Today in History (May 10th):
1497: Amerigo Vespucci left for his voyage to the New World.
1775: Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British.
1838: Birthdays: British statesman and scholar James Bryce; John Wilkes Booth (1838-65), American actor, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, born near Bel Air, Md. Son of Junius Brutus Booth and brother of Edwin Booth. He made his debut at the age of 17 in Baltimore, toured widely, and soon became a star, winning acclaim for his Shakespearean roles. Unlike the rest of his family, Booth was an ardent Confederate sympathizer. He had joined (1859) the Virginia militia company that assisted in the capture of John Brown, but he did not enter Confederate service in the Civil War. Instead, he continued with his theatrical career in the North. For some six months in 1864-65 Booth, an egomaniac, laid plans to abduct Lincoln and carry him to Richmond, a scheme that was frustrated when Lincoln failed to appear (March 20, 1865) at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Booth, having learned that Lincoln planned to attend Laura Keene’s performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington on that evening, plotted the assassination of the President, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Lewis Thornton Powell, who called himself Payne, guided by David E. Herold, seriously wounded Seward and three others at Seward’s house. George A. Atzerodt, assigned to Johnson, lost his nerve. The main act Booth naturally reserved for himself. His crime was committed shortly after 10 P.M., when he entered the presidential box unobserved, suddenly shot Lincoln, and vaulted to the stage (breaking his left leg in the process) shouting ‘Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged!’ He then went behind the scenes and down the back stairs to a waiting horse upon which he made his escape. Not until April 26, after a hysterical two-week search by the army and secret service forces, was he discovered, hiding in a barn on Garrett’s farm near Bowling Green, Caroline co., Va. The barn was set afire and Booth was either shot by his pursuers or shot himself rather than surrender. Although it has been said that no dead body was ever more definitely identified, the myth, completely unsupported by evidence, that Booth escaped has persisted.
1850: Birthdays: Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton (1850-1931), Scottish merchant and yachting enthusiast. After spending several years in the United States he returned (1869) to his native Glasgow and opened a small grocery store. A pioneer in the art of publicity, he rapidly expanded his business and was a millionaire at the age of 30. He ran printing and paper works, set up several bacon-curing establishments in Chicago, and in 1889 acquired his own tea plantations in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He was knighted in 1898 and was created a baronet in 1902. He made five attempts to win the America’s Cup yachting trophy. His good sportsmanship endeared him to the American public, which gave him a gold cup after his last defeat in 1930.
1863: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died after being accidentally shot by his own troops.
1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops and spent the next two years in prison.
1869: The golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, joining the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific lines to form America’s first transcontinental railway.
1886: Birthdays: Swiss theologian Karl Barth.
1888: Birthdays: Max Steiner, Composer (Gone With The Wind and Casablanca)
1899: Birthdays: Fred Astaire (1899-1987), American dancer, actor, and singer, b. Omaha, Nebr., as Frederick Austerlitz. After 1911 he and his sister Adele (1896-1981), b. Adele Marie Austerlitz, formed a successful Broadway vaudeville team. After his sister retired (1931), Astaire became a film actor (1933). He became known as a debonair song-and-dance man, particularly in the films he made with Ginger Rogers, which elevated the tap dance to an elegant, disciplined art. He also danced in movies with Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, and Cyd Charisse, and on television with Barrie Chase. Among his most notable films are The Gay Divorcée (1934), Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), Easter Parade (1948), Funny Face (1956), and Silk Stockings (1957). A number of classical dancers, notably Nureyev and Baryshnikov, have acknowledged an artistic debt to him.
1902: Birthdays: David O. Selznick (1902-65), American film producer, b. Pittsburgh. He worked for studios in Hollywood before founding Selznick International Pictures in 1936. Selznick’s most famous movie is Gone with the Wind (1939). His other important films include A Star Is Born (1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Third Man (1949), and Tender Is the Night (1962). His second wife was the actress Jennifer Jones.
1908: Mother’s Day observed for the first time in the United States.
1909: Birthdays: Musician Maybelle Carter.
1916: Birthdays: Milton Babbitt (1916-2011) American composer, b. Philadelphia. Babbitt turned to music after studying mathematics. He studied composition with Roger Sessions at Princeton, and taught there from 1938 (emeritus from 1984). He was also on the faculty of Juilliard and several other music schools, and was associated with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (now the Columbia Univ. Computer Music Center). In his exceedingly complex works, Babbitt attempted to apply twelve-tone principles to all the elements of composition: dynamics, timbre, duration, registration, and rhythm, as well as melody and harmony. He called this “total serialization” (see serial music). Babbitt composed many works for chamber ensembles and instrumental and vocal soloists. His works include Three Compositions for Piano (1947), three string quartets (1942, 1954, 1969-70), Composition for Synthesizer (1961), Ensembles for Synthesizer (1964), Philomel (1964) for soprano, taped soprano, and synthesizer, A Solo Requiem for soprano and piano, and Dual (1980) for cello and piano. In 1982 he received a special Pulitzer citation for his body of work.
1919: Birthdays: Pediatrician/author T. Berry Brazelton.
1922: Birthdays: Actor Nancy Walker.
1924: J. Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the FBI, a position he held until his death in 1972.
1930: Birthdays: Football player and broadcaster Pat Summerall.
1933: Birthdays: British writer Barbara Taylor Bradford.
1936: Birthdays: Actor Gary Owens.
1940: Nazi Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, swinging 89 army divisions around France’s so-called impregnable Maginot Line. One month later, German forces entered Paris. Winston Churchill succeeded Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister.
1946: Birthdays: Musician Donovan Leitch; Musician Dave Mason.
1954: Rock Around the Clock was released by Bill Haley and His Comets. It was the first rock ‘n’ roll record to reach the top on the Billboard charts.
1955: Birthdays: John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman.
1957: Birthdays: Musician Sid Vicious.
1960: Birthdays: Bono (Paul Hewson), Singer/Songwriter/Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member. Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland. As lead singer for the Irish rock group U2, Bono has always been the most vocal and charismatic member of the group. He has made up for what he lacks in vocal prowess with a mesmerizing, and ever evolving, stage presence. Bono’s lyrics challenge typical rock-n-roll conventions. His songs cover politics, religion, and social issues and tend to shun tales of love and loss. Despite an arduous recording and touring schedule, Bono has dedicated a large part of his life to humanitarian efforts. He is devoted to canceling the debt of impoverished third world nations, wiping out poverty, particularly in Africa, and expanding access to antiretroviral drugs that help control HIV. In 2005, Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates were named TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year.
1963: Birthdays: Former astronaut Lisa Nowak.
1965: Birthdays: Supermodel Linda Evangelista.
1973: A federal grand jury investigating the Watergate scandal indicted former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans on perjury charges.
1975: Birthdays: Race car driver Helio Castroneves.
1978: Birthdays: Actor Kenan Thompson.
1984: A federal judge in Utah found the U.S. government negligent in above-ground Nevada nuclear tests from 1951 to 1962 that exposed downwind residents to radiation.
1994: Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president. John Wayne Gacy, the convicted killer of 33 young men and boys, was executed in Illinois.
1995: Terry Nichols was charged in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh earlier had been charged in the case. The World Health Organization said a mysterious disease in Zaire was caused by the Ebola virus. By the time the outbreak was declared over in late August, 244 of the 315 known victims had died.
2000: Pentagon officials said an investigation had concluded that the U.S. Army’s highest-ranking woman had been the victim of sexual harassment from another Army general.
2002: Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who had spied for the Soviet Union and Russia for more than 20 years, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
2003: A record outburst of tornadoes in the Midwest and South over several days claimed 48 lives, injured hundreds of people and leveled hundreds of buildings. The total of 400 twisters was twice the previous U.S. weekly record.
2004: U.S. Army forces leveled the Baghdad headquarters of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and killed 35 people.
2007: British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced he would leave step down in June after 10 years in office.
2009: Sri Lanka military officials denied reports that government troops killed more than 2,000 civilians in a clash with Tamil Tiger militants.
2010: U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court to succeed the retiring Justice Paul Stevens. Benigno Aquino III, son of a former president, defeated ex-chief of state Joseph Estrada ion an election and won the Philippine presidency.
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2012: Two car bombs exploded outside an intelligence compound in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people and injuring nearly 400.
2013: An explosion at a coal mine in China’s south-west Guizhou province kills 12 miners and injures two others, state media report. Researchers build and test the first prototype of a “thermal invisibility cloak”, which can hide objects from heat flow.
Quotes
“Adversity is the first path to truth.” – George Gordon Byron (Don Juan)
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.” – Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)
“In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.” – Lee Iacocca, automobile executive (b. 1924)
subitize
PRONUNCIATION: (SOO-bi-tyz)
http://wordsmith.org/words/subitize.mp3
MEANING: (verb tr., intr.), To perceive, without counting, the number of objects in a small group.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin subitus (sudden), from past participle of subire (to appear suddenly), from sub- (under) + ire (to go). Earliest documented use: 1949.
NOTES: When you throw a die, you don’t count the number of pips to determine the value of the throw. You subitize. Now here’s a word you want to use when you take part in one of those “How many marbles are in the jar?” contests, though subitizing works only for a small group of items. Estimates of the upper limit of humans’ subitizing capability range from four to seven. Subitizing also depends on the arrangement of the objects.
USAGE:
“Brian Butterworth’s explanation focuses on our uncanny ability to subitise. Up to four or five objects, most people can tell how many there are just by looking, without counting each one. But if there are more objects, we have to count.” – Emily Sohn; Number of the Beasts; New Scientist (London, UK); Jan 24, 2004.
“Getting the computer model to subitize the way humans and animals did was possible, Stanislas Dehaene found, only if he built in ‘number neurons’.” – Jim Holt; Numbers Guy; New Yorker; Mar 3, 2008.
unavailing
PRONUNCIATION: (uhn-uh-VAY-ling)
http://wordsmith.org/words/unavailing.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Futile.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin a- (intensive prefix) + valere (to be of worth). Earliest documented use: 1672.
USAGE: “President Obama made Palestine/Israel issue one of his foremost priorities when he assumed office, but all international efforts have been unavailing.” – Salman Haidar; Special Article; The Statesman (New Delhi, India); Oct 1, 2011.
Explore “unavailing” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=unavailing
Blasted by a ‘Trope’-ical Storm
Q: I’ve been hearing a word more and more frequently, mostly during movie or book reviews on NPR — “trope.” My dictionary defines “trope” as the figurative use of a word or expression, a figure of speech. But the meaning the speakers give it is almost akin to “genre” or “category” — a grouping of certain things that are alike. Can you shed any light on this? –Curt Guenther, Memphis
A: You might say this expansion of the meaning of “trope” is a tropism. That is, just as plants have a natural inclination to grow toward light, literary terms have an inherent tendency to stretch their definitions.
Indeed the traditional meaning of “trope” is “a figure of speech, especially a word or phrase used metaphorically.”
But another related definition has developed over the past few years: “a common theme, motif or device, a cliche,” as in “The film furnished all the horror-movie tropes,” or “The play used comedic tropes such as second takes and delayed reactions.” This is the usage you’ve been hearing on NPR.
Some dictionaries and usage guides have picked up on this new meaning. “Garner’s Modern American Usage,” for instance, quotes this 2008 passage from Newsweek: “(Peter) Sollett is able to take familiar teen tropes and transform them into low-key magic.”
As you suggest, “trope” has become trendy. It joins “oxymoron” and “irony,” terms, which originally had narrow literary definitions but have assumed more general meanings. Speakers and writers often use (and misuse) such highfalutin terms in order to sound more highbrow and sophisticated.
“Oxymoron,” which technically means a combination of contradictory words (“sweet sorrow”), is now being used more generally to mean any impossibility, e.g., “An NPR broadcast without any pretentious words is an oxymoron.”
Similarly, people sometimes use “irony,” which technically means “an incongruity between what is expected or desired and what actually occurs,” to refer to a situation that’s simply coincidental or improbable.
Let’s say Harry’s house in Kansas is hit by a tornado. A few years later he moves to Connecticut to take a new job, and his house there is hit by a tornado. That’s coincidence.
But if Harry moves from Kansas to Connecticut specifically to escape tornadoes and then his house in Connecticut is hit by a tornado, that’s irony.
And if this keeps happening to Harry, that’s a trope — and a shame.
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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