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AWADmail Issue 764A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Tidbits about Words and LanguageSponsor’s Message: The Old’s Cool Tour -- Rally Around The Ivy League is the only vintage automobile event in the world that visits the eight most prestigious colleges on the planet, with tons of witty twists and tests along the 1,000-mile way. Diploma not required, so we’re inviting any and all gearheads, smart alecks, and bons vivants to come along for this ludic and lovely wind-in-your-hair ride. Oh yeah, and before we forget: congrats to the Email of the Week winner, Jamie Diamandopoulos (see below), who’ll receive our acclaimed One Up! -- The Wicked/Smart Word Game. Vroom!
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Swearing, Italian Style
Trump is a Master of Language
From: Bruce Reaves (reavesb earthlink.net) You mention “OK” as an Americanism explained as “an abbreviation of oll korrect, jocular respelling of ‘all correct’”. I’ve heard that, and other, etymologies for the term. But the most convincing (to me) is that it’s of Scottish origin -- an Americanized spelling of the expression “och, aye” indicating consent or agreement.
Bruce Reaves, Gibsonville, North Carolina
Lots of readers sent lots of other suggestions. There are dozens of
theories about the origin of OK. In fact, a 240-page book has been
written on this two-letter word. OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word.
So, let’s just say there is a fact and there are alternative facts.
-Anu Garg
From: Richard Baumgarten (rkbaumgarten comcast.net)
After Robert Bork (1927-2012), whose nomination for the US Supreme Court
was rejected in 1987 after extensive publicity by various groups exposed
his extreme views (such as, his support for a poll tax). Earliest
documented use: 1987.
A more balanced etymology (such as his support for a $1.50 poll tax). Even in 1987, $1.50 was less than a pack of cigarettes.
Richard Baumgarten, MD, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
How about a poll tax of $150? Would that make you think twice? If not,
go higher, until you reach a number at which you have to rethink whether
this whole voting thing is worth it. Now we both can agree that asking
people to pay for the right to vote is a bad idea, it’s just we disagree
on the amount.
Empathy is being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes and realizing that what may not pinch you may pinch the other. An amount that to you looks like worth a pack of cigarettes may be a day’s meals for someone else. It’s astounding that in 2017 someone would defend poll tax. There’s no justification for a poll tax, unless your intention is to disenfranchise the less-privileged. See also, the 24th Amendment. Also, you don’t really want to live in a world in which Robert Bork makes decisions as a Supreme Court justice. For example, he believed that government should be able to fine or arrest you for using birth control. See more here.
In any case, thanks for taking the time to write. As long as we talk
and listen to each other, I believe there’s hope.
From: Glenn Glazer (gglazer ucla.edu) In software engineering, we use bork in a different way. Borken is the broken spelling of “broken” and gets conjugated like a verb. To say that a server is borked is to say that it is beyond fixing. See also.
Glenn Glazer, Felton, California
From: Marni Hancock (mrh330 gmail.com) My oldest son was born in 1976 -- our last name is Hancock. A nurse from the newborn nursery got quite offended when I laughed at her when she suggested I name him “John” in honor of the bicenntenial. Talk about grounds for justifiable matricide!
Marni Hancock, Springfield, Oregon
From: Alexandra Halsey (alexandra.s.halsey gmail.com) Since moving to Seattle almost ten years ago, I’ve been a devoted listener and aficionado of its jazz and NPR station, KNKX 88.5 FM. The station often inserts marvelous little tidbit quotations from shows, talks, what-have-you into its ongoing musical lineup. One of my favorites is a clip that goes like this:
“Here are those papers for your John Hancock, sir.” (Well, you have to hear it to really enjoy it. :)
Alexandra Halsey, Seattle, Washington
From: Joseph Kithinji (njagikithinji gmail.com)
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. -George Jean Nathan, author and editor (14 Feb 1882-1958) Considering that yesterday (14th February 2017) was the last day for mass voter registration as Kenya prepares for August 2017 elections, and considering how emotive and at times deadly (literally) elections are in our beloved country, a more relevant thought couldn’t have landed in my inbox. Kudos, AWAD.
Joseph Kithinji, Nanyuki, Kenya
From: Ron Betchley (emef hotmail.com) For many years the renowned Auberge (Hotel) Benedict Arnold in Quebec, Canada hosted many a United Empire Loyalist and its fair share of American revolutionary descendants.
Ron Betchley, Yarker, Canada
From: Victoria Reed (vreed mfa.org) I first heard of Benedict Arnold through the Brady Bunch episode in which Peter is cast as Arnold in the school play (which was apparently social suicide). Later, in middle school, my history teacher asked me if I’d ever heard of Benedict Arnold, and how; I confessed it was through the Brady Bunch. She said, in exasperation, “You’re the third person today who’s given me that answer!” Unfortunately, you cannot extricate Generation X from the Bradys.
Victoria Reed, Boston, Massachusetts
From: Bill Raiford (br2002 rose.net) In the Old Cadet Chapel at West Point, the walls are adorned with plaques for every general in the American Revolution, each bearing a name and other data. The plaque for Benedict Arnold is completely bare, nada.
Bill Raiford, West Point Class of 1952, Thomasville, Georgia
From: Wendy Pedersen (antiwendy yahoo.com) This email appeared directly beneath my daily NYT feed, with the headline, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence”. Mere coincidence?
Wendy Pedersen, Albuquerque, New Mexico
From: Jamie Diamandopoulos (jdiamandopoulos yahoo.com) Both the word and cartoon of the day deserve special recognition. I was in high school and early college years during the “McCarthy era”. Fortunately, we also had Edward R. Murrow and Herbert Block -- courageous journalists and inimitable critics -- to inform the people and turn the tide. After college, I worked at the Smithsonian Institution and had direct access (via the Washington Post) to Herblock’s cartoons. I wrote him to express my admiration and appreciation, and HE WROTE ME BACK! I don’t know what happened to his letter, but I wish that I had it now. One of Herblock’s cartoons shows a man (whose name is Hysteria) yelling “Fire” and trying to throw water on the torch that the Statue of Liberty holds -- one example of a picture being worth many words.
Jamie Diamandopoulos, Houston, Texas
From: Marc Chelemer (mc2496 att.com) I have seen the illustration you used for today’s word many times in the context of the word and am always struck by the apparent thinking that it looked like a salamander. I feel certain that early l9th-century men (probably not many women at the time, regrettably) of letters would know that no salamander has wings, a forked tongue, pointy incisors, nor clawed rear feet. What the cartoonist drew is more like a dragon. Perhaps because that word doesn’t lend itself to a combination form as easily (although I like the assonance of “dragogerry”), the word salamander was selected instead. The modern-day gerrymandered districts were quite striking in their shape. Thank you for that link!
Marc Chelemer, Tenafly, New Jersey
From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Illustrations: Alex McCrae
Curiously, both Senator McCarthy and Mickey have a defined widow’s peak in common. But no five o’clock shadow for our lovable mouse. Ha! Echoing the originally coined 19th-century “gerrymander” portmanteau word combo uniting Gov. Gerry with the word salamander, I’ve created a scenario of a motley amalgam of imagined electoral districts conjoined in the form of a deceased giant salamander, mimicking a police chalk outline of a human corpse, in situ, on the pavements. Clearly, I’ve imposed my political bias here, strongly implying that the very fabric of American democracy is at risk of fraying from such an underhanded redistricting ploy -- manipulating the electoral map by one political enterprise to potentially gain a clear unfair advantage over its opposition, come election day. I must admit, I did use major hyperbole here, to make my point.
Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Congress could have exhibited stones
“Ms. Warren, if Sessions you bork,”
The day of their wedding grows near.
I think I may put my John Hancock
Steve Bannon could be a czar cold,
At my steakhouse last night I was startled
“Are you part of the Communist Party?”
A case of advanced narcissism,
McCarthyism, these days, goes like a breeze,
“This precinct we must gerrymander,”
From: Phil Graham (pgraham1946 cox.net) The senators who opposed Reagan’s SCOTUS nominee feared Bork Peril Politics. The firing-range instructor said, “First, John, han’cock the pistol.” Trump has Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger (and a lot of others). I call my auto’s religious beliefs “McCarthyism”. It’s ‘Gary’; man, der liberties we take with pronunciations! Phil Graham, Tulsa, Oklahoma
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It’s not a business with me. ... I’m not a professional of poetry; I’m a
farmer of poetry. -Jack Gilbert, poet (18 Feb 1925-2012)
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