Reader question:

Please explain “here’s the rub” in this passage:

Allowing banks to fail may sound extreme, but it’s really the most reasonable solution. It’s true there will be some costs if the banks fail. Any time a business fails, other investors tied financially to the company lose. But here’s the rub – people who invest in bad businesses should lose.

My comments:

The question, really, is what’s the “rub”?

The “rub” can be readily understood in the context of golf.

Have you heard of golfers say that they’ve “not had the rub of the green today”?

That “rub” refers to a dent or small hole called a divot on the golf course, a green grass field. The “rub” is a bad spot, a piece of bare earth caused, usually, by a previous player striking a piece of grass off. When a player’s ball falls into a divot, they’re in trouble. It usually takes the player an extra shot to get the ball back to a good playing position.

That’s because, according to golf rules, in some situations, players are not allowed to take the ball out of a divot and place it beside the divot or behind it.

So, tough luck, there’s really no getting around the rub.

Hence, figuratively, “the rub of the green” becomes synonymous with bad luck, as the rub is an obstacle that’s hard to remove or circumvent.

When a player says he “doesn’t get the rub of the green”, therefore, he means that, to use a similar expression, he “doesn’t get the bounce of the ball”.

Yes, the ball bounces this way and that way. Sometimes it bounces your way, the way you want it, sometimes it bounces another player’s way, i.e. in another player’s favor.

Likewise, sometimes you “get the rub of the green”, i.e. lucky, sometimes you don’t get it.

And this “rub of the green (grass)” is the same “rub” in the idiom “here’s the rub”, meaning here’s the obstacle, or here’s the impediment to prevent you from completing a task.

For example, someone says to you: “I really want to go to the movies with you tonight, but here’s the rub. I can’t get a ticket. I went to the ticket office but the tickets were sold out. So, sorry. Maybe next time.”

Back to our top example, and let me paraphrase:

Banks should be allowed to fail, just as any other business firms are allowed to fail. That sounds like an extreme measure because it seldom happens. But it’s really the most reasonable solution. It’s true that other investors who have dealings with the failing bank will suffer as a consequence, but that’s the unavoidable thing. Any time investors have dealings with a failing business, they suffer, don’t they?

Right. So, people who invest in bad banks should lose.

And that’s the rub, an impediment one cannot avoid when one tries to argue in favor of failing banks.

All right, let’s read a few media examples for a better grasp of “the rub”:

1. Do you ever hear a phrase you think you know, but then think, “what does that really mean”? or “I wonder where that came from?” My husband and I watch a fair amount of TV from the UK and Europe. Thus, it is no surprise to hear expressions or phrases that you know the words, but think, “huh”?

Thanks to Mr. Google and the pause button on our ROKU we frequently stop and check it out. This justifies our TV time by expanding our word usage while getting a giggle to go with!

A phrase came up as we watched Hamlet on YouTube in preparation for attending a local live performance: “There’s the rub.”

I have heard it used and generally knew its’ meaning from context, but it must have been hearing it in a late 1500’s Shakespearean play that made it stand out. “What an odd expression”, “it’s that old?” and “huh’? all came to mind. Press pause, consult Mr. Google.

According to World Wide Words, “It is contained in Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy:

To die – to sleep.

To sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause.

By rub, Hamlet means a difficulty, obstacle or objection – in this case to his committing suicide.” Oh my…

But wait! Shakespeare did not coin the phrase, but rather, he took it from its use in lawn bowling, called back then: bowls. (As an aside, versions of this game are played today in France as boules or pétanque and in Italy as Bocce. We own sets for all versions.) The expression referred to a fault in the green that either diverted or stopped the ball from its intended course.

The expression continues today in the game of golf as the “rub of the green”. Since golf originated in the British Isles, this comes as no great surprise. However, in this context it generally refers to an accident that stops a ball in play – hitting an obstacle or a bystander perhaps – and for which no relief is allowed under the rules. I wonder how many golfers think about Hamlet when dealing with “the rub”?

- Curious And Surprising Backstory To “There’s The Rub”, by Nancy Cullen, NancyHancock-Cullen.com, June 21, 2019.

2. The testimony this afternoon of Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, cannot be dismissed. If what she has testified to, sworn under oath, is not countered or contradicted by Meadows or Trump’s White House counsel Pat Cippolone – either under oath themselves or eventually before a grand jury – then there is a credible criminal case that Trump violated the law in ways not dealt with by the second impeachment, and from which he would not be shielded by executive privilege. It’s possible her memory is faulty, or that she is a fantasist and that none of this happened. But she has reported directly on things that went on inside the White House and around the Oval Office on January 5 and January 6 that go beyond the merely circumstantial.

The case the January 6 committee is building in a far more painstaking manner than anyone could have expected is that Trump knowingly encouraged the formation of and participated in the forward deployment of a crowd he knew was armed. He was told so on January 6. We also know now that Trump had told Meadows to make contact on January 5 with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, both of whom were communicating with the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers – some of whose leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy. We also know that Meadows told Hutchinson he was going to go to the suite personally but she either changed his mind or he did and he called instead. What was said on the call we do not yet know.

Hutchinson testified that Trump was told by the Secret Service they were making the crowd at the rally on January 6 go through magnetometers because they were armed. Trump was angered by this, something she knew because she was “in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘You know, I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f-ing mags away.’”

He also wanted to drive to the Capitol in the lead and physically tussled with the Secret Service in his SUV when they weren’t going to do so because they could not guarantee his safety. She testified that Cippolone told her if Trump marched to the Capitol, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable.” And she reported Meadows saying of the chant to hang Vice President Mike Pence that Trump “doesn’t want to do anything,” and that “he thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”

You’re going to hear people call this “hearsay.” It is not hearsay. It is direct testimony of contemporaneous things said in Hutchinson’s earshot about events that were taking place while she was listening.

And here’s the rub for Trump. He has so far been protected by Meadows and Cippolone because they have refused to testify to the committee under claims of executive privilege – that Congress does not have the power to force them to speak about their direct conversations with the president or the actions they may have taken under his direct authority because the executive branch is not subordinate to the legislative branch. But they can testify if they choose. If they do not, they will, in essence, be allowing Hutchinson’s testimony to stand. If they do, and they do not say everything she said was a lie, her testimony will stand and be bolstered by them. And if they testify and say their recollections of the days were different, they will have to report in what way they were different – and will not be able to refuse to answer questions they find uncomfortable.

- Trump Is In Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep Trouble, Commentary.com, June 28, 2022.

3. Of all the priorities for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his fourth visit to the Middle East in three months, there is one message above all others that he wants to deliver.

His main mission on this trip is to ensure the Israel-Gaza war does not spread into a regional conflict.

As he flies between destinations in southwest Asia – a packed schedule that includes stops in Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel – there is ample evidence, however, that the cauldron of tensions in the region is on the verge of boiling over.

Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched repeated missile and drone attacks on civilian shipping in the Red Sea, bringing traffic through that key international waterway to a near halt.

The US has warned that it will defend its interests. If the rebels persist, and the disruption to global commerce continues, an American military response may be inevitable – a development that would unnerve some key American Arab allies.

…

In Qatar on Sunday, Mr Blinken said the US has a plan to address the growing instability – and it hinges on winding down the Israeli military campaign in Gaza and working with Arab nations and the Israelis to establish a “durable” peace for the Palestinians.

“The United States has a vision for how to get there, a regional approach that delivers lasting security for Israel and a state for the Palestinian people,” he said. “And my takeaway from the discussions so far ... is that our partners are willing to have these difficult conversations and to make hard decisions.”

Therein lies the rub. After meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, Mr Blinken said he’s seen a willingness to help stabilise and revitalise a post-war Gaza among all the leaders he’s spoken with so far. But the US has to get Israel on board.

- Antony Blinken: On the US mission to stop Gaza igniting wider war, BBC.com, January 9, 2024.

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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：張欣）