Today in History (July 12th):
100 B.C.: Birthdays: Roman leader Julius Caesar.
1534: King Henry the VIII married his final wife, Catherine Parr.
1817: Birthdays: American writer Henry David Thoreau.
1854: Birthdays: Photography pioneer George Eastman.
1862: The U.S. Congress authorized a new award, the Medal of Honor, highest military award for valor against an enemy.
1864: Birthdays: Scientist George Washington Carver.
1884: Birthdays: Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani.
1895: Birthdays: Composer Oscar Hammerstein II; Author-architect R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome.
1904: Birthdays: Chilean writer Pablo Neruda.
1908: Birthdays: Comedian Milton Berle.
1909: Birthdays: Comedian Curly Joe DeRita.
1912: Birthdays: Bandleader Will Bradley.
1917: Birthdays: Painter Andrew Wyeth.
1933: A U.S. industrial code was established to fix a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour.
1934: Birthdays: Pianist Van Cliburn.
1937: Birthdays: Comedian/actor Bill Cosby.
1943: Birthdays: Musician Christine McVie.
1944: Birthdays: Actor Denise Nicholas.
1948: Birthdays: Exercise and diet guru Richard Simmons.
1951: Birthdays: Movie producer Brian Grazer; Actor Cheryl Ladd.
1956: Birthdays: Actor Mel Harris.
1959: Birthdays: Actor Rolonda Watts.
1962: The Rolling Stones gave their first public performance, at the Marquee Club in London.
1971: Birthdays: Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.
1984: Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., as his running mate. She was the first woman to share a major U.S. political party’s presidential ticket. They lost in November to incumbent Ronald Reagan.
1990: Boris Yeltsin quit the Soviet Communist Party, saying he wanted to concentrate on his duties as president of the Russian republic.
1994: PLO chief Yasser Arafat and his wife took up permanent residence in the Gaza Strip.
1995: At least 800 people died in the Midwest and Northeast as the result of a heat wave that lasted five days.
1996: As part of her divorce settlement with British Prince Charles, Princess Diana kept the princess title and received about $25 million in a lump sum, followed by an income of $600,000 a year.
2000: The United States and Vietnam reached a trade agreement that would allow unfettered commerce between the two nations for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War.
2005: AIDS activists said South Africa may have the world’s largest number of human immunodeficiency virus cases, with possibly more than 6 million of the nation’s 40 million people infected.
2010: Swiss authorities rejected a U.S. request to extradite Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, 76, to face charges he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
2011: Ahmed Wali Karzai, 48, a half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a powerful figure in Kandahar, was killed by a bodyguard at his home.
2012: Police officials in Washington said an officer who had worked as a motorcycle escort for White House officials was placed on administrative duty after allegedly making threatening comments to first lady Michelle Obama.
Quotes
“If you have to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.” – Anonymous
“I begin to see what marriage is for. It’s to keep people away from each other. Sometimes I think that two people who love each other can be saved from madness only by the things that come between them: children, duties, visits, bores, relations, the things that protect married people from each other.” – Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937)
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“Like cars in amusement parks, our direction is often determined through collisions.” – Yahia Lababidi, author (b. 1973)
“Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.” – James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)
dishabille or deshabille
PRONUNCIATION: (dis-uh-BEEL, -BEE)
http://wordsmith.org/words/dishabille.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. The state of being partly dressed.
2. A deliberately careless or casual manner.
ETYMOLOGY: From French déshabillé, past participle of déshabiller (to undress), fromdes- (apart) + habiller (to clothe). Earliest documented use: 1703.
USAGE: “Seconds after 7 am on Monday, trousers were dropping and skirts were lifting all along Wall Street. The mass dishabille was part of a site-specific work of performance art.” – Melena Ryzik; A Bare Market Lasts One Morning; The New York Times; Aug 1, 2011.
Explore “dishabille” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=dishabille
mephitic
PRONUNCIATION: (muh-FIT-ik)
http://wordsmith.org/words/mephitic.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Poisonous or foul-smelling.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin mephitis (foul smell).
USAGE: “Jack Black is a sterling example of the actor who starts out seeming like a breath of fresh air, and then turns into something stale, fetid, mephitic, nauseating.” – Joe Queenan; Do You Remember When Jack Black Was Funny?; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 9, 2009.
Explore “mephitic” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=mephitic
yardang
PRONUNCIATION: (YAHR-dahng)
http://wordsmith.org/words/yardang.mp3
MEANING: (noun), An elongated ridge formed by wind erosion, often resembling the keel of an upside down ship.
ETYMOLOGY: From Turkic yar (steep bank).
USAGE: “There are about 50 yardangs on Edwards [Air Force Base], with the largest about 15 feet high and 150 feet long. Base biologist Mark Hagan described them as looking like upside-down ship hulls.” – Jim Skeen; Unearthly Qualities Fossil Sand Dunes Provide Clues to Mars: Los Angeles Daily News; Dec 26, 2000.
In the Good ‘Ol Summer Tome
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” sighed Shakespeare. So, before the dog days arrive, make a date with one of these new books about language.
“You’re My Dawg: A Lexicon of Dog Terms for People” written by Donald Friedman and illustrated by J. C. Suaras (Welcome Books, $12.95) charmingly wags its “tales”: the “dog days” are named for the Dog Star (Sirius), which rises with the sun in midsummer; small sharks are called “dogfish” because they hunt in packs; a “hush puppy” was originally a cornmeal mix fed as scrap food to dogs to quiet them down.
If “fuss budgets” and “fuddy duddies” cause you “botheration,” you’ll love “Let’s Bring Back: The Lost Language Edition — A Collection of Forgotten, Yet Delightful, Words, Phrases, Insults, Idioms and Literary Flourishes from Eras Past” by Lesley Blume (Chronicle Press, $19.95). My favorites include “conflabberation” (hullabaloo), “glump” (to sulk), “devil’s teeth” (dice), “fizzing” (first-rate), rackabones (skinny person), “rammish” (stinky), “kicksy-wicksy” (restless) and “naughty pack” (children).
In “Yes, I Could Care Less: How To Be a Language Snob Without Being a Jerk” (St. Martin’s Griffin, $14.99), the devilish and delightful Bill Walsh treats controversial usages as if they were a kicksy-wicksy naughty pack.
Sometimes you rein in the kids (avoid “try and”); sometimes you set reasonable boundaries (use “I could care less” only in speech); and sometimes you let ’em run wild (feel free to use “since” to mean “because”). Explains Walsh, “I’m half churlish on my mother’s side.”
In “Good Prose: The Art of Non-fiction” (Random House, $26), two good pros — Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Kidder and veteran editor Richard Todd — impart sage advice like master carpenters describing a fine cabinet: “The good and honest memoir is a record of learning.” “[Describe] not the wart, but how the character covers it when he’s nervous.” “(Writing an Essay) is like taking a bite of an apple that is the world.”
Despite a title that’s a bit edgy for this family-friendly column, “Holy SH*T”: A Brief History of Swearing” by Melissa Mohr (Oxford, $24.95) provides a lively and intriguing review of profanity and obscenity from ancient Rome to “The Sopranos.” A serious work by a Stanford Ph.D., this book reminds us that swearing has always provided humans with a much-needed outlet for emphatic expression. Egads!
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 email to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff
Copyright 2013 Creators Syndicate Inc.