Today in History (February 1st):
1790: The U.S. Supreme Court convened in New York City for its first session.
1861: Texas seceded from the United States.
1865: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery.
1878: Birthdays: Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, first woman elected to the Senate.
1893: Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio (West Orange, New Jersey).
1894: Birthdays: Film director John Ford.
1895: Birthdays: National Hockey League executive Conn Smythe.
1896: Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Boheme premiered in Turin, Italy.
1901: Birthdays: Actor Clark Gable.
1902: Birthdays: Poet Langston Hughes.
1904: Birthdays: Humorist S.J. Perelman.
1906: Birthdays: Cabaret singer Hildegarde Loretta Sell.
1908: Birthdays: Film and special effects director George Pal.
1928: Birthdays: Actor Stuart Whitman.
1931: Birthdays: Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
1937: Birthdays: Singer Don Everly; Rock singer Ray Dr. Hook Sawyer; Comedian Garrett Morris.
1938: Birthdays: Actor Sherman Hemsley.
1942: Birthdays: Actor/director Terry Jones (Monty Python’s Flying Circus).
1946: Norwegian Trygve Lie of Norway was selected to be the first U.N. secretary-general.
1947: Birthdays: Journalist Jessica Savitch.
1948: Birthdays: Singer Rick James.
1954: Birthdays: Actor Billy Mumy.
1965: Birthdays: Princess Stephanie of Monaco; Actor Sherilyn Fenn.
1968: The communist Viet Cong began a major offensive of the Vietnam War with a fierce attack on the South Vietnamese city of Hue. Birthdays: Singer Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley.
1971: Birthdays: Actor Michael C. Hall.
1979: Ayatollah Khomeini, symbol of the Iranian revolution, returned to his homeland.
1991: South African President F.W. De Klerk announced that he would seek repeal of key laws on which the apartheid system was based. At least 1,200 people were killed in an earthquake that struck Afghanistan and Pakistan. 34 people were killed and 24 more injured when a USAir jet hit a SkyWest plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
2001: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said he and his wife would return $86,000 in gifts they received in 2000 but would keep $104,000 worth of others they received prior to 2000.
2003: The space shuttle Columbia broke apart during its descent over the southwestern United States. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.
2004: Suicide bombings targeting the two main Kurdish party headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil killed 100 people and injured many others. 251 people were trampled during the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. During the Super Bowl halftime show, Justin Timberlake tore off part of Janet Jackson’s costume, exposing her right breast and touching off strong criticism, a Federal Communications Commission investigation and a hefty fine for CBS. Timberlake apologized, blaming it on a wardrobe malfunction.
2006: Ben Bernanke became the U.S. Federal Reserve chief, replacing Alan Greenspan, who held the position for 18 years.
2008: An estimated 100 people were killed and another 123 injured in suicide bombings by two women at a Baghdad pet market.
2009: Iceland swore in its first female prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir.
2010: U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011 with a projected $1.6 trillion deficit. A female suicide bomber detonated explosives in a Shiite pilgrim procession in Baghdad, killing 41 people and wounding more than 100 others.
2011: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, with hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding his departure after a reign of nearly 30 years, announced he won’t seek re-election but would serve until the September national election.
2012: U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan would end as early as mid 2013 with the 90,000 troops on the scene withdrawn by late 2014. At least 73 people were killed and 200 hurt in a fight between fans and players at a soccer match in Port Said, Egypt, the deadliest soccer violence there since 1996. The riot and police response led to violence and deaths at Cairo, Said and Suez.
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“One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life.” – Sophia Loren, actress (b. 1934)
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) American poet:
“Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.”
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”
“Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it.”
“I swear to the Lord, I still can’t see,
Why Democracy means, Everybody but me.”
“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”
“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.”
“When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.”
scrooge
PRONUNCIATION: (skrooj)
http://wordsmith.org/words/scrooge.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A miser.
ETYMOLOGY: After Ebenezer Scrooge, the mean-spirited, miserly protagonist in CharlesDickens’s novel A Christmas Carol. Earliest documented use: 1940.
USAGE: “John Hymers was not entirely a Scrooge. There were times when he secretlyhelped poor people and he built a village library.” – Sisters Campaigned for a Mixed School at Hymers; Hull Daily Mail (UK);Jan 23, 2012.
Explore “scrooge” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=scrooge
My ‘Complements’ to the Chef
Linguistic misunderstandings can cost you a lot of money. Just ask the Connecticut man who misinterpreted this notice in The New York Times: “Complementary Dinner — A five-course wine-pairing menu will be served March 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Saul, 140 Smith Street (Dean Street), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.”
“Since the dinner was complementary,” he writes, “I invited my girlfriend and another couple to join me. The dinner — appetizer, entree, dessert — was superb, and the selection of wines was amazing.
“At the end of the dinner, I praised the wine steward, the chef and the waiter. Then the bill appeared. I said I thought I did not have to pay since the dinner was ‘complementary.’ The restaurant manager explained the difference between ‘complementary’ and ‘complimentary.’
“He had me there, and I was embarrassed over the fact that I had confused the two words, which certainly have very different meanings. It was a very expensive dinner, and the wine particularly so — not at all complimentary.”
This story prompts me to consider other usage distinctions that could make a dramatic difference. Would you react to each of the following situations with glee — or would you flee?
1. You’re on trial for murder, and you’re told the person presiding over your case is a “disinterested judge.” Glee or flee?
2. You’re inexperienced and uneducated, but you’re applying for a job with many perquisites? Glee or flee?
3. You’re on a dating web site looking for someone who’s a nonconformist. A possible match writes, “I love to flaunt convention!” Glee or flee?
4. Your boss asks you to build an aquarium teaming with fish. Glee or flee?
5. You’re a maker of fishing implements, and your boss tells you that you’ve made “a great gaff.” Glee or flee?
Answers:
1. Glee. “Disinterested” means “unprejudiced, objective.” “Uninterested” means “not interested.”
2. Glee. “Perquisites” means “benefits, extras.” “Prerequisites” means “requirements, qualifications.”
3. Flee. “Flaunt” means to “show off, ostentatiously display.” “Flout” means “to defy, scorn.”
4. Flee. “Teaming with fish” means working with a team of fish to build it. “Teeming” with fish means “full of fish.”
5. Glee. A gaff is a pole or hook used in fishing. A gaffe is a blatant mistake.
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
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