So I'm watching the March 24, 2009 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions regarding the regulations-in-purgatory issued by the DOL in connection with the PPA's new investment-advice exemptions. The hearings actually made it seem to me that the members of Congress at the hearing were really trying to listen and understand, maybe even with an open mind . . . interesting. There was even some banter (actually, quite a bit) about the Duke-'Nova game.
Well, my 11-year old son sees the witnesses on the screen and sarcastically asks whether I and the other male witnesses, when we were sworn in (of course, it turns out the witnesses are not sworn in, but he didn't know that), um, placed our right hands over our respective sets of testicles. "What?!" I asked, incredulously. He explained that he learned that the word, "testimony," comes from the Latin root for "testicles," because Romans, when being sworn as witnesses, would, well, place their right hands over their testicles. It turns out, of course, that this cute li'l supposed etymological derivation is, at best, unverifiable, but it neverthess sure provided a fun ERISA-flavored moment for me.
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