There is a balm in Gilead that soothes the sin-sick soul… Now the hymn is stuck in my head, thank you very much! Are you saying you found it crass to name a pharmaceutical company after something that brings to mind healing?
English: some place in the Bible [ as in one of those biblical bits one picks up through culture rather than reading the book ]; balm, which I imagined to be some type of ointment; consolation.
‘Ointment’, that’s a funny word.
Balm
No, she was afraid it might be crass to name the company after the tyrannical theocracy depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale.
The capital of the barony of New Canaan, seat of the House of Deschain, the last civilized holding in what remained of the Affiliation after the world moved on.
The actress from the X Files
I’m not really good at these things
Captain Jack Aubrey, “'Here’s a palm in Gilead, by God!”
I thought of Balm of Gilead. I don’t know what would makes it crass. Gilead was a real place and balm was a resin derived from a real plant that grew and still grows in the Middle East. It was used as a spice and perfume and sometimes for its purported medicinal qualities. Now if a company named itself after a miraculous substance like manna or the elixir of life, or panacea, that would be crass.
Mine as well. Which gives me all kinds of other related thoughts, but the first thoughts were of Atwood’s book.
The Handmaid’s Tale is my first thought. What kind of pharmaceuticals does this company specialize in anyway…?
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Balm of/in Gilead, which “makes the wounded whole.”
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after a bit of thinking, the Marilynne Robinson novel of that name.
Seems quite reasonable to name a drug company after a healing substance.
Some vague bible something. Nothing good or bad, just from there.
This was my answer, too.
Poor old Jack – he does tend to misquote stuff and generally, verbally bugger things up. (Like many PPs, my only association for Gilead, was balm.)
My first thought: “Isn’t Sir Gilead one of the knights of the Round Table?”
I’m not a smart man.
This. I’ve never heard of any balm, but then again, I don’t really pay attention to the Bible.
Someplace where the balm is.
Roland of Gilead is the only place I recall that name from. I do not understand why the use of the word would be crass.
Because it’s a drug company, my first thought was “Balm” from the hymn/in the Bible and I thought it was moderately clever, not crass.
If it had been a *fertility *company named Gilead, I probably would have jumped instead the Republic of Gilead in Handmaid’s Tale, and THAT would have been crass.
Gilead = balm, as in the Bible and the Raven. Not only not crass, but very clever and appropriate.