APAD: Helter-skelter

Meaning:

   `Helter-skelter' means `pell-mell - in chaotic and disorderly haste'.

 

   Also, a Helter-Skelter is the name of an English fairground attraction with a

   spiral slide.

 

Background:

   Those of a certain age might remember The Beatles' song from the 1968 White

   Album - Helter Skelter. If so, the song's lyrics may also evoke memories of

   clinging on to hessian mats and spiralling down fairground slides.

 

   Helter-Skelter slides began appearing at British fairs around the turn of the

   20th century. In 1906, the UK newspaper The Westmorland Gazette included

   this:

 

     "The World's Manufacturing Company, examples of whose `helter-skelter'

     lighthouses are at Earl's Court, Blackpool, Southport, and other places."

 

   (Note - apropos of nothing in particular: `The World's Manufacturing Company'

   - it's been some years since a British company had the confidence to call

   itself something like that.)

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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Trump's reciprocal tariffs, announced yestereve, seemed to have thrown the world

into helter-skelter. Aside from upsetting the decades-long status quo, however,

the numbers appear nothing but fair. What's wrong with the U.S. charging half of

what it's being taxed by a trading partner?

 

     Country         Tariffs Charged      U.S.A. Discounted

                     to the U.S.A. (%)    Reciprocal Tariffs (%)

     ---------------------------------------------------------------

     China              67                   34

     EU                 39                   20

     Vietnam            90                   46

     Taiwan             64                   32

     Japan              46                   24

     India              52                   26

     South Korea        50                   25

     ...