Today in History (January 11th):
1757: Birthdays: American statesman Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
1785: The Continental Congress convened in New York City.
1787: William Herschel discovered two moons of Uranus. They are named Titania and Oberon.
1807: Birthdays: Ezra Cornell, founder of Western Union Telegraph company and Cornell University.
1815: Birthdays: John MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada.
1842: Birthdays: Psychologist and philosopher William James.
1861: Alabama seceded from the United States.
1885: Birthdays: Feminist lawyer Alice Paul.
1903: Birthdays: South African novelist Alan Paton (Cry, the Beloved Country).
1908: The Grand Canyon National Monument was created.
1923: Birthdays: Automobile designer Carroll Shelby.
1930: Birthdays: Actor Rod Taylor.
1934: Birthdays: Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
1935: U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly from Hawaii to California.
1942: Birthdays: Musician Clarence Clemons.
1946: Birthdays: Singer Naomi Judd.
1949: Los Angles noted its first recorded snowfall.
1963: Birthdays: Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Tracy Caulkins.
1964: U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report saying smoking cigarettes is a definite health hazard.
1971: Birthdays: Singer Mary J. Blige.
1972: East Pakistan is renamed Bangladesh. Birthdays: Actor Amanda Peet.
1984: The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a $10 million award to the family of Oklahoma nuclear worker Karen Silkwood, who died in 1974.
1990: Martial law, imposed during the June 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, was lifted in Beijing.
1996: The Japanese Diet elected Ryutaro Hashimoto, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, as prime minister.
2001: A yearlong investigation by the U.S. Army concluded that U.S. soldiers killed unarmed South Korean civilians in July 1950 during the Korean War.
2002: Ford announced it planned to lay off 35,000 employees, drop four car models and close four plants.
2003: A few days before leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 171 inmates to life in prison.
2005: NASA scientists studying the tsunami-inducing Indonesia earthquake of Dec. 26 calculated it slightly changed Earth’s shape and shifted the poles about 1 inch.
2006: India reported as many as 172 deaths blamed on a cold wave.
2007: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to a 60-day cease-fire in the war-torn Darfur region but opposed a U.N. presence in the African country.
2009: Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement with the European Union that led to resumption of natural gas deliveries, cut off in a back payment dispute.
2010: 78 percent of U.S. air travelers say they support using full body airport scanners, a Gallup poll indicated.
2011: A downpour of 10 inches of rain in Brazil in a 24-hour period triggered floods and mudslides that killed more than 900 people and left an estimated 25,000 others homeless. Severe weather ranging from flooding to snow and ice hit many other areas hard, including much of the United States and Australia’s Brisbane area.
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Quotes
“My wife took pictures of me naked and sent them to Playgirl. They passed on them, but I AM going to be in Field & Stream.” – Adam Sandler
“Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.” – Johnny Carson
“There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.” – William James
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) American statesman:
“A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.”
“A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.”
“Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.”
“Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.”
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
“In the general course of human nature, A power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”
“It is the advertiser who provides the paper for the subscriber. It is not to be disputed, that the publisher of a newspaper in this country, without a very exhaustive advertising support, would receive less reward for his labor than the humblest mechanic.”
“Learn to think continentally.”
“Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.”
A ‘Hue’ of a Different Color
Does an outrageous action trigger a “hue and cry” or a “hew and cry”? Whenever I start to write that phrase, I’m unsure.
So I try to remember that both “outcry” and “hue” include a “u”; so it’s “hue and cry.” (“Hue,” in fact, which now means “color,” also once meant “outcry.”)
“Hew” and “hue” are homophones (words that sound alike). “Hew,” of course, means “to cut, shape” or “to conform, adhere.”
See whether you can select the correct word in this quiz on other homophonic pairs. In the answer section, I’ve included mnemonics that help me remember the correct choices.
Horace (pored, poured) over his American history book, a mother (load, lode) of fascinating information. The length of the book didn’t (phase, faze) him, though he was bothered by its (grisly, grizzly) accounts of trench warfare.
The chapter on the pre-Revolutionary period struck a (cord, chord) with Horace, so he (homed in, honed in) on every detail of that era. He enjoyed reading about the American patriots who (flaunted, flouted) the laws designed to (rein in, reign in) the colonists.
Answers and Mnemonics:
1. pored — He examined every tiny “pore” (detail) of the book. “Pour” (to disperse liquid) has an “ou” like “outflow.”
2. lode — “Lode,” meaning “a vein of ore” or, by extension, “a rich source or supply,” shares an “e” with “ore” and “mine.”
3. faze — “Faze,” meaning “to disrupt the composure of, disconcert” is similar in meaning to another “z” word with a similar meaning – “amaze.”
4. grisly — “Grisly,” meaning “horrible, gruesome,” shares an “s” with “gristle,” the unattractive cartilage or tough fiber in meat.
5. chord — A “chord,” meaning “a harmonious combination of musical notes” and, by extension, “a sympathetic feeling,” is played with an “h” word — “hand.”
6. homed — “Home” means “to move toward,” the way a homing pigeon returns home to its cage. “Hone” means “to sharpen,” which has an “n,” like “hone.” (These verbs are especially tricky because they share the connotation of “focusing in on” or “making progress.”)
7. flouted — A person who “flouts” something, that is, defies it, shows contempt for it, wants to throw it “out.”
8. rein — “Rein in” refers to pulling back on the “reins” of a horse to control it. “Reign,” meaning “to rule,” has a “g,” like “king.”
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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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