Thoughts for the Day

Today in History (February 22nd):

1732: Birthdays: George Washington, (1732-1799) War Hero, General, First President of the United States.

1788: Birthdays: German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

1819: A treaty with Spain ceded Florida to the United States. Birthdays: Poet, diplomat and editor James Lowell.

1855: The Pennsylvania State University was founded in State College, Pa. It was originally called the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania.

1857: Birthdays: Englishman Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement; German physicist Heinrich Hertz, discoverer of radio waves.

1862: Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States of America.

1874: Birthdays: Hall of Fame baseball umpire Bill Klem.

1879: Woolworth, the first chain store, opened in Utica, N.Y.

1889: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington were admitted into the United States.

1892: Birthdays: Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.

1907: Birthdays: Actor and TV producer Sheldon Leonard; Actor Robert Young.

1908: Birthdays: Actor John Mills.

1918: Birthdays: Robert Pershing Wadlow, at 8 ft. 11.1 inches tall, the tallest person in recorded history; Television announcer Don Pardo.

1928: Birthdays: Actor Paul Dooley.

1932: Birthdays: U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

1934: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member George Sparky Anderson.

1944: Birthdays: Filmmaker Jonathan Demme.

1950: Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Fame member Julius Dr. J Erving; Actor Julie Walters.

1959: The Daytona 500 was run for the first time. Lee Petty won the race. Birthdays: Actor Kyle MacLachlan.

1962: Birthdays: Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

1963: Birthdays: Golfer Vijay Singh.

1966: Birthdays: Actor Rachel Dratch.

1968: Birthdays: Actor Jeri Ryan.

1972: U.S. President Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing on a historic visit to China.

1973: Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan commercial airliner, killing 106 of the 113 people aboard.

1974: Birthdays: Musician James Blunt.

1975: Birthdays: Actor Drew Barrymore.

1980: In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of collegians and second-tier professional players, defeated the defending champion Soviet team, regarded as the world’s finest, 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

1987: Deaths: Artist Andy Warhol died of heart failure at age 58.

1991: Iraq set fire to dozens of oil facilities in occupied Kuwait.

1993: The U.N. Security Council voted to form an international war crimes tribunal to try those accused of offenses during ethnic fighting in the former Yugoslavia.

2004: Rebels attacked a refugee camp in northern Uganda, killing at least 192 people.
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2005: A powerful earthquake struck Iran, killing more than 500 people.

2006: A terrorist attack destroyed the golden dome atop the most revered Shiite shrine in Iraq, the al-Askari Mosque in Samara, touching off sectarian violence.

2009: More than 70 fatalities were reported in the explosion of a coal mine in northern China. There were 113 known survivors in the blast near Qujiad City.

2010: U.S. President Barack Obama announced his plan for a healthcare reform bill. A U.S. airstrike targeting insurgents in Kabul, Afghanistan, was reported to have accidentally killed 27 Afghan civilians.

2011: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, killing a reported 184 people and injuring as many as 2,000. The quake struck less than six months after a stronger tremor shook the same area.

2012: A 12.76-carat pink diamond, said to be the largest ever discovered in that country, was unearthed in Western Australia. It was expected to sell for more than $10 million.



Quotes

“Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish.” – Ovid, Roman poet



viscera

PRONUNCIATION: (VIS-uhr-uh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/viscera.mp3

MEANING: (noun)
1. The internal organs located in the main cavities of the body, especially those in the abdominal cavity.
2. The interior parts.

ETYMOLOGY: Plural of Latin viscus (flesh, internal organ). Earliest documented use: 1651.

USAGE:

“There is plenty of action with a chainsaw, and a butcher’s shop worthof viscera is scattered about the screen.” – Ian Bartholomew; Movie Releases; Taipei Times (Taiwan); Apr 29, 2011.

“These revelations are now biting deeper into the viscera of the bank’sintegrity and reputation.” – Toivo Ndjebela; Agribank Gives Kalomo Hefty Hike; New Era (Namibia); Jan 27, 2012.

Explore “viscera” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=viscera



You Can Count on ‘All Told’

Q: I thought the word meaning “all counted” was “tolled,” as in “When all the people arrived at the party, all tolled, there were close to a hundred of them.” However, I have seen the word “told” used more than “tolled.” Which is correct? — Teri Eastman via email

Q: Your confusion is understandable. After all, the verb “toll” can mean, “to collect a fee,” which could involve adding up numbers. And “toll” can also mean, “to ring a bell,” which can also imply counting, as when clock tower tolls a certain number of times to indicate the hour.

But the correct choice is indeed “all told” — but not, as you might think, because the total number is being told, that is, revealed.

The “told” in “all told” derives instead from an older meaning of “tell”: “to count.” This meaning still survives in the noun “teller,” a bank employee who counts money. Because the past tense of “tell” is “told,” “all told” means “all counted.”

Q: I took an employment agency test recently that included one of those spot-the-error sections. One of the sentences was: “If he thinks that’s true, he has another thing coming.” I circled it as incorrect, because it should read, “another think coming,” but the recruiter marked me incorrect and told me “thing” is correct. I’m pretty sure the whole point is that someone THINKS something that is incorrect and so has another “think” coming. What are your thoughts? –Kate, Ireland via email

A: Do you mean, “What are my thinks?”

For the first 50 years of my life, I thought the phrase was “another THING coming.” At least, that’s what I thought people were saying, and I had never seen the phrase in print.

But a few years ago, I discovered that I had another THINK coming.

You’re right, and the recruiter is wrong. Usage authorities agree that the correct rendering is “another think coming.” The phrase emerged during the early 20th century when some wag thought it would be clever to write something like, “If you think Prohibition will work, then you have another think coming.” The phrase first appeared in print in 1937 when its use was reported by the journal American Speech.

Usage expert Bryan Garner partially blames the mistaken rendering on the popular song “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” first recorded by the heavy metal band Judas Priest in 1982.

And if you think I know anything about heavy metal bands, you have another think coming.



Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Copyright 2013 Creators Syndicate Inc.

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