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Vocabulary > Language > Words
Gasoline Alley
by Jim Scancarelli
Gocomics
January 08, 2011
words and language
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/wordsandlanguage
word
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/26/language-evolution-words-extinction-dirty
Quiz: weird and wonderful words
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2009/sep/24/referenceandlanguages
buzz-words
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/
christopherhowse/5011843/Swat-the-bureacrats-swarm-of-buzz-words.html
dirty words
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/washington/18scotus.html
Twitter-related words
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/27/aleksandr-meerkat-collins-dictionary
in word and deed
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/us/politics/18obama.html
sharpen word
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-02-21-debate_N.htm
the
N-word
http://www.naacp.org/events/convention/98th/funeral/index.htm
the n-word
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/17/work-say-no
true to its word
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/opinion/17wed1.html?hpw
terminology
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2009/jan/14/prince-charles-prince-harry
acronyms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/06/british-acronyms-wags
short for...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/06/british-acronyms-wags
epithet
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2007-10-19-nas-albumtitle_N.htm
hollow words
waffle
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/oliver_miles/2006/08/gwot_another_lookingglass_war.html
verbosity
waggery
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/29/tax.economy
'gooser'
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2138461,00.html
'tombstoning'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2141098,00.html
US > 2005 > word of the year > truthiness
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-01-07-word-of-the-year_x.htm
war of words
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/movies/24loop.html?8dpc
twist his / her
words
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1116676020080414
fail to
match words with deeds
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3018348.ece
fresh words
crossword
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/crossword-blog/2011/sep/08/crosswords-blog-ethics-commandments
cryptic crossword
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/03lewis.html
free interactive crossword
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crossword/free/interactive
crossword setter > Shed, aka John Young
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/crossword-blog/2012/apr/05/crossword-blog-meet-setter-shed
crossword setter > John Henderson, aka
Enigmatist
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/crossword-blog/2011/oct/13/crossword-blog-meet-the-setter-enigmatist
crossword setter > Margery Ruth Crisp, cryptic
crossword setter 1918-2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2000906,00.html
hidden word
Scrabble
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-sublime-joy-of-scrabble-1067061.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/18/scrabble-top-game
term
hyperbole
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24fri1.html
synecdoche
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/movies/24syne.html?8dpc#
dichotomy
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-17-mariah-carey_N.htm
anagram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagram
palindrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome
oxymoron
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/26/greenwash-clean-coal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/banking.creditcrunch
truism
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/opinion/19thu1.html
Gasoline Alley
by Jim Scancarelli
Gocomics
October 09, 2011
http://www.gocomics.com/gasolinealley/2011/10/09
lexicon
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/books/14potter.html
lexicographic
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-sublime-joy-of-scrabble-1067061.html
lexicographer > Grant Barrett
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-words-that-defined-2011.html
lexicographer > Sol Steinmetz
1930-2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/books/25steinmetz.html
lexivore
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/books/christine-brooke-rose-experimental-writer-dies-at-89.html
dictionary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/27/aleksandr-meerkat-collins-dictionary
dictionary compilers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/21/endangered-words-collins-dictionary
thesaurus
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN2628269520080328
Peter Mark Roget, the creator of Roget's
Thesaurus
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN2628269520080328
endangered words list / list of words which
have fallen out of use
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/21/endangered-words-collins-dictionary
Uncle Art's Funland
by Art Nugent
Gocomics
October 16, 2011
http://www.gocomics.com/uncleartsfunland/2011/10/16
The Guardian
16.3.2007
The Guardian
p. 43 16.3.2007
Which Words Will Live On?
December 31, 2011
The New York Times
By GRANT BARRETT
COLLECTING the past year’s words is like sifting one’s pockets at the end of
a trip. Some things you’ll keep, some you’ll discard — the dinner receipt for
the expense-account meal vs. the one-peso coin. Each is a reminder of what you
did, where you went and whom you were with.
In 10 years, some of last year’s words will be relics. We’ll think of them the
way we now think of the decades-old phrase “gag me with a spoon.”
Others have already proved their staying power. Who could argue that the new
sense of “occupy” isn’t already a keeper, even starting as it did late in the
third quarter of 2011? A movement so well labeled, if not cohesive in thought
and action, that its name instantly lent itself to variation and satire.
We create all this new language, political and otherwise, for a lot of reasons.
We’re school-yard taunters, looking for the joke, the riff or the gag that will
stick. We’re novelty-shop fanatics, spending every paycheck in the House of
Language on gewgaws and gimcracks and tchotchkes. Below are just a few of the
catchwords I’ve snagged during the last 12 months: Some are oldies that have
resurfaced and taken on new life.
53 PERCENTER An American in a household that pays income tax. Coined by
conservatives who believe that the economy would improve if those who do not pay
income taxes did.
99 PERCENT, 99 PERCENTERS People claimed by the Occupy movement to be at a
financial or political disadvantage when compared with the 1 percenters, those
who protesters say have too much money and too much political control.
9-9-9 PLAN The proposal by Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential
candidate, for a 9 percent flat income tax, a 9 percent business flat tax and a
9 percent national sales tax.
ARAB SPRING Collectively, the popular revolts and protests in Middle Eastern and
Arab countries, among them Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. Less
frequently called Arab Awakening.
AUSTERITY MEASURES Reductions or restrictions on government spending, meant to
balance budgets, reduce deficits and meet standards set by intergovernmental
lenders.
BASKETBRAWL The fight that broke out between members of the Georgetown Hoyas and
the Bayi Rockets during an exhibition basketball game in Beijing.
BATH SALTS The street name for a group of stimulants made illegal this year.
BRONY A man who is a fan of the television cartoon “My Little Pony: Friendship
Is Magic.” Formed from “bro,” brother or male friend, and pony.
BUFFETT TAX A proposal that people making more than $1 million a year pay a
higher rate of income tax than they do now and more than those who make less.
Named for the investor Warren Buffett, who advocates the approach. Also called
the Buffett rule.
CLOUD MUSIC Personal digital music collections stored on remote servers so that
they may be accessed by all of a person’s digital devices. Both Apple and Google
introduced cloud music services this year.
CRANKSHAFT The code name used for Osama bin Laden by the Navy Seals team that
killed him in Pakistan.
DARK SKY Designates a place free of nighttime light pollution. For example, the
island of Sark in the English Channel is a dark-sky island.
DEATHER Someone who doubts that Osama bin Laden was killed by American troops.
DEBT CEILING Not a new term, but now familiar to all: the limit to the amount of
money the federal government may borrow.
HUMAN MEGAPHONE A method of amplifying a speaker’s words in which everyone who
hears them repeats them in unison. Used in the Occupy protests, though not
invented there. Also called the people’s mike. To activate the human megaphone,
a speaker will announce a mike check.
HUMBLEBRAG A complaint, wry remark or self-deprecation that also reveals how
famous, rich or important the speaker or writer is. Popularized by the comedian
Harris Wittels, a writer for the NBC series "Parks and Recreation.”
KARDASH A unit of time measuring 72 days. Coined by the musician Weird Al
Yankovic in response to the 72-day marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kris
Humphries.
LEAP SMEAR Adding a few milliseconds each day to a computer’s time-keeping.
Google’s solution for handling leap seconds, which are added to official world
time to account for changes in the earth’s rotation.
LIKEJACKING Tricking users of a social media site, especially Facebook, into
posting spammy content in their accounts or on their pages. Usually activated by
clicking a “like,” “fave” or “thumbs up” button.
NYM WARS A public debate about the requirement by some Web sites, especially
Google+, that users not use pseudonyms. From the suffix -nym, as used in
pseudonym, ultimately from the Greek onuma, for name.
OCCUPY WALL STREET A left-leaning movement protesting wealth inequality and
urging more government action against banks and corporations, which are seen by
the protesters as being responsible for the current economic downturn.
Abbreviated as O.W.S. or just Occupy and extended by replacing “Wall Street”
with any place name, as in Occupy L.A. or Occupy Toronto. Occupy and occupation
have been used in the context of political or labor protests since the 1920s.
PLANKING Posing for a photograph with the body in a stiff prone position,
especially in odd situations or places. Similar popular pastimes this year
include horsemaning, posing for a two-person picture that makes it look as
though a supine headless body is holding a severed head, and Tebowing, kneeling
as if praying in the manner of the Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, with
one knee down and one up, and one’s head resting on one’s fist.
SUPER COMMITTEE A group of 12 lawmakers, 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans, 3 each
from the House and the Senate, that tried to make a plan on how to reduce the
deficit. Also, the Gang of Six, three Democratic and three Republican senators
who worked on reducing the federal government’s debt.
TOT MOM Casey Anthony, acquitted of charges of killing her 2-year-old daughter.
The term was largely popularized by Nancy Grace, host of her own HLN program.
TWINKLING Silently affirming a speaker by raising one’s hands, palms outward,
and wiggling the hands and fingers. Similar to a gesture used in American Sign
Language as the equivalent of applause. Brought to wider public attention by the
Occupy movement (see human megaphone, above) but predates it by many years.
WINNING Used repeatedly and not ironically by the actor Charlie Sheen at the
time of his tumultuous departure from “Two and a Half Men.” It was quickly taken
up as a catchphrase. Related: tiger blood, which Mr. Sheen figuratively used to
describe his motivations.
Grant Barrett is a lexicographer specializing in slang and new words.
He is a host of the public radio program “A Way With Words”
and a vice president of the American Dialect Society.
Which Words Will Live On?, NYT, 31.12.2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-words-that-defined-2011.html
His Way With Words: Cadence and Credibility
Saturday, January 17, 2009
1:20 PM
Washington Post
Staff Writer
By Henry Allen
Now we get to hear Barack Obama give an inaugural address: seen from the
Mall, from bleachers, from a distant seat in a winter tree (weather permitting),
he will be another in a long history of tiny humans up there, bustling around
against the shoulder-y bulk of the Capitol.
Jumbo screens will relay images to the crowd, the way loudspeakers have relayed
sound. Images rule now, wisdom has it, and Obama has a smooth, cool, minimalist
image. But people are coming, in a way they haven't come in a while, not just to
see him but to hear him, to listen to his words. Before he's halfway through
those words, they'll be comparing his inaugural address with his victory speech
in Iowa, his acceptance speech in Denver, on and on.
Supporters talk about Barack Obama's speeches as if they were rock concerts.
Blew me away . . . I realized I was crying . . . They brag about having been in
the hall to hear them the way they might brag about having been at Woodstock
when Jimi Hendrix played "The Star-Spangled Banner" by the dawn's early light.
As much as anything else, Obama won the presidency with words.
Obama is an orator, a rare thing in a time when educated people, a lot of them
Obama supporters, have been taught to distrust old-fashioned eloquence. They
want text they can deconstruct, the verbal equivalent of spreadsheets; they say
they want candidates who talk about "the issues."
That's not what they got from Obama. As the presidential race shaped up, Sen.
John McCain saw what was happening. He warned Americans against being "deceived
by an eloquent but empty call for change." Sen. Hillary Clinton, too: In the
process of losing the nomination to Obama, she warned of "talk versus action."
As it happens, Obama can deliver deconstructible text, but in Denver, when he
did it, accepting the Democratic nomination with a speech stacked with programs,
policies, issues and specifics, he mildly disappointed those who hoped to be
enthralled yet again. They didn't want to move into a rational, deliberate
future; they wanted to stay with the ancient mojo of one human being talking to
a crowd of other human beings.
This is an age of media hipness, when we're virtuosos of data bounced off
satellites, when we get weird as wizards, talking on cellphones to electronic
ghosts constructed of bandwidths and wavelengths. But Obama has reminded us that
none of this modern science has the power of the human animal standing up on two
feet and talking -- a sort of ritual shouting, actually, even chanting: oratory,
probably not much different than the way it was done by the Old Ones in the
forest primeval. We're not used to this. People call it "preternatural."
"The crowd was quiet now, watching me," Barack Obama has written of discovering
this power in college. "Somebody started to clap. 'Go on with it, Barack,'
somebody else shouted. 'Tell it like it is.' Then the others started in,
clapping, cheering, and I knew that I had them, that the connection had been
made."
Connect. Yes, we can.
Connect with repetition, cadences, attitude, rises and falls of tone. Yes, we
can.
Obama's speech on Super Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2008: "We are the ones we've been
waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
This is poetry.
WE are the ONES we've been WAITing for.
It's ancient English metrics: WE are the CHANGE that we SEEK, a chant of
dactyls, DA-da-da, DA-da-da, as in Longfellow's "THIS is the FORest primEVal."
Rock it, Obama.
This stuff works. Franklin Roosevelt used iambs (da-DA, da-DA) that could have
been lifted from Shakespeare ("To BE or NOT to BE") at the opening of his 1933
inaugural address: "The ONly THING we HAVE to FEAR is FEAR itSELF." (Though the
crowd that day ignored the line -- later, newspapers made it the motto of the
New Deal.)
Martin Luther King: "I HAVE a DREAM that ONE day DOWN in ALaBAMa . . . "
Analysts of Obama's oratory cite the influence of African American preaching
tradition, but the influence is older, rooted like a mangrove in the swamp of
the nervous system.
"It's about the tune, not the lyrics, with Obama," says Philip Collins, who
wrote speeches for Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. In a BBC
report, Collins cites "the way he slides down some words and hits others -- the
intonation, the emphasis, the pauses and the silences."
Winston Churchill rocked it in a chant of anapests (da-da-DA): "We shall FIGHT
on the BEACHes . . . we shall FIGHT in the FIELDS . . . we shall FIGHT in the
HILLS . . . we shall NEVer surRENDer."
He knew about the ancient Greeks controlling and defending against the power of
oratory by codifying it with labels you heard once in college and forgot:
asyndeton, litotes, epistrophe. For instance, here Churchill is using the
technique of anaphora, repeating phrases at the beginning of clauses. Note, too,
that in defense of England he uses nothing but Old English words except for
"surrender," which comes from the French.
Plato defined rhetoric as "winning the soul through discourse."
Ted Sorensen, who wrote John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, said that great
oratory required "speaking from the heart, to the heart, directly, not too
complicated, relatively brief sentences, words that are clear to everyone."
Winning souls -- speaking to the heart, not the mind. It is a technology of
sorts, a tool that can be used for good or evil, but has no morality in itself.
Hitler was eloquent -- strange, though, almost no one can remember anything he
said. Eloquence should be listened to with a cool head.
Aristotle said good rhetoric should consist of pathos, logos and ethos --
emotion, argument, and character or credibility. Obama has won souls mostly with
pathos and ethos. He hasn't needed logos much because he's usually preaching to
the choir, all those shining faces full of hope. In an ugly and dangerous moment
in his campaign, however, he used logos to justify the complicated position he
had taken on the incendiary racial remarks made by his former, longtime
minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It worked for him.
Usually, he is not trying to convince people who disagree with him -- he'll face
that chore in the Oval Office. (As former New York governor Mario Cuomo has
said: "You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.")
Here's an ethos riff from the Wright speech: "I am the son of a black man from
Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white
grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's army during World War
II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort
Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in
America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations."
In his review of "The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential
Rhetoric From George Washington to George W. Bush," John McWhorter quotes author
Elvin T. Lim: "Presidential rhetoric should articulate programs to citizens in a
manner that solicits their support only if its wisdom passes muster."
Wonderful, but America is a democracy. Legend has it that during one of Adlai
Stevenson's campaigns against Dwight Eisenhower, a supporter told him that he
was sure to "get the vote of every thinking man." Stevenson replied, "Thank you,
but I need a majority to win." Hillary Clinton went Lim's route, and lost to
Obama, who, McWhorter says, got the majority by electrifying "the electorate
with touching autobiography and comfort-food proclamations about hope and unity
-- that is, with ethos and pathos."
And there's the charisma factor in his oratory, the quality that powered
Kennedy's stunning inaugural speech in the wild winter sunlight that day in
1961: "Pay any price, bear any burden" (alliteration: "pay"/"price,"
"bear"/"burden"); "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can
do for your country" (the Greeks called this chiasmus, meaning a reversal of
terms -- "country"/"you," "you"/"country").
About a century ago, Max Weber, the sociologist, said charisma defined its
bearers as "set apart from ordinary people and treated as endowed with
supernatural, superhuman or at least specifically exceptional powers." Obama has
it now. It's impossible to believe it could fade, but it could. After 9/11,
George W. Bush seemed to have something like it for a while, speaking from a
pile of rubble in New York, striding past troops -- a moment we've mostly
forgotten.
With Obama's oratory there is also the factor of cool, which could be a
subcategory of charisma. Cool has a history of its own. Renaissance Italians
called it "sprezzatura," meaning nonchalance and effortless ease. The Yoruba
word for it is "itutu," which literally means cool -- a calm and collected
affect. It has universal appeal.
Hence Obama's demeanor at the lectern -- the face lifted as if with a casual
curiosity; utterly unneedy, like an aristocrat or a minor god; eyes narrowed
with knowing that you know he knows you know. He smothers the last syllables of
a word sometimes, casual as a teenager. He drops g's in the rustic manner to be
heard in both England and America, though he doesn't drop them as much as Sarah
Palin did in her celebrated good ol' girl run for the vice presidency. He shifts
accents -- an African American audience will bring a hint of street talk into
his voice. It's all hints, nuances, sprezzatura.
He seems at ease with power. Recent presidents have hidden their personal power,
their force, during their speeches. Maybe they were afraid of seeming like
bullies, of offending political correctness by seeming macho. George H.W. Bush
and Lyndon Johnson felt obliged to hide their aggressiveness behind forced
smiles. They were men who acted like boys in futile hopes of reassuring their
listeners. Obama has the charm of a boy acting like a man -- the magic of the
boy king. His smile -- a big one -- is easy.
There is not much to say about Obama's gestures, because gesture has largely
vanished from oratory. Aristotle said that only the words should matter, but
because of the weakness of men, the tricks of voice and gesture were necessary.
A 19th-century speech manual listed rhetorical gestures: four positions for the
feet, nine ways for the hands to show defiance, discrimination and adoration,
and so on. Old film footage shows Teddy Roosevelt storming around and waving his
fists. Huey "The Kingfish" Long would pound his fist into his hand, then circle
his hands over his shoulders as if he were making a speech about helicopters.
Gesture of this sort began to die with film and radio, which brought politicians
so close that they didn't need semaphore to reach the back of the crowd.
Franklin Roosevelt kept his hands on the lectern during his inaugural address
for another reason -- crippled by polio, he used them to hold himself up. At the
same time, huge gesticulation came to be linked with such dictatorial
crowd-rousers as Hitler and Mussolini.
Inaugural watchers are not apt to see Obama wave his hands much, except to
point. He speaks more in the style of television anchormen, with their rituals
of modesty and sincerity -- the raising of hands above the shoulders is almost
unthinkable on the nightly news.
Speeches still have gestures, but they're more subtle. Ronald Reagan knew that
in televised speeches he needed no more than a savvy eyebrow lift to make a
point. Bill Clinton had a concerned frown that claimed he was, well, concerned.
Obama has his smile, his thoughtful stare into the distance and his cool grace.
Radio, amplification and film also introduced a conversational tone into
speeches. Roosevelt used it in his fireside chats on radio. Cuomo used it to
fascinate the 1984 Democratic convention. It seems so sincere, so authentic. But
the conversational tone is a trick in itself. Obama uses it to gain intimacy and
trust, and to set off, by contrast, his higher-volume calls for belief and
support. The sound and sight of a human being calling loudly to us still has
force, maybe as much as it ever did.
Now Obama is working the magic that we thought was part of the past. How
enthralling. Feels so good. We might do well to study the architecture of Greek
rhetoric, so we know what's happening to us. Just because eloquence feels good
doesn't mean it is good. In any case, we'll hear more of it. And cameras panning
the crowd on the Mall will show shining faces. If all goes as expected,
listeners waiting for hours in the winter weather, waiting for words from that
tiny figure at the lectern, will be enthralled.
His Way With Words:
Cadence and Credibility, WP, 17.1.2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/17/AR2009011701429.html
Besotted — Etymologically, That Is
December 31, 2008
10:00 pm
The New York Times
By Iain Gately
I cleared my hangover on Boxing Day by going for a surf at Espasante, near my
home in Galicia, northern Spain. As soon as I started to paddle out, a close-out
set came in, every wave of which landed on my head, so that by the time I’d got
to the break I was knackered, breathless, and freezing. I fell off a few waves
then rode in to shore an hour later, mission accomplished — my head was clear.
A fisherman — with Anton, the town pig by his side — had been watching me and he
asked, “What happened to you out there?” I tried to explain, but my Spanish was
inadequate. The only way I could say I’d drank too much the day before was
“estuve borracho” but borracho wasn’t the word I wanted. To me it implies a
bestial, slobbering sort of drunkenness, which wasn’t quite how it had seemed
when I was celebrating Yuletide with family and friends.
We’d feasted, played games with the children, danced, decorated each other with
fluorescent paint, and drank: beer and Cava for the race down the stream,
Albarino with the salmon, Priorat with the suckling pig, more Cava for musical
chairs, Port with the Stilton and roasted chestnuts, a cleansing ale during the
treasure hunt, brandy with the Christmas pudding, then back to wine and anything
else that was open for dancing. When I fell into bed with my partner I was
happy: inebriated yes, wasted, no. Squiffy rather than sloshed, trashed or
flayed. But how do you say squiffy in Spanish?
As far as I’m aware, English has the richest vocabulary of any language when it
comes to describing the effects of alcohol upon human behavior. I think that
that’s because the British have been constant and heavy drinkers for most of
their history. From the Anglo-Saxon invasions to the Industrial Revolution,
they’ve been getting beodrunken, foxed, tipsy, pie-eyed and woozey. Indeed the
English have developed an entire lexicon to express different nuances of the
same condition.
The habit has traveled with the language: in America, in particular, English
speakers have sought to expand the range of euphemisms for inebriation. In
January 1736, Benjamin Franklin published “a new Piece, lately communicated to
me, entitled the DRINKERS DICTIONARY” in the Philadelphia Gazette, which offered
228 “distant round-about phrases,” culled from the taverns of the town, which
were understood “to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK.” My favorites include
the following:
“He sees the Bears”
“He’s got his Top Gallant Sails out”
“He’s kiss’d black Betty”
“He’s Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast”
“Been too free with Sir Richard”
“Nimptopsical”
“Trammel’d”
The Drinkers’ Dictionary evokes the age and the place in which it was collated.
Probably half of its entries are seamen’s slang — and reflect the importance of
maritime commerce to Philadelphia at the time. A good many others are rustic and
feature such colonial exotica as Indians, bears, and kibb’ed heels. The
influence of the Bible is also evident — even drunks knew their way around the
Good Book in those days.
Just under two centuries later, the Dictionary was revisited by Edmund Wilson in
his “Lexicon of Prohibition.” It too is something of a time capsule, with a
number of terms and phrases which sing of the Jazz Age, including:
“Zozzled”
“to have the whoops and jingles”
“to burn with a low blue flame”
However, the Lexicon listed a mere 105 expressions for drunkenness — fewer than
half of the terms that appear in its 18th century equivalent. Wilson attributed
the decline to changes in drinking patterns brought on by prohibition: “It is
interesting to note that one hears nowadays less often of people going on
sprees, toots, tears, jags, bats, brannigans or benders. All these terms
suggest, not merely drunkenness, but also an exceptional occurrence, a breaking
away by the drinker from the conditions of his normal life. It is possible that
their partial disappearance is mainly to be accounted for by the fact that this
kind of fierce and protracted drinking has now become universal, an accepted
feature of social life instead of a disreputable escapade.” He did, however,
believe that terms used to describe social drinking had become more nuanced
during the Noble Experiment.
I wonder how long the list of words and phrases for being under the influence
would be today? Some of the old terms, such as “stoned,” coined in Jacobean
England to denote lustful drunkenness, are now applied to the discombobulation
brought on by different drugs than alcohol. Others vanished with the days of
sail. I ran through a good two dozen in my head at Espasante when I was
searching for a word that went into Spanish easily. Merry? Caned? Loaded?
Stocious?
The fisherman let me flounder on awhile, then said “Estuviste piripi” and left
me with Anton the pig, who grunted, urinated on my wetsuit, and also went on his
way.
Besotted —
Etymologically, That Is, NYT, 31.12.2008,
http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/besotted-etymologically-that-is/
The sublime joy of Scrabble
Created by an under-employed architect in the Great Depression,
it's the perfect
pastime for straitened times
– and it's 60 tomorrow. Andy McSmith
celebrates a
true lexicographic phenomenon
Monday, 15 December 2008
The Independent
Happy birthday, Scrabble! No, make that Joyous Birthday, because although
"happy" is one of those deceptively high scoring words, what with H and Y being
worth 4, and P 3, making 15 in all, "joyous" has that initial J, worth 8, which
lifts it to 16, one point higher.
It is 60 years ago tomorrow that Scrabble was registered as a trade mark by
Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect from New York state, and his businessman
friend James Brunot.
But age has not stopped the game from being on top of the list of the UK's
favourite board games as Christmas approaches – and not just for families
sitting around a board playing with plastic squares.
Earlier this year, the manufacturers of the board game won a landmark ruling
against Facebook, which was ordered to remove from their site a game called
Scrabulous, which was attracting 500,000 users a day, because it breached
copyright. The judgement caused a new Facebook group to spring up, with the
self-explanatory name "Save Scrabulous".
The row would have bemused the game's inventor, Alfred Butts, who had time on
his hands during the great depression, and made a quixotic (76 points minimum)
decision to set about inventing a new board game. Analysing those that were
already popular, he observed that they were in three categories: number games
such as dice and bingo; games involving moves, as in chess, and word games, such
as anagrams and crosswords.
By 1931, he had developed a word game that also had a bit of arithmetic thrown
in, which he called Lexico. It was played without a board. He made about 200
copies which he sold or gave away, but it did not catch on.
Then in 1938, he had a better idea – inspired by the growing popularity of
crosswords – and reinvented Lexico as a board game, which he called Criss
Crosswords. The board has 225 squares and comes with 100 tiles, and as any
muzhik (permissible Russian word meaning peasant – 24 points) knows, the idea is
to make words from the letters on the tiles in the style of a crossword.
Before deciding what numerical value to give to each letter, Butts spent hours
poring over the front pages of each day's New York Times. His cryptographic (28
points, but you need two turns) analysis was so good that his points system and
tile distribution have not been altered in seven decades. The rack that holds
seven tiles at a time also dates back to 1938.
Butts offered his new game to every established games manufacturer. They all
turned it down. However, one of the hand-lettered sets that he had painstakingly
made at home came into the hands of James Brunot, who decided after the war that
it ought to be marketed. He changed the rules slightly, so that the game began
in the middle of the board rather than the top left hand corner, and more
importantly he altered the name to Scrabble (permissible – 14 points), which he
registered as a trademark on 16 December 1948.
The next four years were a struggle. Brunot's company manufactured 2,400
Scrabble sets in 1949, assembling the parts on the living room of the Brunots'
home in Connecticut, and lost $450 on the venture. But gradually, year by year,
a buzz (would be worth 34 if there were a second "z", but you have to use a
blank, so only 24) was created among devotees of the game. When the Brunots
returned from a holiday in Kentucky in 1952, they found such a pile of orders
waiting that their little factory could barely cope. Even Macy's, the world's
biggest department store, wanted copies. By 1953, when orders exceeded 6,000 a
week, the Brunots licensed Scrabble to one of the big established manufacturers
which had previously rejected it.
Scrabble spread quickly (75 points, if all seven letters are off your rack)
around the world. It arrived in the UK in 1953, launched by JW Spear and Sons,
which holds the rights to Scrabble everywhere except the US and Canada. It was
bought in 1994 by Mattel, the world's largest toy and game company. The US and
Canadian rights are owned by Hasbro.
About 100 million Scrabble sets have been sold in 121 countries and 29
languages. More than 300 Scrabble clubs are registered in the UK alone.
The first world Scrabble championship was hosted in London in 1991, and has been
held on alternate years ever since. By then, James Brunot was dead, but Alfred
Butts lived to be 93, dying in April 1993. The 2007 world championship, held in
Mumbai, was won by Nigel Richards, a New Zealander. The 2008 British Scrabble
champion is Allan Simmons, from Berwickshire.
These tournaments are now played for big money, with all the tension and ego
stroking of a major sport. Wespa, the World English-language Scrabble Players
Association, is holding an inquiry into the eviction a week ago of the Bahrain
and Gulf champion, Mohammed Zafar, from the Causeway Challenge in Malaysia,
where players compete for a top prize of $10,000 (£6,700). The tournament
organiser accused Mr Zafar of not following the rules when taking his tiles out
of the bag; he insisted that he was holding the bag correctly.
You can buy the original Scrabble, Scramble Scrabble, Travel Scrabble, Pocket
Scrabble, Junior Scrabble, My First Scrabble, Deluxe Scrabble, Dora Scrabble,
and Simpsons Scrabble – and those are just the versions with a board. To settle
arguments about which words are legal, an Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary
and Official Tournament and Club Word List have been published.
There are also various computerised forms – but here a word of caution is
needed. Earlier this month, Tonya Carrington from Lincoln bought a Nintendo
version for her eight-year-old son, Ethan, hoping it would improve his
vocabulary. She was so shocked when she tried it out for herself that she almost
hyperventilated (It would take three goes, but it is 15 letters, the maximum
possible, and worth three triple word scores on the edge of the board). The
first shock came when her digital opponent laid down the word "tits". It
helpfully supplied a definition with each word; this one was identified as the
plural form of a word meaning "a garden bird".
Mrs Carrington might have let that pass if the machine had not gone and won the
game with a seven letter word on a triple word score, containing four letters
worth a mere point each, interspersed with three high scoring letters – an F
worth 4, C worth 3, and K, worth 5, making an impressive 45. The machine defined
it as "a slang word for chavs".
"I would have been horrified if Ethan had seen that word," said Mrs Carrington.
"I was absolutely mortified. The worst thing is that there's an age rating of
3-plus on the box and no advisory warning about adult language on the packaging
at all."
But despite the occasional jinx (18 points) that would give you asphyxy (75),
Scrabble is surely a whizz (19) of a game, as zappy (21) as a zephyr (23) and
jazzier (22) than bezique (77).
Scrabble crazy Famous fans
Barack Obama
According to the President-elect's communications director, Robert Gibbs: "It's
his favourite game to play. He'll play with his family and particularly his
sister. And the winner gets bragging rights for a long, long time."
Richard Nixon
Nixon is the only American President who regularly played Scrabble in the White
House, though Bill and Hillary Clinton apparently also enjoy the occasional
game.
Kylie Minogue
Whereas in the song "Your Disco Needs You", on her Light Years album, Kylie
complains: "Desperately seeking someone willing to travel; You're lost in
conversation and useless at Scrabble."
Mel Gibson
The German film director Roland Emmerich, who has worked with Gibson, said:
"He's very accommodating. He is always on the set playing Scrabble in the back.
When we need him, he drops his Scrabble pieces and comes running."
Queen Elizabeth II
HRH is widely reputed to beanother devotee of the game.
Sting
In the song "Seven Days", on his Ten Summoner's Tales album, you hear Sting
sing: "IQ is no problem here; we won't be playing Scrabble for her hand, I
fear."
Eddie Izzard
Describing a back ailment, the stand-up comic explained the distinction between
a chiropractor and an osteopath, though he added: "Of course, they're both very
powerful on the Scrabble board."
Vladimir Nabokov
The author of Lolita loved playing with words in different languages, and was
one of the first celebrity Scrabble addicts. The main character in his novel Ada
is an exceptionally good Scrabblep layer.
Spreading the word: 100m sold worldwide
*Some 100 million Scrabble sets in 29 different languages have been sold in 121
countries, making it the world's biggest-selling word game. The prototype was
called Lexico, the brainchild of architect Alfred Mosher Butts, of New York
State, who devised it after losing his job in the Depression. He worked out the
letter values according to their frequency by combing the pages of The New York
Times. It did not get copyright approval until 1948, when its name was changed
to Scrabble.
The sublime joy of Scrabble, I, 15.12.2008,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-sublime-joy-of-scrabble-1067061.html
In
‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a Hurt for the Elderly
October 7,
2008
The New York Times
By JOHN LELAND
Professionals call it elderspeak, the sweetly belittling form of address that
has always rankled older people: the doctor who talks to their child rather than
to them about their health; the store clerk who assumes that an older person
does not know how to work a computer, or needs to be addressed slowly or in a
loud voice. Then there are those who address any elderly person as “dear.”
“People think they’re being nice,” said Elvira Nagle, 83, of Dublin, Calif.,
“but when I hear it, it raises my hackles.”
Now studies are finding that the insults can have health consequences,
especially if people mutely accept the attitudes behind them, said Becca Levy,
an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale University, who
studies the health effects of such messages on elderly people.
“Those little insults can lead to more negative images of aging,” Dr. Levy said.
“And those who have more negative images of aging have worse functional health
over time, including lower rates of survival.”
In a long-term survey of 660 people over age 50 in a small Ohio town, published
in 2002, Dr. Levy and her fellow researchers found that those who had positive
perceptions of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer, a bigger increase
than that associated with exercising or not smoking. The findings held up even
when the researchers controlled for differences in the participants’ health
conditions.
In her forthcoming study, Dr. Levy found that older people exposed to negative
images of aging, including words like “forgetful,” “feeble” and “shaky,”
performed significantly worse on memory and balance tests; in previous
experiments, they also showed higher levels of stress.
Despite such research, the worst offenders are often health care workers, said
Kristine Williams, a nurse gerontologist and associate professor at the
University of Kansas School of Nursing.
To study the effects of elderspeak on people with mild to moderate dementia, Dr.
Williams and a team of researchers videotaped interactions in a nursing home
between 20 residents and staff members. They found that when nurses used phrases
like “good girl” or “How are we feeling?” patients were more aggressive and less
cooperative or receptive to care. If addressed as infants, some showed their
irritation by grimacing, screaming or refusing to do what staff members asked of
them.
The researchers, who will publish their findings in The American Journal of
Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, concluded that elderspeak sent a
message that the patient was incompetent and “begins a negative downward spiral
for older persons, who react with decreased self-esteem, depression, withdrawal
and the assumption of dependent behaviors.”
Dr. Williams said health care workers often thought that using words like “dear”
or “sweetie” conveyed that they cared and made them easier to understand. “But
they don’t realize the implications,” she said, “that it’s also giving messages
to older adults that they’re incompetent.”
“The main task for a person with Alzheimer’s is to maintain a sense of self or
personhood,” Dr. Williams said. “If you know you’re losing your cognitive
abilities and trying to maintain your personhood, and someone talks to you like
a baby, it’s upsetting to you.”
She added that patients who reacted aggressively against elderspeak might
receive less care.
For people without cognitive problems, elderspeak can sometimes make them livid.
When Sarah Plummer’s pharmacy changed her monthly prescription for cancer drugs
from a vial to a contraption she could not open, she said, the pharmacist
explained that the packaging was intended to help her remember her daily dose.
“I exploded,” Ms. Plummer wrote to a New York Times blog, The New Old Age, which
asked readers about how they were treated in their daily life.
“Who says I don’t take my medicine as prescribed?” wrote Ms. Plummer, 61, who
lives in Champaign, Ill. “I am alive right now because I take these pills! What
am I supposed to do? Hold it with vice grips and cut it with a hack saw?’”
She added, “I believed my dignity and integrity were being assaulted.”
Health care workers are often not trained to avoid elderspeak, said Vicki
Rosebrook, the executive director of the Macklin Intergenerational Institute in
Findlay, Ohio, a combined facility for elderly people and children that is part
of a retirement community.
Dr. Rosebrook said that even in her facility, “we have 300 elders who are
‘sweetie’d’ here. Our kids talk to elders with more respect than some of our
professional care providers.”
She said she considered elderspeak a form of bullying. “It’s talking down to
them,” she said. “We do it to children so well. And it’s natural for the
sandwich generation, since they address children that way.”
Not all older people object to being called sweetie or dear, and some, like Jan
Rowell, 61, of West Linn, Ore., say they appreciate the underlying warmth.
“We’re all reaching across the chasm,” Ms. Rowell said. “If someone calls us
sweetie or honey, it’s not diminishing us; it’s just their way to connect, in a
positive way.”
She added, “What would reinforce negative stereotypes is the idea that old
people are filled with pet peeves, taking offense at innocent attempts to be
friendly.”
But Ellen Kirschman, 68, a police psychologist in Northern California, said she
objected to people calling her “young lady,” which she called “mocking and
disingenuous.” She added: “As I get older, I don’t want to be recognized for my
age. I want to be recognized for my accomplishments, for my wisdom.”
To avoid stereotyping, Ms. Kirschman said, she often sprinkles her conversation
with profanities when she is among people who do not know her. “That makes them
think, This is someone to be reckoned with,” she said. “A little sharpness seems
to help.”
Bea Howard, 77, a retired teacher in Berkeley, Calif., said she objected less to
the ways people addressed her than to their ignoring her altogether. At recent
meals with a younger friend, Ms. Howard said, the restaurant’s staff spoke only
to the friend.
“They ask my friend, ‘How are you; how are you feeling?’ just turning on the
charm to my partner,” Ms. Howard said. “Then they ask for my order. I say: ‘I
feel you’re ignoring me; I’m at this table, too.’ And they immediately deny it.
They say, no, not at all. And they may not even know they’re doing it.”
Dr. Levy of Yale said that even among professionals, there appeared to be little
movement to reduce elderspeak. Words like “dear,” she said, have a life of their
own. “It’s harder to change,” Dr. Levy said, “because people spend so much of
their lives observing it without having a stake in it, not realizing it’s
belittling to call someone that.”
In the meantime, people who are offended might do well to follow the advice of
Warren Cassell of Portland, Ore., who said it irritated him when “teenage store
clerks and about 95 percent of the rest of society” called him by his first
name. “It’s the faux familiarity,” said Mr. Cassell, 78.
But he mostly shrugs it off, he said. “I’m irked by it, but I can’t think about
it that much,” he said. “There are too many more important things to think
about.”
In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a Hurt for the Elderly, NYT,
7.10.2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/us/07aging.html
Rowling to Testify in Trial Over Potter Lexicon
April 14, 2008
The New York Times
By MOTOKO RICH
J. K. Rowling’s public appearances usually take place in bookstores and
theaters, before thousands of her fans. But on Monday, Ms. Rowling, the author
of the wildly popular Harry Potter series, is expected to turn up in a much
different place: on the witness stand in a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom,
testifying against a small publisher looking to bring out an encyclopedia based
on her work.
Ms. Rowling’s books about the boy wizard have spawned countless fan Web sites
and chat rooms, as well as dozens of companion books that seek to analyze every
minute detail of the seven titles in the series, which ended in July with “Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
Ms. Rowling has supported much of the fan output, doling out awards to Internet
sites and granting interviews to Web masters. But when RDR Books, a small
publisher in Muskegon, Mich., announced it was planning to publish a print
version last fall of a popular fan Web site called “The Harry Potter Lexicon”
(hp-lexicon.org), Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers, the movie studio that has
adapted her books into films, balked. Their objection is that the book merely
repackages Ms. Rowling’s work and, unlike the free fan sites, is intended to
make money for its publisher.
In October Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers sued RDR for copyright infringement,
and in November the company suspended publication so that Judge Robert P.
Patterson Jr., of the Southern District of New York, could assess the merits of
the suit.
The case is scheduled to go to trial on Monday, with Ms. Rowling flying over
from Scotland to testify. At stake is whether authors other than Ms. Rowling
have the right to publish books that rely substantially on her work as source
material, and whether the “Harry Potter Lexicon” in particular sufficiently adds
to and transforms the content of her books to be protected by copyright law.
The case also explores the line between free Web content created by fans and a
commercially published book. Ms. Rowling has openly praised the Web site on
which the Lexicon is based, giving it a “fan site award” in 2004 and commenting
in interviews that she even relied on the site — which provides an annotated
catalog of characters, spells, magic potions, locations and events in her books
— while writing. It was only when RDR decided to transform the site into a book
that she objected.
In court papers Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers have argued that the Lexicon,
which is being written by the Web site’s founder, Steven Vander Ark, and three
other writers, “merely compiles and repackages Ms. Rowling’s fictional facts
derived wholesale from the Harry Potter works without adding any new creativity,
commentary, insight or criticism.” (Mr. Vander Ark is not a party to the suit.)
What’s more, Ms. Rowling said the proposed Lexicon book flouted her plans to
write her own encyclopedia and donate the proceeds to charity. She argues that
Mr. Vander Ark’s book could deter fans from buying hers.
Roger Rapoport, publisher of RDR Books, said he believed that Mr. Vander Ark’s
work and Ms. Rowling’s encyclopedia could both exist. “We don’t think we’re a
threat to J. K. Rowling,” Mr. Rapoport said in an interview. He said he paid Mr.
Vander Ark a “tiny advance” for the book last August and was planning to print
about 10,000 copies.
In court filings RDR argues that Mr. Vander Ark’s book “provides a significant
amount of original analysis and commentary concerning everything from insights
into the personality of key characters, relationships among them, the meaning of
various historical and literary allusions, as well as internal inconsistencies
and mistakes in the novels.”
The publisher said the Lexicon follows a long tradition of literary commentary.
“For hundreds of years everybody has agreed that folks are free to write
companion guides,” said Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use
Project at Stanford Law School and one of RDR’s lawyers. “This is the first time
that anybody has argued seriously that folks don’t have the right to do that.”
Mr. Vander Ark said he had initially worried that a book might constitute
copyright infringement. “I honestly can’t tell you the origin of that belief,”
he said. But when RDR assured him it wasn’t a problem, he said he assumed that
because the material was available online and had never been challenged by Ms.
Rowling, the book wouldn’t be either.
On her Web site (jkrowling.com) Ms. Rowling says she does not object to authors
publishing literary criticism or reviews of the Potter books. That, she wrote,
“would be entirely legitimate — neither I nor anybody connected with Harry
Potter has ever tried to prevent such works from being published.”
Neil Blair, a lawyer for the Christopher Little Literary Agency, which
represents Ms. Rowling, said he was aware of only two similar lawsuits filed by
her and Warner Brothers against other publishers, including a plagiarism case in
the Netherlands and a suit against a book in Germany that simply summarized the
plots of the Harry Potter books. He said he believed that they had also brought
an administrative proceeding against a Chinese encyclopedia.
A call to Ms. Rowling’s press agent in Scotland was not returned. Mr. Blair
referred any inquiries to a publicist in Los Angeles who is coordinating media
contacts for Warner Brothers and Ms. Rowling.
In a number of cases Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers have pushed publishers of
other planned Harry Potter reference books in the United States to withdraw them
from the market, though without filing suit. Ben Schoen, manager of operations
at mugglenet.com, one of the most popular Potter fan Web sites, said that when a
publisher asked editors of the site to write an encyclopedia, Ms. Rowling
objected, and the publisher did not proceed. “If she asks us to do anything, we
basically comply with it,” Mr. Schoen said.
Though the case pits a billionaire author against a tiny publishing house, the
Potter fan base seems to have little sympathy for RDR. Melissa Anelli, Web
mistress of the Leaky Cauldron (the-leaky-cauldron.org), another popular fan
site, said her board had voted to sever ties with the Harry Potter Lexicon site
because of the lawsuit and comments Mr. Vander Ark has made about it.
“You’re put in the position of having loved the site all these years,” Ms.
Anelli said, “and then having to understand why J. K. Rowling had to take an
action.”
David Hammer, another lawyer representing RDR Books, said he believed that Ms.
Rowling was acting out of vanity. “She wants to be the only one to write this
encyclopedia about Harry Potter,” he said. “She’s determined to write it, and
she doesn’t want competitors.”
Mr. Vander Ark, who is now living in England, is finishing up another companion
book, “In Search of Harry Potter,” a travel memoir about places in Britain that
served as the basis for some of the fictional locales in the novels. It is being
published by Methuen in July, though neither the company Web site nor
amazon.co.uk currently mention the book. A spokesman for Methuen said it was
keeping a low profile because of the pending trial but did not expect any
problems.
Rowling to Testify in
Trial Over Potter Lexicon, NYT, 14.4.2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/books/14potter.html
The man who made lists to fend off depression
Fri Mar 28, 2008
9:04am EDT
Reuters
By Arthur Spiegelman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - His mother suffered dark depressions and tried to
dominate his life. His sister and daughter had severe mental problems, his
father and wife died young and a beloved uncle committed suicide in his arms.
So what did Peter Mark Roget, the creator of Roget's Thesaurus, do to handle all
the pain, grief, sorrow, affliction, woe, bitterness, unhappiness and misery in
a life that lasted over 90 years?
He made lists.
The 19th century British scientist made lists of words, creating synonyms for
all occasions that ultimately helped make life easier for term paper writers,
crossword puzzle lovers and anyone looking for the answer to the age-old
question: "What's another word for ..."
And according to a new biography, making his lists saved Roget's life and by
keeping him from succumbing to the depression and misery of those around him.
"As a boy he stumbled upon a remarkable discovery -- that compiling lists of
words could provide solace, no matter what misfortunes may befall him," says
Joshua Kendall author of the just published "The Man Who Made Lists" (Putnam,
$25.95), a study of Roget's life (1779 to 1869) based on diaries, letters and
even an autobiography composed of lists.
Kendall, in a recent interview, said Roget cared more for words than people and
that making lists on the scale that he did was obsessive-compulsive behavior
that helped him fend off the demons that terrorized his distinguished British
family.
Madness was a regular guest in Roget's home, Kendall said. One of his
grandmothers either had schizophrenia or severe depression, Roget's mother
lapsed into paranoia, often accusing the servants of plotting against her. Both
his sister and his daughter suffered depression and mental problems.
Then there was the case of Roget's uncle, British member of Parliament Sir
Samuel Romilly, known for his opposition to the slave trade and for his support
of civil liberties. He slit his own throat while Roget tried to get the razor
out of his hands.
Unlike a Thesaurus, no one understood Uncle Sam's last words: "My dear....I
wish..."
Indeed, to quote most of the Thesaurus listing for pain, Roget's was a life
filled with grief, pain, suffering, distress, affliction, woe, bitterness,
heartache, unhappiness, infelicity and misery.
NOT WHOLLY EVIL
Kendall said, "The lists gave him an alternative world to which to repair." Many
writers have declared their debt to Roget, including Peter Pan's creator, J.M.
Barrie. In homage, he put a copy of the Thesaurus in Captain Hook's cabin so he
could declare: "The man is not wholly evil -- he has a Thesaurus in his cabin.
The 20th century poet Sylvia Plath called herself "Roget's Strumpet" to pay
respects for all the word choices he gave her.
But the British journalist Simon Winchester holds Roget responsible for helping
to dumb down Western culture because his work allows a writer to look it up
rather than think it out.
Roget made his first attempt at a Thesaurus at age 26 but put aside the effort
and did not publish his book until 1852 when he was in his 70s and retired. He
then kept busy with it for the rest of his life.
It became an instant hit in Britain but did not sell that well when an American
edition was published two years later. But when Americans went crazy for
crossword puzzles in the 1920s, the Thesaurus assumed its place on reference
shelves.
Kendall's book is written in a style that he calls "narrative non-fiction" which
contains a lot of dialogue and descriptions of how Roget and his friends feel
and think, all, he says, based on source material.
"I did a lot of work to stitch together a narrative," he said, adding that all
the scenes in the book are based on actual events.
The man who made lists
to fend off depression, R, 28.3.2008,
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN2628269520080328
Leading article: War of words
Published: 13 November 2007
The Independent
Gordon Brown for one will be heartened to read about the record of the
education charity Springboard for Children in helping dyslexic youngsters and
others struggling with reading problems. The Prime Minister made a point in his
first keynote address on education after taking office of pledging to wipe out
illiteracy. He singled out efforts made in West Dunbartonshire where a robust
use of synthetic phonics has reduced the number of youngsters with reading
difficulties from just over 30 per cent to six per cent in five years. The local
authority is confident it can reduce that figure to zero next year.
West Dunbartonshire is not alone in its success. Springboard for Children says
it has a 90 per cent success rate in improving children's reading standards to
the level where they can be returned to a mainstream classroom. That is 90 per
cent of the bottom 20 per cent who do not manage to reach the required standard
in English in national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds. It therefore leaves
only a handful of youngsters in any given school still struggling to learn. Now
the charity is seeking to expand to offer help to 10,000 children a year,
instead of the 350 they presently reach, although they will need more financial
support to do so.
Mr Brown's target was set without a date for achieving it and has, as a result,
been dismissed as pie in the sky by his political opponents. But implementing
schemes like the ones offered by Springboard for Children and West
Dunbartonshire council could get him very near to his goal encouragingly soon.
They must be given the funding they need.
Leading article: War of
words, I, 13.11.2007,
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article3155094.ece
Romney Slip: Another Osama - Obama Mix - Up
October 23, 2007
Filed at 12:46 p.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREENWOOD, S.C. (AP) -- In a slip of the tongue, Republican Mitt
Romney accused Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama of urging
terrorists to congregate in Iraq.
In the midst of criticizing Obama and other Democrats on foreign and economic
policy Tuesday, the GOP presidential hopeful said:
''Actually, just look at what Osam -- Barack Obama -- said just
yesterday. Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types,
to come together in Iraq. That is the battlefield. ... It's almost as if the
Democratic contenders for president are living in fantasyland. Their idea for
jihad is to retreat, and their idea for the economy is to also retreat. And in
my view, both efforts are wrongheaded.''
Romney apparently was referring to an audiotape aired Monday in which a speaker
believed to be terrorist Osama bin Laden called for insurgents in Iraq to unite
and avoid divisions. The authenticity of the tape aired on Al-Jazeera television
could not be immediately confirmed.
Romney also said: ''It's my personal belief that having someone like John
Edwards, a senator, who goes out and communicates that there is no global war on
terror -- that it's just a Bush bumper sticker -- I think that is a position
that is not consistent with the facts.''
Romney was addressing a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Spokesman Kevin Madden
said: ''He misspoke. He was referring to the audiotape of Osama bin Laden and
misspoke. It was just a mix-up.''
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, ''Apparently, Mitt Romney can switch names
just as casually as he switches positions, but what's wrongheaded is continuing
a misguided war in Iraq that has left America less safe.''
Romney Slip: Another
Osama - Obama Mix - Up, NYT, 23.10.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Romney-Obama.html
Nas Names New
CD After Racial Epithet
October 19, 2007
Filed at 9:46 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times
NEW YORK (AP) -- To some, it's a hurtful racial epithet. For Nas, it's an
album title.
The rapper told MTV News that he would indeed be naming his new album after the
N-word. And he denied earlier reports that the album's title would be spelled
''N---a,'' considered in some circles a less inflammatory epithet. He said the
disc is due out Dec. 11.
''(People) shouldn't trip off the (album's) title; the songs are crazier than
the title,'' he said in an interview posted on MTV's Web site.
But some have been outraged by the rapper's choice.
''The title using the 'N' word is morally offensive and socially distasteful.
Nas has the right to degrade and denigrate in the name of free speech, but there
is no honor in it,'' the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a news release. ''Radio and
television stations have no obligation to play it and self-respecting people
have no obligation to buy it. I wish he would use his talents to lift up and
inspire, not degrade.''
There were reports that his label, Def Jam, had scuttled the title idea. But Nas
told MTV that he has had no opposition from the label, and said his intent in
naming the album the N-word was to take the sting out of it.
''We're taking power from the word,'' he added. ''No disrespect to none of them
who were part of the civil rights movement, but some ... in the streets don't
know who (civil rights activist) Medgar Evers was ... they know who Nas is,''
the rapper said, referring to the civil rights leader slain in the 1960s.
''And to my older people who don't know who Nas is and who don't know what a
street disciple is, stay outta this (expletive) conversation. We'll talk to you
when we're ready. Right now, we're on a whole new movement. We're taking power
from that word.''
A representative for Def Jam did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking
comment from The Associated Press sent after business hours.
The use of the N-word is common in rap, though rapper Chamillionaire recently
declared he would no longer use that word or curse in his rhymes.
Nas Names New CD After
Racial Epithet, NYT, 19.10.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Music-Nas-Album-Title.html
Annual Spelling Bee Starts Today
May 30, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:46 a.m. ET
The New York Times
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The 80th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, featuring
286 competitors from the English-speaking parts of the world, opens Wednesday
with the preliminary round and concludes with a prime-time finish Thursday night
on ABC.
At this year's bee, 13-year-old Samir Patel is trying to avoid becoming the Dan
Marino of spelling. Samir, a Dallas Cowboys fan from Colleyville, Texas, knows
all about Marino's 17-year Hall of Fame career as the Miami Dolphins'
quarterback, in which he set records but never won a championship. This week,
Samir is one of the favorites to win as he makes his fifth and final appearance
in the bee.
''If I had to predict who's going to win -- which is a very dangerous thing to
do -- I would guess that Samir has a very good chance,'' said James Maguire, who
profiled Samir in the book ''American Bee.'' ''If another bad stroke of luck
comes along and he needs to go home without the trophy, yeah, I think there
would be sort of a bittersweet feeling.''
Samir charmed the country with a stunning third-place finish as a
super-confident 9-year-old four years ago, demonstating a vocabulary beyond his
years and charisma to match.
Then, in 2004, he stumbled on the word ''corposant'' and finished tied for 27th.
He came close in 2005 but was flummoxed by ''Roscian'' and placed second. Last
year, the audience gasped in shock when he failed to spell ''eremacausis,''
forcing him to settle for a tie for 14th.
''I feel I've been trying my hardest for the last few years and it hasn't worked
out,'' Samir said. ''But life is not completely about the spelling bee and I've
learned to realize that. But I will be very disappointed if I don't win.''
Samir, a home-schooled student, is the only competitor in this year's field
returning for the fifth time. He's not the oldest -- there are plenty of
14-year-olds and even a 15-year-old -- but he will no longer be eligible after
this year because he is completing the eighth grade. His reputation is such that
the bee's director asked him to speak at the opening assembly Tuesday night.
''Because he's known, the pressure is more on him,'' said Jyoti Patel, Samir's
mother and coach. ''And if he doesn't perform, it causes disappointment. But
being in the bee for five years we've realized there are so many surprise words,
and you don't know who's going to get them or when they're going to come up. ...
There is a lot of luck of the draw involved.''
Samir shrugs off questions about pressure. He and his mother agreed that she
feels it more than he does. She gets so nervous that during the actual week of
the bee she turns over the coaching duties to Samir's father, Sudhir.
''He's the calming influence,'' she said.
Samir is taller, more mature and better able to handle disappointment than the
little boy who needed a hug from his mother to ease his tears four years ago. He
is well-rounded -- piano and swimming are among his regular activities -- but
lately his free time has been devoted to words.
''As it comes closer,'' he said, ''I'm trying to scrounge every possible minute
to study spelling.''
Next week, whatever the outcome, Samir will be done with bees. But not with
challenging himself.
''I plan on entering other competitions,'' Samir said. ''Math competitions and
debate, hopefully. I'll still be busy.''
------
On the Net:
Scripps National Spelling Bee:
http://www.spellingbee.com
Annual Spelling Bee
Starts Today, NYT, 30.5.2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Spelling-Bee.html
Mary Poppins baffled
Thursday 1st February 2007
07:54
Ananova
Julie Andrews failed to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
correctly in front of dozens giggling children.
Julie, who made the word famous in Mary Poppins, held her head in her hands
after a child asked her to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious during a
competition in New York.
According to the Sun, an onlooker said: "She looked so ashamed after admitting
she didn't know how to spell it in front of the schoolchildren."
Julie admitted she was totally baffled by the 34-letter word.
Mary Poppins baffled, A,
07:54 Thursday 1st February 2007,
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2182598.html?menu=news.quirkies
For Some, the Words Just Roll Off the
Tongue
November 22, 2006
The New York Times
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
For the big dinner on Thursday, perhaps a
plump bird stuffed with Stephanie and served with giblet civil, accompanied by
roast Londons, a bowl of performs with pearl unions, and marshmallow-topped
microscopes. And, for dessert, city a la mode, followed by a confession.
No, your eyes do not deceive you. But if you were a lexical-gustatory
synaesthete, your tongue might — and you would already feel full.
People who have synaesthesia — a rare condition that runs in families — have
“joined senses.” They “see” letters or numbers or musical notes as colors — a
capital A will be tinged red, or 5 plus 2 will equal blue, or B.B. King will
play the yellows.
Rare as that is, there is an even rarer variation, said Julia Simner, a
cognitive neuropsychologist and synaesthesia expert at the University of
Edinburgh. Lexical-gustatories involuntarily “taste” words when they hear them,
or even try to recall them, she wrote in a study, “Words on the Tip of the
Tongue,” published in the issue of Nature dated Thursday. She has found only 10
such people in Europe and the United States.
Magnetic-resonance imaging indicates that they are not faking, she said. The
correct words light up the taste regions of their brains. Also, when given a
surprise test a year later, they taste the same foods on hearing the words
again.
(Synaesthetes are hardly ever described as “suffering from” the syndrome,
because their doubled perceptions excite envy in many of us mere sensual
Muggles.)
It can be unpleasant, however. One subject, Dr. Simner said, hates driving,
because the road signs flood his mouth with everything from pistachio ice cream
to ear wax.
And Dr. Simner has yet to figure out any logical pattern.
For example, the word “mince” makes one subject taste mincemeat, but so do
rhymes like “prince.” Words with a soft “g,” as in “roger” or “edge,” make him
taste sausage. But another subject, hearing “castanets,” tastes tuna fish.
Another can taste only proper names: John is his cornbread, William his
potatoes.
They cannot explain the links, she said. There is no Proustian madeleine moment
— the flavors are just there.
But all have had the condition since childhood, so chocolate is commonly tasted,
while olives and gin are not.
And, sadly, even her American subjects don’t seem overwhelmed by salivary
Thanksgiving memories.
Dr. Simner tests hundreds of words, and when she was asked to check her list for
today’s dinner ingredients, she came up with “Stephanie” linked to sage
stuffing, “civil” to gravy, “London” and “head” to potato, “perform” to peas,
“union” to onions, “microscope” to carrots, “city” to mince pie and “confess” to
coffee.
But, alas, no turkey. Or cranberry sauce.
“I can give you a whole fry-up English breakfast,” she said apologetically. “But
not a Thanksgiving dinner.”
For
Some, the Words Just Roll Off the Tongue, NYT, 22.11.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/science/23tastecnd.html
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