@Anya
Maybe. Again, I hesitate to name names to protect the innocent.

It seems technically if this couldn’t be helped, it is used correctly.

But I maintain, in a scientific argument, that it could have been helped. The point of the argument is, in the final analysis, that the perpetrator (the party that dealt it) is no position to judge the veracity of the transgression in question. The perpetrator has no standing.

How can that be proved one way or the other? Isn’t this a case of “he said, she said?”

Although it's true that there are no witnesses, I stand firmly on the acuity of my auditory sensors.

And besides my dinner partner voluntarily confessed.

Perhaps you need legal advice which could be expensive and therefore not worth pursuing.

You're probably right so I'll pursue this pro se, all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The truth will prevail.

This sounds like a lawyerly response. Were you dining with a lawyer by any chance? It seems technically if this couldn’t be helped, it is used correctly. How can that be proved one way or the other? Isn’t this a case of “he said, she said?” Perhaps you need legal advice which could be expensive and therefore not worth pursuing.

@Pluto's Republic
I can attest to the truth of this statement.

But, deflecting blame upon "God" is another matter.

There comes a point when one must own up to a self inflicted *flatutory indiscretion.

* Flatutory as opposed to statutory.

.

"A fox smells its own lair first."

....and then quickly deflects the blame upon another.

@Snode
eating chili two nights in a row could be considered "high mileage", but the Force Mageure argument could have and should have been deemed irrelevant with a preemptive dose of Beano. This, in and of itself, would have left the defendants case moot (pun intended).

you've passed that sign that says "Last exit to a better and different life, road ends in some unreadable number", then yeah, Force Majeure. High mileage will do that to you,more and more stuff is out of your control.

@Lookout
but in this circumstance letting one's "wind blow free" may have adverse effects on the inhabitants in the "room out there".

Let me add that the author of this important piece has since suffered from flatulence induced PTSD and may carry the scars forever. And because of this sad and sorrowful occurrence has employed the esteemed counsel of the Dewey, Cheatam and Howe Law Firm, the most prestigious practitioners of pettifoggery in a land of pettifogs.

an old adage -
Where ever you be, let your wind blow free, cause there's more room out there, than there is in me.

@Cassiodorus
Revolutionary wiggling is exactly what my dinner partner deployed by declaring Force Majeure and absolving themself of any responsibility.

To me, a more honest response would have been:

so they can wiggle out of contracts when Iranian missiles destroy their oil storage facilities.

In contract law, force majeure (/ˌfɔːrs məˈʒɜːr/ FORSS mə-ZHUR; French: [fɔʁs maʒœʁ]) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, epidemic, or sudden legal change prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract.

I would argue that force majeure is nowhere near enough in terms of the sort of wiggling they should be doing. Rather, we need some revolutionary wiggling. What would revolutionary wiggling do for your dinner partner?

@on the cusp
the perpetrator (I'm not pointing any fingers) could have mitigated the use of Force Majeure by promptly running to the restroom to, pardon the expression, "poot" in private, pollen aside.

Therefore, given that the perpetrator did willingly refuse to mitigate this grievance by not rushing off to the restroom to relieve themselves of the "poot" in question, and by blaming a "pollen induced cough" has nullified any tenet of the Force Majeuer vehicle.

Neener neener.

Greg Abbott was jogging in the rich River Oaks neighborhood in Houston. A tree limb fell on him and rendered him a paraplegic. He sued the billionaire owner of the property upon which the tree grew. The Billionaire claimed force majuere. However, the claim of negligence for not trimming the tree won the day and gave us a new billionaire.
In this case, one could argue that willingly eating chili con carne beats the force majuere claim. But digging deeper into the weeds while wearing a gas mask, one must examine the trigger event: coughing. Caused by pollen. Force majuere, no culpability except The Great Spaghetti Monster.
(I should send this to my law school for their moot court project. Call it "Poot Court".)

@usefewersyllables
especially after what I've been through the last many months. Even with that caveat, at my age any attempt at flatulence is a very careful proposition.

Butt, in this instance, I contend that my dinner partner willfully and joyfully passed gas and then relieved themselves of all responsibility, to my detriment, while employing the disingenuous guise of an involuntary "cough". A sneak attack, if you will.

in the case of unexpected flatulence? Absolutely.

Especially if one draws mud, of course. (;-)

@orlbucfan
in the essay body above and also the definition in Cassiodorus' comment above.

In essence it's a legal construct to absolve responsibility or fault in certain circumstances by placing blame on an act of mother nature or an act of God.

Foe example: if a person doesn't scoop their sidewalk after a snowfall, and subsequently someone falls and gets hurt while walking on said sidewalk, the person that did not scoop the walk is not responsible for the injury because the snow fall was an act of nature or an act of God, choose your reasoning.

The person's body in this instance is not signalling a problem. The problem applies to the recipient of the flatulence release and all the trauma induced by this act upon said recipient.

Which brings up another question: Can an atheist declare Force Majeure, an act of God?

dummy aka me? As long as the flatuence in question is not the body signaling a problem, it's no big worry.

@enhydra lutris
in the vast research I've done in regards to my current malady, gut biota is a potential cause of many gastrointestinal problems, including colorectal cancer. I find it intriguing.

Didn't know that about emperors Suetonius and Claudius. What a gas those banquets must have been. I would have imagined that Caligula would have mandated flatulence parties, as wild as his reign was.

I wear the "old fart" moniker as a badge of honor, as apparently does my dinner partner as well, illustratively.

We've been bombarded by a plethora of distributed requests to our database the last couple of days, most likely by spammers. I can't block the whole range of IP addresses without blocking a large swath of potential visitors. So we just have to wait them out until they're through with their games.

SCIENCE is just beginning to understand the extent to which the gut runs the entire mind-body and the mechanism(s) by which it does so. Imagine a combined sympathetic and parasympathetic feedback loop involving, among other things, the Vagus nerve and the gut biota. This is an emerging field of research. Who knew. There may be ancient wisdom embedded in the phrase "trust your gut". Suetonius tells of a man who nearly died from holding in flatulence out of modesty and how the emperor Claudius considered an edict permitting farting at banquets as a result. There are other variants of this tale as well. One might assert that it is the gut which "works in wondrous ways".

I suspect that the warning and control mechanisms wane with age, why else "old fart"?
Just sayin'.

Meanwhile, btw, something is eating my comments, I just lost a ong one in today's OT, but it may be here, because other applications keep dropping out, but yesterday, for sure, c99p flickered on and off line for some time? Have we been under attack?

be well and have a good one