Today in History (March 29th):
Good Friday
1790: Birthdays: John Tyler, 10th president of the United States.
1812: The first wedding was performed in the White House. Lucy Payne Washington, sister-in-law of U.S. President James Madison, married Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dodd.
1867: Birthdays: Baseball pitching legend Cy Young.
1871: The Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria.
1886: Coca-Cola was created by Dr. John Pemberton who produced it in his Atlanta backyard.
1916: Birthdays: Eugene McCarthy, the Minnesota Democrat whose 1968 presidential campaign focused U.S. opposition to the Vietnam War.
1918: Birthdays: Actor/singer Pearl Bailey; Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.
1927: Birthdays: Political commentator John McLaughlin.
1943: Birthdays: Former British Prime Minister John Major; Actor Eric Idle; Greek composer Vangelis.
1945: Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Fame member Walt Frazier.
1951: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for passing atomic weapons information to the Soviet Union, were sentenced to death. They were executed in 1953.
1954: Birthdays: Karen Ann Quinlan, the focus of arguments over the right to die when she fell into an irreversible coma.
1955: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Earl Campbell; Actor Brendan Gleeson.
1956: Birthdays: Gymnast Kurt Thomas.
1957: Birthdays: Actor Christopher Lambert.
1961: Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified. The amendment gave District of Columbia residents the right to vote in presidential elections. Birthdays: Actor Amy Sedaris.
1963: Birthdays: Model Elle Macpherson.
1968: Birthdays: Actor Lucy Lawless.
1971: U.S. Army Lt. William Calley was found guilty in the killing of 22 civilians in Vietnam, an event known as the My Lai massacre. Cult leader Charles Manson and three followers were sentenced to death in the Tate-Labianca slayings in Los Angeles. The death sentence was later ruled unconstitutional and the four were re-sentenced to life in prison.
1973: The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam and the last U.S. prisoners of war acknowledged by the North Vietnamese government were freed.
1976: Birthdays: Tennis star Jennifer Capriati.
1979: The House Select Committee on Assassinations released its final report on the assassinations of U.S. President John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
1991: Six-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti quit, paving the way for the country’s 50th government since World War II.
1994: Bosnian Serbs stepped up their bombardment of Gorazde, 35 miles southeast of Sarajevo and one of the U.N.-designated safe areas.
1996: The U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee said Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., violated House rules by having close dealings with a wealthy GOP donor with business interests affected by congressional action. It was the third time in two months the panel said Gingrich had broken rules.
1999: The Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 10,000 for the first time.
2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined NATO.
2005: An independent panel investigating the U.N. Iraq Oil-for-Food Program cleared U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of any wrongdoing but faulted his son and top aides.
2006: Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party narrowly won the national election, taking 28 seats, forcing it into a coalition situation.
2007: Sectarian violence flared in Iraq as 60 people were reported killed in a Baghdad Shiite neighborhood and more than 30 others died in coordinated attacks in the Shiite town of Khlais. Earlier, about 140 were reported dead in Tal Afar violence.
2008: Puerto Rican Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila pleaded innocent to corruption charges linked to alleged illegal campaign fundraising.
2009: Rick Wagoner, chief executive of troubled General Motors during a period of rapid decline, resigned at the request of the Obama administration. Two deadly episodes emerged during an unusual cross-country outburst of multiple homicides. Eight people died in a shooting rampage at a Carthage, N.C., nursing home and six others were killed in a reported family affair at Santa Clara., Calif.
2010: Two female suicide bombers killed 39 people in twin attacks on the Moscow subway system.
2011: Minuscule levels of radiation from Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant were detected in at least 15 U.S. states but the Environmental Protection Agency said they posed no threat to public health. Gunmen dressed as police officers stormed a provincial council office in Tikrit in northern Iraq, home town of the late dictator Saddam Hussein, in an attack that left a reported 53 people dead and more than 90 wounded.
2012: At least 13 people died in a fire at a prison in northern Honduras, the nation’s second fatal prison fire in a month. The earlier fire, one of the century’s worst, took more than 350 lives.
Quotes
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)
“It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it’s not, it’s a visa, and it runs out fast.” – Julie Burchill, writer and journalist (b. 1959)
“Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents.” – Peter Mere Latham, physician and educator (1789-1875)
“We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.” – Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
John Tyler (1790-1862) American president:
“Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette – the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.”
“Patronage is the sword and cannon by which war may be made on the liberty of the human race.”
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“If the tide of defamation and abuse shall turn, and my administration come to be praised, future Vice-Presidents who may succeed to the Presidency may feel some slight encouragement to pursue an independent course.”
“Let it, then, be henceforth proclaimed to the world, that man’s conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God.”
“In 1840 I was called from my farm to undertake the administration of public affairs and I foresaw that I was called to a bed of thorns. I now leave that bed which has afforded me little rest, and eagerly seek repose in the quiet enjoyments of rural life. (Explaining why he would not run for reelection.)”
“Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.”
pugnacious
PRONUNCIATION: (puhg-NAY-shuhs)
http://wordsmith.org/words/pugnacious.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Having a quarrelsome nature; belligerent.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pugnare (to fight), from pugnus (fist). Ultimately from the Indo-European root peuk- (to prick) which is also the source of point, puncture, pungent, punctual, poignant, pounce, poniard, and impugn. Earliest documented use: 1642.
USAGE: “Whitacre has earned a reputation for being pugnacious, stubborn, and willing to fight to the end.” – James S. Granelli; AT&T Chief Stays Focused; Los Angeles Times; Mar 7, 2006.
Explore “pugnacious” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=pugnacious
machinate
PRONUNCIATION: (MAK-uh-nayt, MASH-)
http://wordsmith.org/words/machinate.mp3
MEANING: (verb tr., intr.), To plot or scheme.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin machinari (to contrive), from machina (device). Ultimately from the Indo-European root magh- (to be able, have power), which is also the source of might, may, dismay, and magic. Earliest documented use: 1537.
USAGE: “Most storylines in The Bold and the Beautiful revolve around characters who manipulate and machinate for love and money.” – Christina Hoag; Skid Row Featured in Soap Opera; AP (New York); Jun 12, 2011
Explore “machinate” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=machinate
realpolitik
PRONUNCIATION: (ray-AHL-paw-li-teek, ree-)
http://wordsmith.org/words/realpolitik.mp3
MEANING: (noun), Politics guided by practical considerations, instead of principles or ethics.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Realpolitik, from real (real, practical) + politik (politics).
USAGE:
“Also gone is Sarkozy’s former mocking of realpolitik as a political cop-out of cynical diplomats without principles.” – Bruce Crumley; Why France is Selling Warships to Russia; Time (New York); Mar 3, 2010.
“Under the strongman Soeharto and Cold War realpolitik pragmatism, Indonesia received large scale US military support that leapfrogged its defense capability among its Southeast Asian neighbors, despite widespread criticism from international civil rights groups.” – Ristian Atriandi; Rethinking RI-US Military Ties; The Jakarta Post (Indonesia); Mar 17, 2010.
Explore “realpolitik” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=realpolitik
diaphanous
PRONUNCIATION: (dy-AF-uh-nuhs)
http://wordsmith.org/words/diaphanous.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Transparent, light, or delicate.
2. Vague or hazy.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin diaphanus (transparent), from Greek diaphanes, from diaphainein (to show through), from dia- (across) + phainein (to show). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bha- (to shine) that is also the source of beacon, banner, phantom, photo, phosphorus, phenomenon, fantasy, and epiphany.
USAGE: “In its main sale of the week, the house will offer five watercolors by Turner spanning his career, including the late picture ‘The Brunig Pass from Meiringen, Switzerland’, a whirlwind of diaphanous color and light.” – Above and Beyond; The New Yorker; Feb 2, 2009.
This Dictionary Packs Punch
Browsing through the newest edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15.95) makes me feel “as pleased as Punch” and “as happy as a clam.”
The former phrase, reports the Dictionary of Idioms, refers to the sinister satisfaction felt by the evil character Punch in “Punch and Judy” puppet shows after he has performed a wicked deed. The latter, which is a shortening of “happy as a clam at high tide,” refers to the fact that clams can be dug only at low tide and thus feel safe at high tide.
I also learned that “birthday suit” first referred, not to being naked, but to the suit of clothes people wore on the king’s birthday, equivalent to our “Sunday best.” Who nude … er, knew?
I also loved discovering the fascinating origins of the following phrases.
–Apple of one’s eye — You might assume this term for a special favorite derives from the appeal of a shiny apple. In fact, folks back in biblical times thought the pupil of the eye resembled an apple, so the “apple of one’s eye” was the center of a precious part of the body and, by extension, a cherished person or thing.
–On the wagon — In the late 19th century, horse-drawn water wagons sprinkled dirt roads to keep down the dust. So someone who had stopped drinking alcohol was said to be “on the water wagon,” that is, drinking water, not booze. During the 20th century, people dropped the word “water” from the phrase.
–Boot up — This term for starting up a computer is a clipping of “bootstrap up,” as in “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.” It originally referred to using one set of instructions, as if they were bootstraps, to load another set of instructions.
–Cut and dried — This phrase could probably have derived from many kinds of food items, but it originally referred to herbs that had been cut and dried for sale in a shop, as opposed to fresh, just-picked herbs.
But not all derivations are so cut and dried. For instance, the Dictionary of Idioms offers three possible origins for the “brass tacks” in the phrase “get down to brass tacks”: 1. The tacks that lie hidden under the upholstery on furniture; 2. Cockney rhyming slang for “hard facts”; 3. The brass tacks hammered into the counters at retail stores at regular intervals for the purpose of measuring items, as a yardstick does. To get down to brass tacks, nobody knows.
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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