly in front of another vehicle, another was annoyed I didn't slam on the gas the femtosecond the light turned green and whipped around me into cross-traffic that was still in the intersection), at least one of which would have been fatal if the non-fault driver hadn't been paying attention.

Aren’t there tests before driving? People should know how not to nearly kill people while on the road

[Lord Shonus]

All the tests do is show that you know the rules of the road (to a certain degree) and have the physical capability to move the car the way you're supposed to. It doesn't do anything to filter out entitlement or bad attitude.

[ChairmanPoo]

I think people overrate how good tests are at evaluating something