Today in History (November 23rd):
Black Friday (Day After Thanksgiving)
1644: John Milton’s treatise Areopagitica was published.
1749: Birthdays: Edward Rutledge, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
1804: Birthdays: Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States.
1859: Birthdays: U.S. outlaw Billy The Kid Bonney.
1883: Birthdays: Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco.
1887: Birthdays: Actor Boris Karloff.
1888: Birthdays: Comic actor Harpo (Adolph Arthur) Marx of the Marx Brothers.
1889: The first jukebox was placed in service in the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco.
1890: The independent Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was separated from the Netherlands.
1892: Birthdays: Romain de Tirtoff, the Russian fashion designer; Artist known as Erte.
1916: Birthdays: Actor Michael Gough.
1919: The first play-by-play football game broadcast by radio in the United States described Texas A&M’s 7-0 shutout of the University of Texas.
1925: Birthdays: Composer Johnny Mandel.
1934: Birthdays: Screenwriter Robert Towne.
1936: Life magazine made its debut.
1941: Birthdays: Actor Franco Nero.
1942: Birthdays: Actor Susan Anspach.
1943: The U.S. Marines took control of the Gilbert Islands from Japanese forces following a fierce 76-hour battle.
1945: World War II rationing ended in the United States on all foods except sugar.
1949: Birthdays: Radio personality Tom Joyner.
1954: China announced it had convicted 11 U.S. airmen and two civilians of espionage. Birthdays: Musician Bruce Hornsby.
1960: Birthdays: Television personality Robin Roberts.
1980: An earthquake in Naples, Italy, killed 4,800 people.
1992: The United States lowered its flag over the last U.S. base in the Philippines, ending nearly a century of military presence in its former colony. Birthdays: Actor/singer Miley Cyrus. Deaths: Country music legend Roy Acuff, who rode the Wabash Cannonball to fame and fortune, died of congestive heart failure at age 89.
1993: U.S. President Bill Clinton signed legislation repealing U.S. sanctions against South Africa.
1996: A hijacker forced an Ethiopian jetliner to fly until it ran out of fuel. The aircraft crashed into the sea, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.
2001: Israelis killed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abu Hudnud, head of the extremist group Hamas, in a helicopter attack in Jerusalem.
2002: The Bush administration eased anti-pollution regulations that required older coal-fired refineries to upgrade facilities with modern clean air equipment in an effort to spur expanded construction of power plants.
2003: An early morning dormitory fire at a Moscow university killed at least 18 students and injured 80 others.
2004: In the disputed Ukraine election, the day after opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared himself the winner election officials declared that the Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was the real winner.
2006: Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who defected to Britain, died in a London hospital, three weeks after his alleged poisoning. Friends and others blamed the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. The last of 23 coal miners killed in an underground gas explosion at Ruda Slaska, Poland, were removed by rescue workers.
2008: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama began nominating members of his Cabinet with attention first to economic matters, choosing Timothy Geithner to be treasury secretary. Obama also selected former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as the head of the White House Economic Council.
2009: In an escalation of Philippine election-related violence, about 100 gunmen killed 57 members of a group en route to register a gubernatorial candidate for the May provincial election on southern Mindanao Island. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who made headlines earlier with the report of an extramarital affair, was charged with 37 counts of using his office for personal financial gain by the state ethics commission.
2010: North Korea unexpectedly bombarded South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, killing two civilians and two marines and injuring 18 others, in an apparent effort to discourage the upcoming U.S.-South joint military exercises. Two days later, South Korea’s defense minister resigned and new defense measures went into effect.
2011: Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to step down in hopes of quelling protests that have rocked the nation for most of the year. The agreement called for the formation of a national unity government within 14 days and presidential elections within 90 days. Legislation making casino gambling legal in Massachusetts was signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick who favored the proposal for its job-creating potential.
2012: Deaths: Larry Hagman, Actor: The Edge of Night, I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas, born in 1931, died due to complications from his battle with cancer at the age of 81.
Quotes
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“You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.” – Joseph Conrad, novelist (1857-1924)
Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) 14th US president:
“A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties.”
“Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.”
“With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined.”
“The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution.”
shamus
PRONUNCIATION: (SHAH-muhs, SHAY-)
http://wordsmith.org/words/shamus.mp3
MEANING: noun:
1. A private detective.
2. A police officer.
ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps from Yiddish shames/shammes (sexton, a caretaker at a synagogue), from Hebrew shamash (servant). The spelling of the word has altered from the influence of the Celtic name Seamus (equivalent to James) as many police officers in the US at the time, especially in New York, were Irish. First recorded use: 1925.
USAGE: “A private eye is expected to be whip-smart and tough as nails, but if the guy isn’t likable, he’s D.O.A. as a genre hero. So it’s nice to note that Vlodek Elstrom, a shamus from a tumbledown town in northern Illinois has lost none of his initial appeal in its sequel.” – Marilyn Stasio; A Need for Noir; The New York Times; Jan 23, 2009.
Explore “shamus” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=shamus
mantissa
PRONUNCIATION: (man-TIS-uh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/mantissa.mp3
MEANING: noun:
1. An addition of little importance.
2. The decimal part of a logarithm or the positive fractional part of a number.
ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin mantisa/mantissa (makeweight, something put in a scale to complete a needed weight), from a now extinct language, Etruscan, once spoken in what is now Tuscany, Italy. Earliest documented use: 1641.
USAGE: “Are we supposed to think that most criticism of Mr. John Fowles is a mantissa?” – John Leonard; Books of the Times; The New York Times; Aug 31, 1982.
Explore “mantissa” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=mantissa
To ‘Behalf’ or Not To ‘Behalf’
Q: What is the plural of “behalf”? Is it still “behalf”? For example, “This is being done on the contestants’ behalf/behalves.” — Pat O’Brien via email
A: It’s still “behalf” no matter how many folks you’re helping or representing. An old meaning of “half” is “side.” Thus, the idioms “on behalf of” and “in behalf of” mean “on the side of.”
So, just as you wouldn’t say, “I’m speaking on the contestants’ sides,” you wouldn’t say, “I’m speaking on the contestants’ behalves.”
By the way, some purists insist that “on behalf of” means “as the agent of,” while “in behalf of” means “for the benefit of.” So a lawyer would speak “on behalf of” her client, while charities raise money “in behalf of hurricane victims.”
But, speaking on behalf of common sense, I say these two meanings are so intertwined that you can safely ignore this fussy distinction.
Q: I learned that “who” is used when talking about people. Yet the new Scrabble dictionary notes, “a singer is one that sings.” Have the rules changed? –Alma Lipson, Columbus, N.J.
A: No, you still get 50 points for using all your letters. Oh, you mean rules about “who” and “that”?
Some dictionaries say it’s OK to use “that” to describe a person. Ignore them. I say it’s dehumanizing to treat a person as an object by using “that.”
In fact, doing so can also cause ambiguity. For instance, in the sentence, “Our father said something to the boys that bothered us,” it’s not clear what or who did the bothering, the statement or the boys. Saying, “boys WHO bothered us” would clear that up.
Q: What is the difference between “sewage” and “sewerage”? –John Daigle, Vernon, Conn.
A: If you’re eating breakfast right now, you might want to finish this column later.
Technically, “sewage” is the material conveyed through sewers, while “sewerage” refers to either the process of removing sewage or to a system for removing sewage. So the designer of a mall would meet the need for sewerage (the removal of sewage) by building sewerage (a system for doing so).
Few people ever use “sewage” for “sewerage,” but some folks do use “sewerage” for “sewage.” These tend to be hyperbolic political candidates, e.g., “I can’t believe the sewerage coming out of my opponent’s mouth.” This probably explains why political discourse is going down the drain.