tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10548889272185360272024-03-13T00:05:45.656-07:00Confessions of ignoranceCorrecting my limitless lack of knowledge, one post at a time.seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.comBlogger579125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-75856038174922975942023-04-13T10:57:00.000-07:002023-04-13T10:57:00.533-07:00slogan<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> When I started this post, I wasn't thinking of a word for "a short and striking phrase used in advertising." I was thinking of those words or sometimes phrases that suddenly burst on the scene and which everyone else seems to already understand and I always start off hopelessly behind on. Words like "snowflake" and "woke" and "cancel culture" and "Karen", to name just a few from the current batch. Or probably the not so current batch, since </span> <i>I </i>know of them.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">But having started out thinking these were "slogans," I thought I would pursue the term anyway, and an agreeable journey it has proven to be. Since I visited Scotland recently and delved a bit into my Scottish roots I was pleased to learn that the word derives from Gaelic originally. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The original term <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;">sluagh-ghairm, </span><span style="color: #555555;">meaning "battle cry" in both Irish and Scottish Highland clans,</span></span> is a combination of two Scottish Gaelic words, <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;">sluagh,</span><span style="color: #555555;"> which means "army", "host" or "slew", and</span><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;"> gairm, </span><span style="color: #555555;">a cry, which is related to the word</span><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;"> 'garrulous', according to the </span><span style="color: #555555;"><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/slogan" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a></span><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;">. </span><span style="color: #555555;">(At first I didn't understand this, because garrulous derives from Latin, but it turns out that they are linked even further back by the <a href="https://confessionofignorance.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-would-proto-indo-europeans-do.html" target="_blank">Proto-Indo-European</a> root <i>gar--"to call or cry".</i>)</span></span></span></p><p><span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKulp8ReMLZ4dz_yzgc0b5rhEp3_8M7DlEF4KXgc8NHCCfeo4aeOs9cUTsxfezvZBtqoljAcEuY-HdfLE7s0y7lR-vvSHv9iAthfsjx5Ot2mOMKQs5nI5gHVWKsstql8PhtuuS1iqLSFnlx8OhSYJ_lvsa-kkyih8EDaBY2W4TnAy_q9L-IgqkJSE/s910/photo-great-britian-united-kingdom-armies.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="910" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKulp8ReMLZ4dz_yzgc0b5rhEp3_8M7DlEF4KXgc8NHCCfeo4aeOs9cUTsxfezvZBtqoljAcEuY-HdfLE7s0y7lR-vvSHv9iAthfsjx5Ot2mOMKQs5nI5gHVWKsstql8PhtuuS1iqLSFnlx8OhSYJ_lvsa-kkyih8EDaBY2W4TnAy_q9L-IgqkJSE/w400-h239/photo-great-britian-united-kingdom-armies.jpg" title="An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="color: #202122; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Incident_in_the_Rebellion_of_1745" target="_blank">An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745</a>, David Morier</span></b></i></td></tr></tbody></table><span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">We may think of images from Braveheart or the like when we think of a Scottish battle cry, but I have stumbled upon a quote from Elias Canetti's <i>Crowds and Power (Masse und Macht) </i>which reminds me that our tour guide Graham often pointed out the mythological stories of Scotland as being on at least an equal footing with the geographical or historical ones:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">"The Celts of the Scottish Highlands have a special word for the host of the dead : sluagh, meaning 'spirit-multitude'. 'The spirits fly about in great clouds like starlings, up and down the face of the world, and come back to the scenes of their earthly transgressions. With their venomous unerring darts they kill cats and dogs, sheep and cattle. They fight battles in the air as men do on the earth. They may be heard and seen on clear, frosty nights, advancing and retreating, retreating and advancing against one another. After a battle their crimson blood may be seen staining rocks and stones.' The word gairm means shout or cry, and sluagh-ghairm was the battle-cry of the dead. This word later became 'slogan'. The expression we use for the battlecries of our modern crowds derives from the Highland hosts of the dead."</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGndCuh_wMJArpvI_K8HAlYj1HAeEYDgHrI68dA7iQy7fuAtf7tdraPjJiBy7Nuz886OtwiSCSyGwt9LQIDX1T5zNjXAhgcV_ETqRIDd7W7s9XmW85vrtHnnInFMQqrgDO4Py3fxs33lAGHzbhbidGewBP-FYwmlKZK5LUS0qIVPNGB2zbFtSgnc_S/s500/crowds%20and%20power.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="328" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGndCuh_wMJArpvI_K8HAlYj1HAeEYDgHrI68dA7iQy7fuAtf7tdraPjJiBy7Nuz886OtwiSCSyGwt9LQIDX1T5zNjXAhgcV_ETqRIDd7W7s9XmW85vrtHnnInFMQqrgDO4Py3fxs33lAGHzbhbidGewBP-FYwmlKZK5LUS0qIVPNGB2zbFtSgnc_S/w263-h400/crowds%20and%20power.jpg" width="263" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Which brings us back to our present day usage. <i>S</i></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>luagh-ghairm </i>entered into English as <i>slogorne </i>in the 1510s. Its metaphorical sense of </span><span style="color: #555555;">"distinctive word or phrase used by a political or other group" is attested from 1704, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, when it was spelled <i>slughon</i>. They mention a "fully folk-etymologized <i>slughorn" </i>as another variant spelling. (Folk-etymology is when people make mistakes about the origin of a word because it coincidentally sounds like another word that it bears no relation to.)</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: inherit;">Slogans were not just war cries, however. They are also used on Scottish family crests, as either the motto or a kind of secondary motto. They might be war cries, but they don't have to be. The Graham family motto, for instance, is "Ne oublie"--do not forget. This is not exactly a war cry--but it's hardly a peace cry either. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRcQfbuFFow0uCy88cpC_bi-g8y6R8DCAv5Dw4g0x3tSGEEqGHLI57Wr0FbFYfSDrWhTL-hg5zFcN1NH9UJ6eL0AqXoUS2j5UDxHfCjQBMwx5O179Vcm5oh9wF_awXUYeuDiUTZyEG-eMReBJNEMP3cTr5ydsXAtweaD7l0f7LaRbB7-ODmN8Glz6s/s253/ne%20oublie.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="199" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRcQfbuFFow0uCy88cpC_bi-g8y6R8DCAv5Dw4g0x3tSGEEqGHLI57Wr0FbFYfSDrWhTL-hg5zFcN1NH9UJ6eL0AqXoUS2j5UDxHfCjQBMwx5O179Vcm5oh9wF_awXUYeuDiUTZyEG-eMReBJNEMP3cTr5ydsXAtweaD7l0f7LaRbB7-ODmN8Glz6s/w252-h320/ne%20oublie.png" width="252" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: inherit;">It is this kind of family advertising that seems to be the transition point to our current understanding of "slogan," which means, according to Wikipedia, a motto or memorable phrase in a political, commercial, religious or other context, designed to persuade a targeted audience about something, whether a cause, a conviction or an object. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: inherit;">Which brings me right back around to the beginning. Because it turns out that those single word I mentioned <i>are </i>slogans. They're just in special subcategory called "catchwords."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555;">The Oxford English dictionary: <i>"</i></span></span><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">a briefly popular or fashionable word or phrase used to</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"> </span><span class="AraNOb" style="color: #202124;">encapsulate</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">a particular concept.</span></i></span></p><div class="vmod" style="background-color: white;"><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"“motivation” is a great catchword."</i></span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What I find all slogans have in common (and what drew me to this topic in the first place), whether catchwords or mottos, virtuous or villainous, is that they are designed to make you stop thinking critically and fall into line as a member of the "target audience." It doesn't hurt to eye a slogan with a certain amount of suspicion. What is it <i>not </i>letting you think?</span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the surprising origin of one of most famous advertising slogans ever, click <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/06/1127032721/nike-just-do-it-slogan-success-dan-wieden-kennedy-dies#:~:text=In%20an%20interview%20with%20Design,do%20you%20push%20through%20that%3F" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No, really. Just do it.</span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="ubHt5c"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIzqQ61rr0xjC5WCnzsWvGoVd8-sMTmqw3272gfrFfIDPSKFmxs-GpAs28KH9icohaT6hwyjbX_HI0N7O0I6mPwcji39Ac42R9k4nHJTCivzopTWGN08ym1KGvb_-_3Ox_3lgi6VWN761zDIHEjMihyA5ZvC_A4sWR0gKCmuOFfBtdthd1IiFXpVF/s1200/Dance_Of_The_Starlings_(201781509).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="1200" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIzqQ61rr0xjC5WCnzsWvGoVd8-sMTmqw3272gfrFfIDPSKFmxs-GpAs28KH9icohaT6hwyjbX_HI0N7O0I6mPwcji39Ac42R9k4nHJTCivzopTWGN08ym1KGvb_-_3Ox_3lgi6VWN761zDIHEjMihyA5ZvC_A4sWR0gKCmuOFfBtdthd1IiFXpVF/w640-h256/Dance_Of_The_Starlings_(201781509).jpeg" title="Connie Nielsen" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dance_Of_The_Starlings_%28201781509%29.jpeg" target="_blank">Connie Nielsen</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><p><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p>seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-31674565361656785862021-10-09T17:25:00.000-07:002021-10-09T17:25:22.381-07:00Infrastructure<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYhVM4SX09-kh5vDgFpuOClTv1ri-3osoajNgxT1c5_-xTuhvXc2vhv4E7bhIH2Yan7sNXNaCFLhfX7Uly86Ht_w1_BGuBQCKoFJ1LSHqIyYjrS6He4gTVGlQX-PwMgUrTXB07T6KyR2I/s2048/harald-arlander-DW3_QkRIdmo-unsplash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1078" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYhVM4SX09-kh5vDgFpuOClTv1ri-3osoajNgxT1c5_-xTuhvXc2vhv4E7bhIH2Yan7sNXNaCFLhfX7Uly86Ht_w1_BGuBQCKoFJ1LSHqIyYjrS6He4gTVGlQX-PwMgUrTXB07T6KyR2I/w210-h400/harald-arlander-DW3_QkRIdmo-unsplash.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://unsplash.com/@arlandscape" target="_blank">Photo by Howard Arlander</a></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/DW3_QkRIdmo?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink" target="_blank"> </a><p></p><p>So what is it, exactly? With Congress in tension over two bills on infrastructure, one being on the traditional kinds of infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, and Progressives in the House pushing for a more expansive bill that would include things like working to abate climate change and poverty, and expand things like Medicare and childcare, I'm curious about where the word came from and what it meant in the beginning. </p><p><br /></p><p>Surprisingly, to me anyway, the word actually comes to us from French. It was made of two Latin components, but was never actually used in ancient times. It was coined by the French in 1875 and was first used in English not long after, in 1887. <i>Infra</i> means "under or below" in Latin, and "structure" comes from the Latin <i>structura, </i>which the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/structure" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a> tells us meant, "a fitting together, adjustment; a building, mode of building". Fairly broad, in other words. The French, according to Merriam Webster's site, used it originally to mean what in English we already called "substructure," as in the foundation of a building, road or railroad bed. </p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCUFCuoK8HzuB3btBubyXjJkAFgWb7tBmoZQEp3VTSGnbTBfojrSUeM3giybah29fgoqFpkewxws2rAS1tTyO_0hTBtw4Uorx7MRyrZnW-fAfprh7UDyOFWv5BP0dgILndVhOY17tFBo/s2048/niilo-isotalo-0Cg6xAsPQ4A-unsplash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1829" data-original-width="2048" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCUFCuoK8HzuB3btBubyXjJkAFgWb7tBmoZQEp3VTSGnbTBfojrSUeM3giybah29fgoqFpkewxws2rAS1tTyO_0hTBtw4Uorx7MRyrZnW-fAfprh7UDyOFWv5BP0dgILndVhOY17tFBo/s320/niilo-isotalo-0Cg6xAsPQ4A-unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://unsplash.com/@niiloi" target="_blank">Photo by Niilo Isotalo</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>But the word took on new meaning and vitality after World War II, as NATO came into existence and started building airfields, railroads and military bases in response to the Cold War. The word migrated from French to English as these military groups worked together. An interesting <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infrastructure?utm_campaign=sd&utm_medium=serp&utm_source=jsonld" target="_blank">Merriam Webster</a> article on this word talks about how war can lead to a parallel invasion of new words as well, as happened during the 11th century Norman Conquest of Britain, which brought many Latinate words from French into the English vocabulary.</p><p>So the word "infrastructure" entered the English language with many military associations which were not part of the original French coinage. But as is the way with language, it began to be applied to other spheres. The Merriam Webster article says that "infrastructure" quickly had an added definition<span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;"> "the system of public works of a country, state or region."</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-size: 16px; font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;">Which is not so much a departure from military usage as a sidestep to a larger governmental one. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJa4kQtjxLfFVHvddkK435iDoQQJC5bxwz4ZWh-GPFv6M8-hyPTjWZfN2sihYOTgn_v1XUHrrVgyG6SdvjnHRxv_Vp85E9wkZgxHO3us9w_ry3cTFkr6tgmfyvnBExhcT-0V5V37lsves/s1256/Camille_Pissarro_-_Avenue_de_l%2527Opera_-_Mus%25C3%25A9e_des_Beaux-Arts_Reims.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="991" data-original-width="1256" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJa4kQtjxLfFVHvddkK435iDoQQJC5bxwz4ZWh-GPFv6M8-hyPTjWZfN2sihYOTgn_v1XUHrrVgyG6SdvjnHRxv_Vp85E9wkZgxHO3us9w_ry3cTFkr6tgmfyvnBExhcT-0V5V37lsves/s320/Camille_Pissarro_-_Avenue_de_l%2527Opera_-_Mus%25C3%25A9e_des_Beaux-Arts_Reims.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris#/media/File:Camille_Pissarro_-_Avenue_de_l'Opera_-_Mus%C3%A9e_des_Beaux-Arts_Reims.jpg" target="_blank"><i>Avenue de l'Opera</i> by Camille Pissarro</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />(Haussmann's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris" target="_blank">renovation of Paris </a>in the mid 1800s may not have been termed infrastructure by the French at the time, but it was definitely a public works project.)</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;">But "public works" is itself a vast and sometimes abstract concept, and now includes things that are not large physical building projects like bridge building and road making, but communication systems and electrical systems. And also the human beings who will be needed to organize and run all these things. Yes, you could say that there is a bit of mission creep going on with this word, but you could just as easily say that the definition of the word expanded as people came to understand the many facets of life to which it was applicable. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;">So it's no coincidence that the bigger bill that Biden and many of the House Democrats are pushing has come to include caregivers and teachers and healthcare. It turns out that it takes an awful lot to keep a human system running. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #3b3e41;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e41; font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; letter-spacing: 0.64px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjanVKSZVoxieYyepSQfFYgedkm5Oycxwd1iVmv6oojE1kpnJMZCJPeYoWbNUQHKAiIPBu6L0rSIWof1F389SFi4vVloiJeBCSs4SVbp00nptpS-dGZ5qICv5LzdLg0aiYKzN8yaGM0SlM/s2048/hush-naidoo-jade-photography-1RtsfUP_N8w-unsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjanVKSZVoxieYyepSQfFYgedkm5Oycxwd1iVmv6oojE1kpnJMZCJPeYoWbNUQHKAiIPBu6L0rSIWof1F389SFi4vVloiJeBCSs4SVbp00nptpS-dGZ5qICv5LzdLg0aiYKzN8yaGM0SlM/w266-h400/hush-naidoo-jade-photography-1RtsfUP_N8w-unsplash.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://unsplash.com/@hush52?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" target="_blank"> Hush Naidoo Jade Photography</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-71686300401039358602021-03-25T16:20:00.009-07:002021-03-25T16:24:49.392-07:00racketeering<p>We were hearing the word 'racketeering' coming up quite a bit, what with the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis adding an expert on the subject to her criminal investigation of former President Trump's phone calls asking Georgia's Secretary of State Raffensperger<span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;"> </span> to 'find him more votes.' Although this has faded from the headlines a bit in the wake of other events (for now), I did find myself wondering about the word, especially as it was surprising to hear it come up in a context other than mob crime. </p><p>It turns out that 'racketeer' is one of those unusual words that has quite a specific date of coinage that can actually be traced. The Employer's Association of Greater Chicago, which was formed in 1905 with the purpose of breaking up unions according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employers%27_Association_of_Greater_Chicago" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, came up with it in 1927 in a statement about organized crime in the Teamsters Union. (The Online Etymology Dictionary says the word was first published in 1928.) In an ironic twist, the president of the association, James Breen, was soon rumored to be linked to the rackets himself and had to resign, although he was never indicted. However, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employers%27_Association_of_Greater_Chicago#1920s_and_1930s" target="_blank">Wikipedia </a>also says that crime organizations blew up his house the next year to scare him into not talking, so I guess he didn't get off scot-free. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzj0o8HCcKwShnV44QB-DAhjsH2xAvSb8kV4bt4l3QFc71GwcSJLoXZ2fnqI7SPzch0_nauHtNcqkFY9FN-p-KM7i9IfoJQQtF92sixGfpBZftxf7nP_qS3nMqJsuAIediVPh99Fj3iIU/s315/Hedda_Hopper_and_Carole_Lombard_in_The_Racketeer.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="315" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzj0o8HCcKwShnV44QB-DAhjsH2xAvSb8kV4bt4l3QFc71GwcSJLoXZ2fnqI7SPzch0_nauHtNcqkFY9FN-p-KM7i9IfoJQQtF92sixGfpBZftxf7nP_qS3nMqJsuAIediVPh99Fj3iIU/w400-h296/Hedda_Hopper_and_Carole_Lombard_in_The_Racketeer.jpg" title=""The Racketeer" , Hedda Hopper, Carole Lombard" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Racketeer" 1929-Hedda Hopper , Carole Lombard</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p>I have looked at a few pages now to get a sense of what racketeering is, and the definition that I find most helpful is one that D.A.Willis gave herself, saying that racketeering is "doing overt acts using a legal entity for an illegal purpose." </p><p>In the same <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/georgia-prosecutor-giuliani-racketeering-election-fraud-baseless-2021-2" target="_blank">Business Insider </a>article, Notre Dame law professor G. Robert Blakey is quoted as saying that racketeering "is not a crime--it's a way of thinking about and prosecuting a variety of crimes."</p><p>The etymology of 'racket' in this sense is fairly unclear. Whether it's connected to the word's sense of "loud noise", or to games via the word 'raquet,' or to the word 'rack-rent', which meant extortionate rent back in the 1590s, seems to be anybody's guess. But I liked this idea which came up in on the English Language and Usage group on <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/205066/what-is-the-origin-of-a-racket-meaning-a-scam-or-swindle" target="_blank">Slack Exchange</a>:</p><blockquote style="background-color: #fcfaf3; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--black-600); font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0 1em var(--s-prose-spacing) 1em; padding: 0.8em 0.8em 0.8em 1em; position: relative; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">racket; racketeer.</strong> English pickpockets, once the best of the breed, invented the ploy of creating disturbances in the street to distract their victims while they emptied their pockets. This practice was so common that a law was passed in 1697 forbidding the throwing of firecrackers and other devices causing a racket on the city streets. From the common pickpocket ploy the old onomatopoeic English word <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">racket</em>, imitative like <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">crack</em> or <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bang</em> and meaning a disturbance or loud noise, took on its additional meaning of a scheme, a dodge, illicit criminal activity. Before 1810, when it first appeared in print, the word had acquired this slang meaning in England, though it was later forgotten and the word <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">racket</em> for a criminal activity wasn't used again there until it was reintroduced from America along with the American Prohibition invention from it, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">racketeer</em>. The only other, improbable, explanation given for the word is that it was originally the name of an ancient, crooked dice game.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><div><br /></div></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white;">That is from <span style="color: #242729; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"> </span><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242729; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Facts on File Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins</em><span style="color: #242729; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"> (1997) by Robert Hendrickson.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #242729; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;">Many of us have heard of the RICO Act, but we may not know or remember that that's an acronym for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was enacted in 1970. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #242729; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">So that guy, John Floyd, who Willis brought on board to look into the racketeering aspects of the investigation? Turns out he wrote the book on the subject. Literally.</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8jyqA-ZSReHWZgWf9NU9X2GSDDPZ4dBPYcGA3TKNMsawb0Pl1pNTwgmbi6iBfjpQ6pGyPeZjPReMf-o4xNGlpAVj7mRT0S1gmDhBkYkckUjA_cTwz2TRXcGoEYU_GpQh-yFwCsqk4Yw/s499/racketeering+book+by+john+floyd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8jyqA-ZSReHWZgWf9NU9X2GSDDPZ4dBPYcGA3TKNMsawb0Pl1pNTwgmbi6iBfjpQ6pGyPeZjPReMf-o4xNGlpAVj7mRT0S1gmDhBkYkckUjA_cTwz2TRXcGoEYU_GpQh-yFwCsqk4Yw/s320/racketeering+book+by+john+floyd.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><p></p>seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-35296931879960179302021-02-24T13:43:00.000-08:002021-02-24T13:43:45.618-08:00filibusterI imagine that, reading the subject line of this post, you're expecting some kind of discussion of the filibuster process, which we are all hearing so much about at the moment. And probably I should at least find a good definition of the filibuster as it is currently used. But in fact I was merely attracted by the word itself. It's really a rather jolly sounding word, but I couldn't even make a guess as to where it came from. It doesn't sound exactly Latinate, though if the original was something like "filibustrum'" or "filibustrate" that would make a bit of sense. When I delved into its etymology, though, I found something quite a bit more interesting. <div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">But first, a brief, basic definition of its current usage. According to the U.S. Senate itself (and they have a pretty cool glossary that anyone can look up at their <a href="https://www.senate.gov/reference/glossary_term/filibuster.htm" target="_blank">website</a>), "filibuster" is not a formal term. It simply means any attempt to block or delay a piece of legislation by debating it at length, or putting forth a lot of motions or obstructing its progress in any way one can think up. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_in_the_United_States_Senate#Accidental_creation_and_early_use_of_the_filibuster" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> tells how the filibuster became theoretically possible in 1806 when an earlier rule for ending debate had been abandoned, but it wasn't actually exploited until 1837. So it didn't start out as a deliberately thought out strategy, but as an accidental consequence of another Senate ruling. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8NLCq00c0OLfwZtvJbtzUyPc9wipMOFJIAFH8V55EdPHrn52sKvoYqCm-90HveKvtRJJ-cxCq83GUFBcBqPzdrZ4STNl-8rfD8qdt0vJepCusnEqVm7bF4TR7jAC2mB52aLrehyphenhyphenvqnU/s483/440px-HueyPLongGesture.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8NLCq00c0OLfwZtvJbtzUyPc9wipMOFJIAFH8V55EdPHrn52sKvoYqCm-90HveKvtRJJ-cxCq83GUFBcBqPzdrZ4STNl-8rfD8qdt0vJepCusnEqVm7bF4TR7jAC2mB52aLrehyphenhyphenvqnU/s320/440px-HueyPLongGesture.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Senator Huey Long, famous <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Huey_Long_Filibusters.htm" target="_blank">filibusterer</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Online Etymology Dictionary tells us that "filibuster" is derived from a word first written down in English in the 1580s. A <i>flibutor</i> was a pirate, particularly the kind of pirate that was raiding the Spanish colonies of the West Indies at the time. These weren't people from just one country--there were Dutch, English, French and maybe other nationalities preying on these islands. It's thought that the original word was the Dutch<span style="background-color: white;"> <span class="foreign notranslate" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-style: italic;">vrijbueter</span><span style="color: #555555;">, which became </span><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;">filibustero </span><span style="color: #555555;">in Spanish and </span><span style="color: #555555; font-style: italic;">fribustier </span><span style="color: #555555;">and later <i>flibustier </i>in French. It also came into the English language by another path as "freebooter," which is one of those weird connections that I love. </span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0MM_QNQ5rH93t9k2D3-MH2KV6xVhfHfQxq3ELT8TBlCI1tBk_jcGzeEp__Mv_X2xlD7qfwTNwcG8pTOhgvXgGV2Tg146IuBc60ctdtxVktJLo05GIMyH-uEmGw20Bns4PeeFtEG5-So/s688/440px-Pyle_pirate_handsome.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0MM_QNQ5rH93t9k2D3-MH2KV6xVhfHfQxq3ELT8TBlCI1tBk_jcGzeEp__Mv_X2xlD7qfwTNwcG8pTOhgvXgGV2Tg146IuBc60ctdtxVktJLo05GIMyH-uEmGw20Bns4PeeFtEG5-So/w256-h400/440px-Pyle_pirate_handsome.jpg" width="256" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Buccaneer of the Caribbean</i> by Howard Pyle</td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #555555; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The British adopted the term <i>flibutor </i>in 1684, but American English didn't really find a use for the term until later, when it was used to refer to lawless military adventurers from the U.S. aiming to overthrow Central American governments. The event in which William Walker, who tried to overthrow both Mexican Sonora and Nicaragua and briefly became president of the latter is actually called the Filibuster War (or, alternatively, the Walker Affair). </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #555555;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FEY0p2X__SVtAGiqNkt8q-hODlRTtoD399Un81JXC8QtWqSQS9QaSHeu-1LS9TQVKx6bAqv9CLi_xd9dFUjWU-avFUkoL3alVP7Xz_1XjRY2WQzov5fzCeMsUd9250zM6jw2TI-UbAM/s580/WilliamWalker.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="463" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FEY0p2X__SVtAGiqNkt8q-hODlRTtoD399Un81JXC8QtWqSQS9QaSHeu-1LS9TQVKx6bAqv9CLi_xd9dFUjWU-avFUkoL3alVP7Xz_1XjRY2WQzov5fzCeMsUd9250zM6jw2TI-UbAM/s320/WilliamWalker.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)" target="_blank">William Walker</a>, filibuster and brief president of Nicaragua</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I feel fine about swiping the following directly from the Online Etymology Dictionary, since they swiped it from Harper's before me:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">FILIBUSTERING is a term lately imported from the Spanish, yet destined, it would seem, to occupy an important place in our vocabulary. In its etymological import it is nearly synonymous with piracy. It is commonly employed, however, to denote an idea peculiar to the modern progress, and which may be defined as the right and practice of private war, or the claim of individuals to engage in foreign hostilities aside from, and even in opposition to the government with which they are in political membership. [Harper's New Monthly Magazine, January 1853]</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Interestingly, the term "filibuster" was </span>originally used to describe the person who was taking the action and only later became the name of the action itself. William Walker was described as a filibuster, for example. It came into the Senate that way too (1865). It was the person who was "pirating" the debate that was the filibuster, not the maneuver itself. That usage didn't come until 1893.</div><div><br /></div><div>And of course no post on the term could be complete without posting the most famous filibuster of all, even if that filibuster never really took place.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-color: #fffcf2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"></p></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s6UbYHCkoZs" width="560"></iframe>
</div>seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-76802030407843017722019-08-28T12:59:00.000-07:002019-08-28T12:59:54.673-07:00linden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My ears perk up a bit when a somewhat familiar word pops up in different contexts over the course of a few days. "Linden" came up in a crossword puzzle--not uncommon--and then I noticed it coming up several time in the book I'm currently reading, <i>The Overstory</i>, by Richard Powers. Not really a surprise there either, as its a book pretty much devoted to trees. But then it came up in a Swedish folk song at a concert I was at the other night and I finally became curious enough to learn exactly what a linden is.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidW4COTx3cz5vMHv2FbHCjENFxX2Nd1iXoTlQ92m_4s-ubISDN8XAaR2mb7itc46JfEABDMRuQaJ4Pd_zYlbtoZYedPH_l7f-dqCCaatiaybkskQR2CgtNWHLuNMZ7_wY0EC5iKOj7IG8/s1600/Tilia_tomentosa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1317" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidW4COTx3cz5vMHv2FbHCjENFxX2Nd1iXoTlQ92m_4s-ubISDN8XAaR2mb7itc46JfEABDMRuQaJ4Pd_zYlbtoZYedPH_l7f-dqCCaatiaybkskQR2CgtNWHLuNMZ7_wY0EC5iKOj7IG8/s400/Tilia_tomentosa.jpg" width="328" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia#/media/File:Tilia_tomentosa.jpg" target="_blank">Bruce Martin, Morton Arboretum, Chicago</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Let's start with a description from <i>The Overstory</i>:<br />
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<i>Now the linden, it turns out, is a radical tree, as different from an oak as a woman is from a man. It's the bee tree, the tree of peace, whose tonics and teas can cure every kind of tension and anxiety--a tree that cannot be mistaken for any other, for alone in all the catalog of a hundred thousand earthly species, its flowers and tiny hard fruit hang down from surfboard bracts whose sole perverse purpose seems to be to state its own singularity.</i><br />
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It's quite possible that you are living near a linden tree and don't even know it. This is partly because, as Powers expresses many times in his book, humans in general don't pay enough attention to the trees they live alongside of. I certainly don't, though maybe by the time I finish his long novel, I'll be a little better at it. But another reason is that 'linden' isn't the only name we know these trees under. In England, apparently, they are frequently referred to as lime trees, even though they aren't the trees that grow the citrus fruit we call limes. (Don't even get me started on what the name of the tree that grows limes is.) In America, they may also be called basswood. Or you might hear one described by the genus name, Tilia.<br />
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There are about thirty species in the Tilia family, but Wikipedia tells us that the leaves of all of them are heart shaped and tend to be irregular.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIBJ5JJKcfC7n-8t2vLL6cDuD9bp4gg4sXYI4vuAeQg3yaWeyxQHo25jQIhFFsx2csZjPx_Gpd_1Pbeeq8GSENsu-m0NOzqOqOG5eAHCeIcxjOJLRMekbY9acHu6t-MN7ZHE_HAZY0ato/s1600/linden+leaf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIBJ5JJKcfC7n-8t2vLL6cDuD9bp4gg4sXYI4vuAeQg3yaWeyxQHo25jQIhFFsx2csZjPx_Gpd_1Pbeeq8GSENsu-m0NOzqOqOG5eAHCeIcxjOJLRMekbY9acHu6t-MN7ZHE_HAZY0ato/s1600/linden+leaf.jpg" /></a></div>
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What really got me going in Powers' description though, were those 'surfboard bracts'. I couldn't quite visualize them. Turns out that the 'surfboard' is really another kind of leaf.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hUQovwOAlkpQRK_3muGXRNne4DHEW2uqLOuU-0BM4KoTxis73F_bySKFGmPtL-3iolCt29WQj3TRKdUses4d8Gbz7yMSxoj9J-YblHC5-VpElYqkoXhd-1Ogpz7RT31cIYwXu2AvaVc/s1600/tila+leaf+and+bract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hUQovwOAlkpQRK_3muGXRNne4DHEW2uqLOuU-0BM4KoTxis73F_bySKFGmPtL-3iolCt29WQj3TRKdUses4d8Gbz7yMSxoj9J-YblHC5-VpElYqkoXhd-1Ogpz7RT31cIYwXu2AvaVc/s320/tila+leaf+and+bract.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/evelynfitzgerald/3910571657" target="_blank">by Virens</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The linden tree turns out to be too big a subject for one blog post, so I'm going to take it up again in a subsequent one. But I thought I'd leave you for now with that Swedish folk song I heard-- '<i>Maj Vare Valkommen' </i>or 'May Be Welcome'.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="210" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U7wXcJiGH-o" width="373"></iframe></div>
The lyrics in English are <a href="https://lyricstranslate.com/en/maj-vare-v%C3%A4lkommen-may-be-welcome.html">HERE</a>, but you can actually hear them mention the linden tree in the first verse. Although one of the translations I found referred to it as a lime...
</div>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-22269524292105266122019-07-26T19:58:00.001-07:002019-07-26T19:58:38.998-07:00A Cautionary Tale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Given all the news about released funding for the Wall, I thought I'd put up a very short story I wrote a couple of months ago. Regular broadcasting to resume shortly.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">La Barrera<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mexico did end up paying for the
wall. Looking back, it was inevitable. After only twenty years, the wall that
the U.S. had finally managed to cobble together through a variety of
governmental and not so governmental schemes had already begun to fall apart.
Mexico had hoped to defray expenses by rehabilitating this structure, or at
least salvaging some of its parts, but most of the wall had been put together
with a truly inferior grade of concrete. The Mexican work force that demolished
it enjoyed filming each other punching through the wall with their bare fists
and laughing as they did it. Some cost cutting officials then looked into at
least using the supporting structures within, but water had gotten in at many
locations. The wood had rotted, the iron rusted. There was little they could do
but just haul it all away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">For a brief period, Mexico
considered returning to the whole open border concept again. There were people
who still felt some compassion for U.S. citizens, reasoning that you couldn’t
tar them all with the same brush. But there were a lot more who thought you
could. Should. Kids in cages, after all. No one was going to forget that, much
less forgive it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The new wall, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">la barrera</i>, the one Mexico had paid for, was gorgeous. Some parts
were marble, and many famous Mexican muralists had contributed art to the less
costly surfaces. It was popular for honeymooners to spend a few days traveling
along its southern face, posing for photos with the various artworks. As part
of the original design, viewing platforms (later enclosed in bulletproof
plastic) had been installed at certain scenic lookout points. Gazing off into
that once great country to the north—now known ironically as ‘Los Estados Who
Need Us’—could be exhilarating. But at first, so many people were afraid to
climb up to these ramparts, having heard such terrifying stories of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">los gringos </i>by now, that the government
launched a campaign to assure its citizens that it was quite safe to take a
look from these secure positions. Gradually, people grew less fearful. Some
even had the thrilling if petrifying experience of spotting wild bands of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">los gabachos</i> scavenging in the desert.
Everyone agreed that with a good camera you could catch some amazing shots of
these brutes, even from such a distance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">For a time after the wall went up,
U.S. citizens could sneak down across the border quite easily. Many of them
still had good clothes that spoke of former affluence and, with the help of
forged passports, could usually pass for Canadians. But as time went by, it
became easier to pick them out. Their clothes were no longer new or in fashion,
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">los ilegales</i> were thinner than
other people. Their teeth, too, got steadily worse. For a while, some Mexican
communities would turn a blind eye, because they had made a tidy profit on
giving these people medical care in the past. The Americans’ own doctors, at
least the more successful ones, had largely managed to flee to better climes,
even if people had been able to afford them. To Mexico, it became obvious that
the future now lay south of it, with younger and growing markets in newly
affluent </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="ES" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: ES;">Centroamérica</span></i><span lang="ES" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: ES;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">and even further south. Gradually,
Mexican doctors stopped accepting American patients altogether. It just wasn’t
worth the hassle or the risk of penalties and public censure if they were
caught.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">And in fact, they might have
forgotten about the U.S. entirely in time, turning their backs on it and
looking resolutely south, if it hadn’t been for Canada. The Canadians and
Mexicans had become good friends, bonding in the way people often do when they
share a disagreeable neighbor and have to work together to figure out what to
do about it. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Canadienses</i> had
eventually built their own border wall against the U.S. Even they admitted that
it was more serviceable than aesthetically pleasing, but then, they’d had a lot
more of it to build than Mexico had. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Canadians and Mexicans loved to
visit each other’s lands, but what to do about the big no-fly zone in between?
During the U.S. coup, insurrection and the following chaos, people had been
justifiably afraid to fly over that great intervening landmass. They’d had to
travel around it, which was time-consuming and irksome. Cruise lines had
attempted to seize the opportunity to connect the two democracies, but it came
as a nasty surprise how quickly the disbanded Coast Guard had turned to
piracy—marauding their own former coastlines, to be sure, but happy enough to
take a foreign tourist vessel as booty if one was foolish enough to cruise into
these now ungoverned waters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">After a time, braver souls in
single engine planes would risk a flyover. Occasionally there were shots fired
from below, but not powerful enough to hit a plane at any great altitude. And
soon enough, even the yahoos on the ground must have realized that they might
need to save their ammunition for something a little more practical, like food.
For by now the great agricultural holdings had withered away, due to lack of
migrant labor for the harvest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Cautiously, the major Mexican and
Canadian airlines began to fly over the country again. At first people were
genuinely curious, peering down and trying to see signs of its vaunted former
greatness—but often failing to see any evidence of human life at all. Although
now there was a wide variety of birds in vast flocks that the pilots had to be
careful to maneuver around. And everyone agreed that the buffaloes were making
a comeback. But after a time, even the children grew bored with peering out to
look when there was actually so little to observe, and people pulled down the
shades on the small plane windows, returning to their in-flight approved games
and films, or otherwise passed the time until they reached their more exciting
destinations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><i> --Seana Graham</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<i></i></div>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-70919829503557539542019-06-10T14:22:00.002-07:002019-06-10T22:10:14.378-07:00saltpeter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"Saltpeter" is a word I mainly run across in crossword puzzles and, occasionally, older novels. It's hard for me to think of it as anything but some special kind of salt, but I associate it also with military expeditions. Maybe an explosive. In the puzzle I was doing this morning, its meaning was revealed to be "niter." Not too useful, since I don't know what niter is either. It's high time I found the answer to this mystery.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIKH908q9rQTrfsDqf5pmROJDLNOqvbMFxYFPrHqHaQL3xe__WBVPPzfgtJ09Qar5zgcomMulv5kWPLzWiAQaJLC787c4nTahA4iyRLboGtvxHG4dVZoHjOV-jQRNhWkjxDrtso82qvnc/s1600/Potassium_nitrate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="513" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIKH908q9rQTrfsDqf5pmROJDLNOqvbMFxYFPrHqHaQL3xe__WBVPPzfgtJ09Qar5zgcomMulv5kWPLzWiAQaJLC787c4nTahA4iyRLboGtvxHG4dVZoHjOV-jQRNhWkjxDrtso82qvnc/s320/Potassium_nitrate.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate#/media/File:Potassium_nitrate.jpg" target="_blank">image by Walkerma</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
"Saltpeter" (sometimes spelled saltpetre) and "niter" are just other names for potassium nitrate (KNO<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11.2px;">3</span>.). According to the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/saltpeter" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary,</a> the word saltpeter goes back through French to the Latin <i>sal petrae,</i> "salt of the rock," apparently because it looks like salt when it is encrusted on stone.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqi54q-9mKwei39_GpJOcZZ8FE6V3G2p5PrzTNEpsWro3Mx3O8cxcqYSeZZhKnDgAkQ4p757bLyD9BNchGiJtJiE0HORuwLldbQJ85ALmONMQmNjz1te1BT5UcguTbQ_1Zkt14Rsc_-g/s1600/220px-Potassium_nitrate_structure.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="127" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqi54q-9mKwei39_GpJOcZZ8FE6V3G2p5PrzTNEpsWro3Mx3O8cxcqYSeZZhKnDgAkQ4p757bLyD9BNchGiJtJiE0HORuwLldbQJ85ALmONMQmNjz1te1BT5UcguTbQ_1Zkt14Rsc_-g/s1600/220px-Potassium_nitrate_structure.svg.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate#/media/File:Potassium_nitrate_structure.svg" target="_blank"> by Bobamnertiopsis</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I was surprised to learn how many different ways we use this substance. According to Wikipedia, it's used in fireworks and rocket propellant, but it's also used in processed meats, extending shelf life and giving the meat a pink color. It's used to remove tree stumps. I'm not quite sure why it speeds decay when poured into a stump, but prolongs shelf life when processing meat, but that's what they tell me.<br />
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<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG-YVwjrMJnpqT59kMLAaMHfO3irIvK5OlPZnzOE74tyn4848yopee2UaUugzLyCAJNDc12HgViikU0Bj4YbVxWOw2ObxMFwkUk-Neqb9tn0Wu1w9H5NS1gdRsbBrnzKQNkMtxHBNvS40/s1600/Turner_Army_Airfield_-_Mess_Hall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="800" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG-YVwjrMJnpqT59kMLAaMHfO3irIvK5OlPZnzOE74tyn4848yopee2UaUugzLyCAJNDc12HgViikU0Bj4YbVxWOw2ObxMFwkUk-Neqb9tn0Wu1w9H5NS1gdRsbBrnzKQNkMtxHBNvS40/s400/Turner_Army_Airfield_-_Mess_Hall.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turner_Army_Airfield_-_Mess_Hall.jpg" target="_blank">Turner Army Airfield Mess Hall, 1943</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As I looked up the word, I came across many articles questioning whether saltpeter was put into army grub in order to dampen sexual desire in the new recruits. There is a fascinating article in <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-saltpeter-principle/" target="_blank">Snopes</a> that debunks this myth, while at the same time explaining why it is unlikely to die. Apparently it is quite common for soldiers attending boot camp to experience a dampening effect on their sexual desires. Rather than attribute it to some of the more logical reasons, like exhaustion and fear, the rumor that makes the rounds is that their meals have been doctored with saltpeter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">This need to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">believe </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">that an outside force is deliberately working to keep things down fuels the saltpeter myth. Such a construct works to reassure the woodless recruit that there’s nothing wrong with </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525;">him</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;"> — it’s all the sneaky doings of those in charge. The myth is every bit as empowering as it is reassuring; it says “We are such rampantly virile men that those in command fear us and what we might do if left unchecked.” It thus works to build pride in the unit by helping to establish an internalized reputation for being such wild men that the group as a whole has to be drugged into docility if its commanders are to have any hope of keeping it under control.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, although Snopes has fact checked this, as have others, such an ultimately comforting belief is not likely to succumb to the truth any time soon. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;">Still another important use for saltpeter was in the manufacture of gunpowder, which was formed by mixing saltpeter with charcoal and sulfur. Much to my surprise, it turns out that gunpowder plays a key role in the history of Santa Cruz, California, the town I live in. According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Powder_Works" target="_blank">Wikipedia,</a> the West began to experience shortages of gunpowder after the Civil War led to the disruption of supply lines. So in 1861, California Powder Works was incorporated and became the first American explosive powder company west of the Mississippi. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9st_EsGzXc-2t4YUPVUMytv0S7ySgVUZE0-jtEPyUX4GMTtrE2l-TswB-nJfAVbDj51_Y3ls-yvpct4ln9yN0SQC8_MgIov_3OYebu-JXt9Yn6fRP5c7idhyDO7HsQSCJuiB8-APyuRM/s1600/Mining_and_Scientific_Press_-_1868-08-22_-_California_Powder_Works+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="340" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9st_EsGzXc-2t4YUPVUMytv0S7ySgVUZE0-jtEPyUX4GMTtrE2l-TswB-nJfAVbDj51_Y3ls-yvpct4ln9yN0SQC8_MgIov_3OYebu-JXt9Yn6fRP5c7idhyDO7HsQSCJuiB8-APyuRM/s400/Mining_and_Scientific_Press_-_1868-08-22_-_California_Powder_Works+%25281%2529.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">The powder works was about three miles up the San Lorenzo river from the city of Santa Cruz itself. But the mailing address on the poster here is a location not at all far from me here on the west side. Apparently they imported crude potassium nitrate from Chile and manufactured gunpowder from it here. (This gets a little confusing, as there is also something specifically called Chilean saltpeter, which is actually nitratine, or sodium nitrate. So I am not entirely sure which form of nitrate they were using, but it's still some form of saltpeter.) </span><br />
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;">This company was here in the Santa Cruz area for fifty years, was a major employer and provided company housing and even a school for a time. But I'd never heard of it. Nor had I heard of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Powder_Works#End_of_Santa_Cruz_operations" target="_blank">disaster </a>at the Powder Works on April 26, 1898, when the town was rocked by a series of explosions that killed 13 men at the site and injured many more. (Although this was after the Powder Works had stopped making gunpowder from saltpeter and moved on to the smokeless powder common today.) </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;">California Powder Works eventually became a subsidiary of Dupont, which after the completion of the Panama Canal, ended operations in Santa Cruz and consolidated their business in New Jersey. There is not much evidence left of the old Powder Works, as the mills were dismantled and the mansions of the superintendents were razed in the thirties. But </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">the California Powder Works covered bridge </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525;">still stands, luckily maintained by the Masons, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2015. Maybe some day, I'll even manage to get up to Paradise Park to see it. (Although I think I might still have to ask the Masons for permission.) </span><br />
<span style="color: #252525;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCE5WOegKzkck_2WLLNqVZ-W_uJQLSkF8OD1Hsi-ES24Ap10sBMP6dK_TKqW2_6ZJAjpDI7ua-SMKoDO07M0dBm-IljllxqG3bjtAKCqhQYb5VfM6HmLAbijQmAdvUOCejswRyROR0-WU/s1600/MASONIC_PARK_COVERED_BRIDGE%252C_SANTA_CRUZ_COUNTY%252C_CA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="375" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCE5WOegKzkck_2WLLNqVZ-W_uJQLSkF8OD1Hsi-ES24Ap10sBMP6dK_TKqW2_6ZJAjpDI7ua-SMKoDO07M0dBm-IljllxqG3bjtAKCqhQYb5VfM6HmLAbijQmAdvUOCejswRyROR0-WU/s400/MASONIC_PARK_COVERED_BRIDGE%252C_SANTA_CRUZ_COUNTY%252C_CA.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Powder_Works_Bridge#/media/File:MASONIC_PARK_COVERED_BRIDGE,_SANTA_CRUZ_COUNTY,_CA.jpg" target="_blank">California Powder Works Bridge</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-16726376098498488002019-05-16T14:33:00.000-07:002019-05-16T14:33:49.619-07:00gadfly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes you've heard a word in various contexts for a long time and, in the moment, you think you essentially understand it. It comes up in another context, and once again, you think you've got it. The only problem is that the word seems to have very different, even opposite kinds of meanings in the two examples. If you're like me, you tend to just sort of scratch your head and then forget about it until it comes up somewhere else. But just this once, let's <i>not </i>forget about it and see what happens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-roger-stone-bechthold-detainment-1.4987759" target="_blank"> Roger Stone</a> was recently at the top of the news cycle, I heard him described several times as a gadfly. I assumed this to mean something like a self-aggrandizing person who always manages to insert himself into the conversation in an annoying way. I get the image of a fly buzzing around one's face.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshcYPDzFo7M4R8AlqyZfStzqQL6RG4_bIGzW6x3m_y3qtoCgQsPylIn5Jfxx6A0BWa2wR18SxygIgxLcWK7yC9Qe1a_TkI304oygcAbwFV7yH683DZErY-XWuuFNmjZGEu5vKBjgqWqM/s1600/Roger_Stone_in_february_2019.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="453" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshcYPDzFo7M4R8AlqyZfStzqQL6RG4_bIGzW6x3m_y3qtoCgQsPylIn5Jfxx6A0BWa2wR18SxygIgxLcWK7yC9Qe1a_TkI304oygcAbwFV7yH683DZErY-XWuuFNmjZGEu5vKBjgqWqM/s320/Roger_Stone_in_february_2019.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roger_Stone_in_february_2019.png" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But even with the most rudimentary look into the term, I discovered that there is a more famous gadfly--Socrates. And his role as a gadfly is viewed in a positive light. So what gives?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First, we have to go back to the original meaning of gadfly, in its non-metaphoric sense. It turns out that a gadfly is not a specific fly, it is a general category of fly. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary says that it is a fly that bites livestock, especially a horsefly, botfly or warble fly. Some bite to implant their larvae, others, like the female horsefly, do it to extract blood.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FZqrPXNkT9blMvAW1bmcxkb1LV3xkljjTZFjRac1TPkdplf1YrPMiejXaiKxmSsr539Ma4Xp9AVMk6Rmb7hN3FjpSJseH50yMF3ZZg-RsMZwmT7l_QBRW7I2e-etgHjrZQZF07wlbsQ/s1600/Horse_Botfly_Imago.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FZqrPXNkT9blMvAW1bmcxkb1LV3xkljjTZFjRac1TPkdplf1YrPMiejXaiKxmSsr539Ma4Xp9AVMk6Rmb7hN3FjpSJseH50yMF3ZZg-RsMZwmT7l_QBRW7I2e-etgHjrZQZF07wlbsQ/s1600/Horse_Botfly_Imago.png" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botfly#/media/File:Horse_Botfly_Imago.png" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Horse Botfly, Wikipedia</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, when you dig into the etymology of the word, as you can do at the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/gadfly" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a>, an interesting thing emerges. It seems that the "gad" of gadfly probably comes from the 13th century noun meaning a goad or a sharp-pointed stick used to drive oxen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But it also appears to have become entangled with (the Etymology Dictionary's phrase, which I love) the <i>verb </i>'"gad," which, although it too goes back in a convoluted way to the pointed stick idea, has come to mean "to rove about." Hence the word "gadabout," meaning a person who wanders around restlessly or aimlessly, especially in the social sphere. It can also mean a traveler, a pleasure seeker. And my sense is that Roger Stone can be described as much by this meaning of 'gad' as he can be of the former.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipStp3O3dzsGeVLKNm6jP59yfnvNKw27XNpc3RbsP0BinllkMRWIWnHmvqN6fzRG5BYMJx_zOJBhNyKZRxX4IIjATjilhMPHH2ZfhfUVEM5DC3yjJUhAH2gAjPMr0Q7hBmoYopFKy-aOI/s1600/440px-Socrates_Louvre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipStp3O3dzsGeVLKNm6jP59yfnvNKw27XNpc3RbsP0BinllkMRWIWnHmvqN6fzRG5BYMJx_zOJBhNyKZRxX4IIjATjilhMPHH2ZfhfUVEM5DC3yjJUhAH2gAjPMr0Q7hBmoYopFKy-aOI/s320/440px-Socrates_Louvre.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates#/media/File:Socrates_Louvre.jpg" target="_blank">Socrates at the Louvre</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, Socrates is another matter. Here is the context in which Socrates described himself as a gadfly, according to Plato in his </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Apology of Socrates </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the Jowett translation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: inherit;"><i>I am the gadfly of the Athenian people, given to them by God, and they will never have another, if they kill me. And now, Athenians, I am not going to argue for my own sake, as you may think, but for yours, that you may not sin against the God by condemning me, who am his gift to you. For if you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me.</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d;">However, not everyone believes that 'gadfly' is the correct interpretation of the Greek here. In a paper by Laura Marshall called <a href="https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/148/abstract/not-gadfly-when-crucial-reading-goes-wrong" target="_blank">"Not a Gadfly: When a Crucial Reading Goes Wrong," </a>she makes the case that Jowett's translation isn't the right one in this instance. She thinks that in this instance, the word </span><span style="color: #3d3d3c;">μύωψ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d;">is more correctly translated as "spur."</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #3d3d3c;">When Xenophon uses the word μύωψ, it is in the context of training a sluggish horse to jump; this fits better with the pedagogical goals Socrates’ sees for the god in the </span><span style="color: #3d3d3c;">Apology</span><span style="color: #3d3d3c;">: the god is using Socrates to teach the Athenians, not merely to annoy them.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d3d3c; font-family: inherit;">Let's wrap up our excursion into the world of gadflies by a little quote from a novel I discovered in the course of looking into all this, <a href="https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/The-Year-of-the-Gadfly/9780544002029" target="_blank"><i>The Year of the Gadfly</i> </a>by Jennifer Miller, which is described as a New England prep school novel that is one part <i>The Dead Poets' Society</i>, one part <i>Heathers</i>. (I'd read it.) Here's the quote:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #3d3d3c; font-family: "noto sans" , "arial";"><br /></span>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">“Do you know what it took for Socrates’ enemies to make him stop pursuing the truth?”</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /></i><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">“Hemlock.”</i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi001FKGYN2C6PkztQZDUqDat2rZAawQyw2QXHha7i9Wtv_S0GTBBbcWhM3Vi4wZzBYLWRAXXDoWMTaYUY7aleLyju9Kd_UefVAPPu6LkM-zSqruKkXQuybhuwJ9LTtD8E6ydjiJwRkMwc/s1600/440px-Conium_maculatum_-_K%25C3%25B6hler%25E2%2580%2593s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="441" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi001FKGYN2C6PkztQZDUqDat2rZAawQyw2QXHha7i9Wtv_S0GTBBbcWhM3Vi4wZzBYLWRAXXDoWMTaYUY7aleLyju9Kd_UefVAPPu6LkM-zSqruKkXQuybhuwJ9LTtD8E6ydjiJwRkMwc/s320/440px-Conium_maculatum_-_K%25C3%25B6hler%25E2%2580%2593s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-191.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium_maculatum#/media/File:Conium_maculatum_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-191.jpg" target="_blank">Hemlock, or <i>Conium Maculatum</i></a></td></tr>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-43455800012005142952018-03-02T11:32:00.000-08:002018-03-02T11:32:08.698-08:00Why ax?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've often thought about why some people say "ax" instead of "ask", and I think I even began to research it for this blog at one point, but a friend just posted this to Facebook, and it goes so much further than I would have that I'm just going to post it.
<iframe width="373" height="210" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l-VnitbeS6w" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-24128871757105003132018-01-06T18:25:00.000-08:002018-01-06T18:25:19.034-08:00demesne<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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No, it's not a word you're going to run across much nowadays, but if you happen to be working your way through Gibbon's<i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire" target="_blank">The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</a></i>, you may be surprised at how much it comes up. I have a good enough grasp of the sense of it (in context) to know it means something like property or grounds or land, but I thought I should probably get a little clearer idea of it, because I suspect it's not the last time I'm going to run across it while reading this multivolume work.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauXQKL-P6PCIHXPVVqtOzufv5DUONWCF3Yo6sSe9yhjr0BzOD70rkehF6Qw6E7T5-_Zt0z-hDkdALURDvJcP8aYlaU5h1D3HWwHix9uB2Q6VuSyLdxPXHoV8VK5DebAhOKJZbMb1RdR0/s1600/Castletown_House_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="800" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauXQKL-P6PCIHXPVVqtOzufv5DUONWCF3Yo6sSe9yhjr0BzOD70rkehF6Qw6E7T5-_Zt0z-hDkdALURDvJcP8aYlaU5h1D3HWwHix9uB2Q6VuSyLdxPXHoV8VK5DebAhOKJZbMb1RdR0/s400/Castletown_House_7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castletown_House_7.jpg" target="_blank">Castletown House and demesne, County Kildare, Ireland</a></td></tr>
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If you look up a word's definition on Google, you can also find a chart on its historical and current usage, and<i> demesne's</i> drop has been pretty steep over the years. (Gibbon published his work from 1776 to 1789, so the chart doesn't even quite cover his period.) But the word does show up in other older works, so it's good to have a handle on it.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="ngram_chart" scrolling="no" src="https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart?year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=7&case_insensitive=on&content=demesne&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cdemesne%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdemesne%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDemesne%3B%2Cc0" vspace="0" width="450"></iframe>
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"Demesne", which is pronounced di-MAYN or di-MEEN, comes to English by the very standard route of Anglo-French (<i>demesne </i>or <i>demeine</i>) from Old French <i>demaine</i>, meaning 'land held for a lord's own use', which eventually leads us back to the Latin <i>dominicus</i>, "belonging to a lord or master", which stems from <i>dominus "</i>master", and <i>domus</i>, "house." I liked this uncharacteristically humorous explanation from the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/demesne" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a>, which explains that Anglo-French legal scribes changed the spelling under the influence of the Old French word <i>mesnie</i>, meaning household, "and their fondness for inserting <i>-s-</i> before <i>-n-</i>."<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlFX1kwCor5Te0uWWVYZYne8_MDRUJ7lOhnKNRw0ah1zEvU5VvqsU4Gy0bt_ZpBsByMt2Tb8_7amkhvk3LsOxQGTuoEyIs5UzQ5sbIvSKD9vNotYA58X8T8bOVNvSyxNbd0yBw75QVqE/s1600/Plan_mediaeval_manor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1083" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlFX1kwCor5Te0uWWVYZYne8_MDRUJ7lOhnKNRw0ah1zEvU5VvqsU4Gy0bt_ZpBsByMt2Tb8_7amkhvk3LsOxQGTuoEyIs5UzQ5sbIvSKD9vNotYA58X8T8bOVNvSyxNbd0yBw75QVqE/s400/Plan_mediaeval_manor.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_mediaeval_manor.jpg" target="_blank">Medieval Manor--mustard color for demesne</a></td></tr>
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"Demesne's" meaning has grown to be pretty broad. It still retains the sense of being an estate or part of an estate that is occupied and held by and worked for the exclusive use of its owner. It can simply be the land adjoining a manor house. But it can also mean the dominion or territory of a sovereign or state, or it can just mean a district or region.<br />
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Now, the funny thing is that the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/domain" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a> ends up by telling us that "essentially", it's the same word as "domain." That's because after "demesne" made its way into England around 1300, the term came in again through Scotland, from Middle French <i>domaine</i>, though tracing back to the same Latin roots.<br />
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This got me to wondering what the French was for "domain name". Could it be <i>nom de demesne</i>? Unfortunately, though reasonably, it is simply '<i>nom de domaine</i>'. At least they got back their beloved final <i>-e-</i>.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="250" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="ngram_chart" scrolling="no" src="https://books.google.com/ngrams/interactive_chart?year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=7&case_insensitive=on&content=domain&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cdomain%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdomain%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDomain%3B%2Cc0" vspace="0" width="450"></iframe>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-44305937216380508372017-09-13T12:26:00.004-07:002017-09-13T12:26:52.950-07:00Guam-Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been thinking about Guam again, not just because I had already planned to write more about it, but because of Puerto Rico. And I've been thinking about Puerto Rico because of Hurricane Irma. What Puerto Rico has in common with Guam, apart from being an island, is that both are unincorporated territories of the United States.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwMGzL5O_ApSahouTovm_XKEg-G1-XBuaFKv3UBWEgvkghIqWr2jba4LVHXhZJ7drvnU5-SDoMkIlOIII5RI4-XIXeuR0EwHRU3_31V41CvLlN52sh6u6djvK2_Jcxt9XvdyVF6WHrvM/s1600/Philippine_Sea_location.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="750" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwMGzL5O_ApSahouTovm_XKEg-G1-XBuaFKv3UBWEgvkghIqWr2jba4LVHXhZJ7drvnU5-SDoMkIlOIII5RI4-XIXeuR0EwHRU3_31V41CvLlN52sh6u6djvK2_Jcxt9XvdyVF6WHrvM/s400/Philippine_Sea_location.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Islands#/media/File:Philippine_Sea_location.jpg" target="_blank">The Mariana Islands in a regional context</a></td></tr>
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In my <a href="http://confessionofignorance.blogspot.com/2017/08/guam-part-one.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>, I visualized Guam as being a very small island out in the middle of nowhere. But this isn't really the right way to think about it. It's actually the southernmost island in a string of islands. Geographically, if not politically, it belongs with the Northern Mariana Islands. They are all part of a submerged mountain range. According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Islands" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, the northern ten islands are volcanic and are currently uninhabited, while the southern five are made of coralline limestone and are inhabited. But though once united culturally, history has divided Guam from the others.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicsKjgx0qZNY0ELLm-kkzRPQsWOeYEsOs66S-ngV8vkQLKNBUpllB-nxMqdaWXDhLMZC2IcS1VMqSmnZQ561F_E81WW7kPNfeZJIQ70D65xZlb-xc6av0AHaJ3R8ZzurLpzlrydC51P4Q/s1600/Map_Mariana_Islands_volcanoes.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicsKjgx0qZNY0ELLm-kkzRPQsWOeYEsOs66S-ngV8vkQLKNBUpllB-nxMqdaWXDhLMZC2IcS1VMqSmnZQ561F_E81WW7kPNfeZJIQ70D65xZlb-xc6av0AHaJ3R8ZzurLpzlrydC51P4Q/s400/Map_Mariana_Islands_volcanoes.gif" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Islands#/media/File:Map_Mariana_Islands_volcanoes.gif" target="_blank">Guam and the other Mariana Islands</a></td></tr>
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<br />
In my last post, I had gotten to the point in history when Spain had colonized the islands, used Guam as a refueling site and reduced the native people to a fraction of their former size both through warfare and the inadvertent introduction of disease. But how did Guam end up becoming a U.S. unincorporated territory?<br />
<br />
In an excellent article from the Smithsonian Magazine called <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/brief-500-year-history-guam-180964508/" target="_blank">"A Brief, 500-Year History of Guam"</a>, which happened to come online on the same day that I was starting to look into Guam for my first post about it, Doug Herman describes the strange way in which Guam became separated politically from the other islands. The Spanish-American War was in full swing, but isolated Guam had no idea about that. As Herman tells it:<br />
<i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">The Spanish troops and officials stationed in Guam were at first glad to have visitors when the <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">USS Charleston</span> arrived. They didn’t know that war had been declared between the two nations, and mistook their cannon fire for a salute. A peaceful transfer of power ensued.</i><br />
<i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><br /></i>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRTy9F_lZTK9bkhUYu66cRdRYnq35MXVdnX4YSe2_pqc9YKcUke2uSOo8Q5b-1kIel48pZZN96nAPX3-Y5jHsWR59eXjEX3cr5T_SSwicv1ISCm5jP4SP0BC90cUIWWoQKuwT3FctnvA/s1600/Uss_charleston_cc-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRTy9F_lZTK9bkhUYu66cRdRYnq35MXVdnX4YSe2_pqc9YKcUke2uSOo8Q5b-1kIel48pZZN96nAPX3-Y5jHsWR59eXjEX3cr5T_SSwicv1ISCm5jP4SP0BC90cUIWWoQKuwT3FctnvA/s400/Uss_charleston_cc-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Charleston_(C-2)" target="_blank">U.S.S. Charleston in Manila Bay, 1898</a></td></tr>
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<i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><br /></i>
But the Americans missed a trick in the 1898 Treaty of Paris because while solidifying their possession of Guam, they failed to ask for the other islands in Micronesia that Spain held in its portfolio. One account I read says that they just weren't all that aware of them, but a probably more accurate <a href="http://www.guampedia.com/history-of-efforts-to-reunify-the-mariana-islands/" target="_blank">report </a> has it that America didn't want to appear too greedy, and knew that the German Kaiser was looking for prestige.So Spain sold the rest of their holdings to the Germans, including all the other Mariana Islands. Germany apparently ruled in a fairly relaxed fashion. But enter World War I. The Japanese were allied <i>against </i>the Germans in that war and captured all of Germany's colonial territory, continuing to rule the region for thirty years thereafter.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSEdk3-TE9PukKawaYd76zHEnSY2p73-tz47v06BLm5x9-4mBcTkxqZETqZM32U1KYBCWmLdFroLPJ4sFAhA8goTQ8QAqUihM4f8ycj-hI7KYDERsKjX16O_d-n4E9Qup9yhsOsLw5Xtc/s1600/800px-US_Navy_030225-N-0000X-002_An_aerial_view_of_Apra_Harbor_on_U.S._Naval_Base_Guam_is_seen_during_a_fly-by%252C_Feb._25%252C_2003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="800" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSEdk3-TE9PukKawaYd76zHEnSY2p73-tz47v06BLm5x9-4mBcTkxqZETqZM32U1KYBCWmLdFroLPJ4sFAhA8goTQ8QAqUihM4f8ycj-hI7KYDERsKjX16O_d-n4E9Qup9yhsOsLw5Xtc/s400/800px-US_Navy_030225-N-0000X-002_An_aerial_view_of_Apra_Harbor_on_U.S._Naval_Base_Guam_is_seen_during_a_fly-by%252C_Feb._25%252C_2003.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_030225-N-0000X-002_An_aerial_view_of_Apra_Harbor_on_U.S._Naval_Base_Guam_is_seen_during_a_fly-by,_Feb._25,_2003.jpg" target="_blank">Apra Harbor at the U.S. Naval Base</a></td></tr>
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Guam, however, underwent a different fate. In a poignant bit of Doug Herman's article, he tells us that after the U.S arrived, the leading families of the native Chamorro got together and set up a legislature, expecting to be forming a representative government like the rest of the U.S. But this was not what the American powers were thinking. Instead, they placed the island under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the U.S. Navy and basically treated the island as a military base. In his words, <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Guam was run like a well-ordered battleship under what was essentially martial law."</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Apparently, the holding of territory involved the U.S. in some odd mental gymnastics. Again, from Herman:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">In a series of Supreme Court rulings known as </span><a href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1652&context=ylpr" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">the Insular Cases of 1901</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">, it was decided that new territories might never be incorporated into the union and were to receive only unspecified ‘‘fundamental’’ Constitutional protections. They were to be governed without the consent of the governed in a system that lacked the checks and balances that underlie the principle of limited government.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"></span></i></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></i></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">This would seem to be bad enough, but perhaps the real tragedy for Guam was that it ended up on the wrong side of the war, at least from its people's perspective. They suffered a different fate with the Japanese than their northern neighbors. From Herman:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">While the bombing of Pearl Harbor still lives on in infamy in American memory, the bombing of Guam—four hours later—is virtually forgotten. In a brief but locally well-remembered air and sea attack, Japanese troops seized control of the small American colony and began an occupation that lasted three years. More than 13,000 </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;">American subjects suffered injury, forced labor, forced march or internment. A local priest, Father Jesus Baza Dueñas, was </span><a href="http://www.pacificworlds.com/guam/memories/memory3.cfm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; font-size: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">tortured and assassinated</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;">. At least 1,123 died. To America, they are forgotten.</span></span></i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><br />
<i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 1em;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And if all that wasn't bad enough, history had an extra terrible twist in store for them. Because according to Wikipedia, the Japanese brought down Chamorro people from the Northern Marianas to act as translators and in other capacities. And not under duress, because these people thought of themselves as on Japan's side. So, </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em;">to this day there is bad feeling between these two groups of people, because the Guamians Chamorros felt they should have been treated with more compassion by the Northern Mariana Chamorros.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em;"><br /></span>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Herman cites a Chamorro scholar named Keith Camacho who points out that:</span></span><br />
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> in military narratives of World War II’s Pacific theater, Pacific Islanders play no central role. Instead, military historians tend to envision the Pacific Islands as “a </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;">tabula rasa</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> on which to inscribe their histories of heroism and victimization,” forming “a body of discourse in which only Japanese and Americans constitute the agents of change and continuity in the region, erasing the agency and voice of indigenous peoples.”</span></span></i><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br /></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span></i>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_sKyzgIqNqX-1HvIwvTA_IPNnnjP6ezfv0a2-vRcSIrm0uOYoBf00Zfd0xI8zAG3fLocxaJCiZYD2kq-Y_JBNTUgEgmQoO1k52c_FcLQMqlxjiozHRxsHamFXkyKl6ekncSm9AO7n0N4/s1600/472px-Coast_Guard_Marines_at_Guam_-_ca._July_1944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="472" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_sKyzgIqNqX-1HvIwvTA_IPNnnjP6ezfv0a2-vRcSIrm0uOYoBf00Zfd0xI8zAG3fLocxaJCiZYD2kq-Y_JBNTUgEgmQoO1k52c_FcLQMqlxjiozHRxsHamFXkyKl6ekncSm9AO7n0N4/s400/472px-Coast_Guard_Marines_at_Guam_-_ca._July_1944.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_030225-N-0000X-002_An_aerial_view_of_Apra_Harbor_on_U.S._Naval_Base_Guam_is_seen_during_a_fly-by,_Feb._25,_2003.jpg" target="_blank">Battle of Guam, 1944</a></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span></i>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">As I began learning about Guam's northern sister islands, I thought, okay, the Germans don't rule the Marianas anymore, and the Japanese don't rule the Marianas anymore, so who governs them now?Naively, I thought that they had probably been granted their independence after the war.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">But no. We, the United States, govern the Northern Marianas. But even though they are part of one island chain, they are governed as a separate entity than Guam. Guam is an unincorporated territory, while the Northern Marianas are a commonwealth, which makes their position more like Puerto Rico's, though I haven't been able to pin down exactly what the precise difference in governance is. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Which brings me back to my initial associations here. As we watched Hurricane Irma roaring across the Caribbean, people didn't seem to be talking about the fact that as it lurched toward Puerto Rico, it was actually heading toward a part of the United States. We didn't have to wait till it hit the Florida Keys to be worried about American citizens. Yet in a <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-03-03/are-puerto-ricans-american-citizens" target="_blank">poll </a>taken as recently as earlier this year, 41 percent of people did not believe that Puerto Ricans were U.S. Citizens and another 15 percent weren't sure. This despite the fact that anyone born in Puerto Rico is automatically an American citizen, which has been true since 1940. If people don't know that Puerto Ricans are citizens, I am pretty sure that very few of them know that the Guamians are. <a href="https://www.quora.com/Are-people-born-in-the-Northern-Mariana-Islands-considered-United-States-Citizens" target="_blank">And never mind about the Northern Mariana Islands.</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But since I began thinking about this Hurricane Irma has come and gone, and I now feel that the U.S. Virgin Islands might be even more parallel to Guam. The U.S. Virgin Islands are also part of an island chain colonized by different European countries (the U.S. territory was originally colonized by Denmark and the U.S. bought them in 1916). Though underreported elsewhere, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell have pointed out on their respective MSNBC shows that the American islands of St. John and St. Thomas have been severely damaged by the storm. As Rachel emphasized, the residents are American citizens, and it is the responsibility of this country to help them. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYU3eJOnuRAfjdKfektC72Jm4fN_WtCUxiV91bv7nQDhvzNcDCSIXI0Ho85I0R7WoA-2mEH_X5xF9h5yMD7lnZgSuVlNglfX2cVmr3a5MW5TCAOgwZ5UP7NYxxoThTtxvxJicpiiPypA/s1600/SVG_Map_of_Virgin_Islands.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="390" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYU3eJOnuRAfjdKfektC72Jm4fN_WtCUxiV91bv7nQDhvzNcDCSIXI0Ho85I0R7WoA-2mEH_X5xF9h5yMD7lnZgSuVlNglfX2cVmr3a5MW5TCAOgwZ5UP7NYxxoThTtxvxJicpiiPypA/s400/SVG_Map_of_Virgin_Islands.svg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Islands#/media/File:SVG_Map_of_Virgin_Islands.svg" target="_blank">The Virgin Islands</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A U.S. territory is not just ours when it's convenient to us to remember it.</span><br />
<br /><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://www.quora.com/Are-people-born-in-the-Northern-Mariana-Islands-considered-United-States-Citizens" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-9497488450256195322017-08-31T20:18:00.000-07:002017-08-31T20:18:06.068-07:00Nicknames<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is a bit of a lazy find, involving no research at all, but I just happened to come across this post from a website called<a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/" target="_blank"> How Stuff Works</a>, which explains how many of our nicknames for names with English origins have gotten a little twisted over time. Like many people, I have been subconsciously curious about why Jack is the nickname for John or Peg is the nickname for Margaret. Well, my questions have been answered, at least in part. If you've ever wondered about Sarah becoming Sally or Charles becoming Chuck, well, head on over <a href="http://people.howstuffworks.com/why-is-chuck-short-for-charles-and-dick-short-for-richard.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-47639043046051461602017-08-22T21:19:00.002-07:002017-08-22T21:19:49.678-07:00picnic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3uZoH65CAIlHD_gWobCj-xie6ubj-TxylMXrBT2rxRWuuFpS3RbXk62DX7SJnWCp_Rzz3obbvLv4lWqv3ALVxYJfZvjTCUWm2DLTHuyCE97mGQGBt0gAjn0lXCjtSiyWxVJzjeh34JIo/s1600/800px-George_Goodwin_Kilburne_The_Picnic+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3uZoH65CAIlHD_gWobCj-xie6ubj-TxylMXrBT2rxRWuuFpS3RbXk62DX7SJnWCp_Rzz3obbvLv4lWqv3ALVxYJfZvjTCUWm2DLTHuyCE97mGQGBt0gAjn0lXCjtSiyWxVJzjeh34JIo/s400/800px-George_Goodwin_Kilburne_The_Picnic+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Goodwin_Kilburne_The_Picnic.jpg" target="_blank">The Picnic by George Goodwin Kilburne</a></td></tr>
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Well, I was all set to write another post on <a href="http://confessionofignorance.blogspot.com/2017/08/guam-part-one.html" target="_blank">Guam</a>, which turns out to be a much bigger subject than I thought, when I fell over this word. I was doing a little Spanish review on <a href="https://www.duolingo.com/" target="_blank">Duolingo</a> when I came across a question where you were supposed to translate the English word picnic into Spanish. Turns out the Spanish word for picnic is, uh, <span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>pícnic</i></span><span style="background-color: white;">. Yes, there's an accent mark over the first i, but otherwise, it's the same. Obviously a loan word. Okay, so where does it come from in the first place?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Turns out, I'd fallen into a bit of a stink hole. Not that there's anything wrong with the word "picnic". It's just that it turns out a lot of people find it suspect. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">First things first. It seems to have come from the French word <i>piquenique</i>. According to the <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=picnic" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary, </a>it's first seen in print in English in Chesterfield's "Letters" in 1748. The French sense, which became the English sense had initially nothing to do with eating outdoors, but meant something more like what we would now call a potluck. Oh, I forgot--a <i>fashionable </i>potluck. The origin of <i>piquenique </i>is a bit unclear, but <i>pique </i>may have meant "to pick or peck", while <i>nique </i>may have meant some "worthless thing", and come from the German. In any case, you get the drift. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">But imagine my surprise when my first search led me directly to a <a href="http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/picnic.asp" target="_blank">Snopes</a> report. Huh? Well, it turns out that a rumor has spread that "picnic" derives from a connection with American lynchings. <a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pic1.htm" target="_blank">World Wide Words </a>delineates a spurious etymology which I can't repeat here, but basically people believed it because there are historical pictures of people taking picnics to lynchings. So, though the etymology is false, the association isn't. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Just because it's a false etymology doesn't mean that it contains no grain of truth. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4z6HCHYC4HXO37URu8_mVHCyhZOQtl27CGvMNApEWlYMknfFg22jdOr7CwG7toiMH8FrZDTJvKDjnlmdCT7ty4O50bMrPxoQT4KLB81cEaeJCAjTz_Iy8ppw2nfDzUSsyEMqoa2xz-kA/s1600/Henry-smith-2-1-1893-paris-tx-2+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="600" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4z6HCHYC4HXO37URu8_mVHCyhZOQtl27CGvMNApEWlYMknfFg22jdOr7CwG7toiMH8FrZDTJvKDjnlmdCT7ty4O50bMrPxoQT4KLB81cEaeJCAjTz_Iy8ppw2nfDzUSsyEMqoa2xz-kA/s400/Henry-smith-2-1-1893-paris-tx-2+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Henry-smith-2-1-1893-paris-tx-2.jpg" target="_blank">The 1893 public lynching of black teenager <span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: start;">Henry Smith</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"> in </span><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: start;">Paris, Texas</span></span></a></span></td></tr>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-39759872697415591712017-08-16T15:13:00.001-07:002017-08-16T15:20:19.389-07:00Guam--Part One<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">Here's pretty much the full extent of what came to mind whenever I heard the word "Guam" until a few nights ago. My mother, at that time still known as<a href="http://confessionofignorance.blogspot.com/2010/09/carolyn-stanley-brunton-graham-1922.html" target="_blank"> Carolyn Stanley Brunton</a>, had been back in her native California for a while, but after having served in the WAVES during World War II and then lived abroad as a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Services_(entertainment)" target="_blank">Army Special Services</a> in postwar Germany, she got the travel bug again. So she applied to go to one of two places that offered hardship pay--Guam and Tripoli. I think actually she may have decided on Guam when the Tripoli posting came up. In any case, she accepted it, ended up at Wheelus Airbase, met and married my father, and the rest is history.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So much for my associations to Guam, the not chosen place. But a couple of days ago, when North Korea threatened to launch some missiles into the waters around Guam, I got interested again. First of all, because a lot of Americans still live there. And secondly, because Guam was not where I thought it was. Having been too lazy to ever bother looking it up, my conception of its placement in the world was extremely hazy. But I think I thought it was in the Caribbean somewhere. In any case, I did not think of it as being within striking range of North Korean missiles.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHbhRoAgaE4UzppO5znIpAkuLq8JZnXgeSebYOepesDXcfpLbPH8HzB2Mo7VmMM1nvMw2l_fXs4F2mU0t5kCIcSod6wtTRnCwF5eADoouaCipi4F_M7j39HlOSzhyXrohFTQJuaLIwcA/s1600/699px-Guam_in_Oceania_%2528-mini_map_-rivers%2529.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="699" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHbhRoAgaE4UzppO5znIpAkuLq8JZnXgeSebYOepesDXcfpLbPH8HzB2Mo7VmMM1nvMw2l_fXs4F2mU0t5kCIcSod6wtTRnCwF5eADoouaCipi4F_M7j39HlOSzhyXrohFTQJuaLIwcA/s400/699px-Guam_in_Oceania_%2528-mini_map_-rivers%2529.svg.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://is.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mynd:Guam_in_Oceania_(-mini_map_-rivers).svg" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Guam in Oceania</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Or here's another way of looking at in context:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp8IRIONPXmmtoOx-mUYQmyaX9D9JiuR-eb3Szbnonu79H9ccCgLmEcLekdSJoBY5QKEAZwa49V62H6pCa38QfSkhKWcpJ3g9-QAzKKlJbv42ZPvB7-YIm1rq7er566x7N5fwAH5bbnOA/s1600/800px-United_States_in_its_region_%2528Guam_special%2529.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp8IRIONPXmmtoOx-mUYQmyaX9D9JiuR-eb3Szbnonu79H9ccCgLmEcLekdSJoBY5QKEAZwa49V62H6pCa38QfSkhKWcpJ3g9-QAzKKlJbv42ZPvB7-YIm1rq7er566x7N5fwAH5bbnOA/s400/800px-United_States_in_its_region_%2528Guam_special%2529.svg.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_in_its_region_(Guam_special).svg" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The United States in its Region</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Wikipedia tells us that Guam is about 30 miles long and between 4 to 12 miles wide, or, if it helps your frame of reference, 3/4ths the size of Singapore. Unlike Singapore, it is very remote from pretty much any place else, other than the still tinier islands that constitute the rest of Micronesia, of which it is a part. A website called <a href="http://www.guampedia.com/geography-of-guam/" target="_blank">Guampedia </a>says that it is roughly the same distance from both Manila and Tokyo at roughly 1500 miles, and a full 3800 miles west of Hawaii. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One might think that such a small space in the middle of nowhere could expect to be left unmolested through the eons, but there is probably no place on earth that is actually too small to be exploited by bigger places anymore. As the largest of the small islands in the neighborhood, Guam is actually just right, depending on your point of view, especially if your view is a Western one which seeks to have a strategic base in the Asian neighborhood. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The U.S. actually has a naval base and Coast Guard station in the south and an airforce base in the north, which according to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/14/where-is-guam-and-why-would-north-korea-attack-it.html" target="_blank">Fox News</a> take up 30 percent of the island. The article also tells us that the American would actually like to increase that number by relocating thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Not sure if this is so true in the present moment with North Korea's current posturing, but in 2014 then deputy defense secretary Bob Work said that Guam has increasingly been a strategic hub for the U.S. military. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It might surprise you to learn that anyone born in Guam is automatically a U.S. citizen. That's why the news these days refers to 160,000 U.S. citizens being in harm's way in the North Korea crisis. However, as has been rather ignominiously the American pattern, some citizens are more equal than others. The Guamanians don't get to vote for the president of the United States, even though he or she <i>is </i>their president, and they send one representative to Congress, who isn't allowed to vote. Their only real participation in American government is to participate in the Republican and Democratic primaries. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Guam has had to deal with outsiders running their lives for a long time. A recent discovery of settlement has led archaeologists to conclude that the people who settled the Mariana Islands, of which Guam is the lowermost island, may have been the earliest long-distance ocean crossers in history, having made the journey 3500 years ago. Magellan, the first recorded Westerner to make it to that part of the world, didn't get there till 1521, and even then, he didn't stay long. It wasn't until 1565 that Spain realized the importance of Guam as a pit stop for their Manila galleons as they plied the Pacific trade route between Manila and Acapulco. And it was another hundred years before they actually colonized it. (Like I said, it's a remote place). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The story of that colonization, unique though it is in its elements, has a very familiar ring to it. The native peoples resisted and were nearly wiped out in the process, not just by superior military force but by that well-known plague, smallpox. At the end of a 26-year war, only 5000 Chamorros (as they had been named by the Spanish) remained, a tenth of their former population. </span><br />
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-28778006164886442512017-08-03T17:39:00.001-07:002017-08-03T17:39:41.057-07:00scientist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">With my latest version of Internet Explorer, I get a gorgeous photo of somewhere on earth every time I log in. The latest one shows a myriad of stars against the night sky and a little factoid in the center of the frame, claiming that only 6.7 percent of women graduate with STEM degrees, STEM referring to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. This leads to a website advocating that girls and young women stay in STEM classes, which you can look at <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/about/philanthropies/youthspark/youthsparkhub/makewhatsnext/?ocid=iwd_o_winspotlight_null_null_usa_null_null" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The reason I mention it, though, is that I happen to get a newsletter from a website called <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/" target="_blank">Brain Pickings</a>, a creation of a human juggernaut by the name of Maria Popova. Lately she has done a couple of great articles related to total solar eclipse, which our planet is due for on August 21st, and which many people in North America will be able to experience in full this time around. (But you have to be in the <a href="http://abc7chicago.com/weather/places-to-watch-the-2017-total-solar-eclipse/2272842/" target="_blank">Path of Totality </a>to have the whole experience.) She has a fascinating <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/07/13/maria-mitchell-1869-total-solar-eclipse/" target="_blank">article</a> up about a nineteenth century astronomer named Maria Mitchell and her account of the 1879 total solar eclipse. In passing, Popova mentions that:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Mitchell’s choice [of the gender neutral "we"] inclines her reader to the assumption, standard in her era and still lamentably common in ours, that “scientist” defaults to maleness (even though the word itself had been <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/26/mary-somerville-scientist/">coined for woman</a> thirty-five years earlier).</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I thought, Really? But did not more than wonder at it in the moment as I went on to finish the absorbing article. Later, though, I decided to look up the etymology in a separate source, namely the <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=scientist" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a>:</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;">1834, a hybrid coined from Latin </span><span class="foreign" style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;">scientia</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"> (see </span><a class="crossreference" href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=science&allowed_in_frame=0" style="color: #800020; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;">science</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;">) by the Rev. William Whewell (1794-1866), English polymath, by analogy with </span><a class="crossreference" href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=artist&allowed_in_frame=0" style="color: #800020; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;">artist</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;">, in the same paragraph in which he coined </span><a class="crossreference" href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=physicist&allowed_in_frame=0" style="color: #800020; font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;">physicist</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"> (q.v.)</span></span></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieC96prBmVs3OAAbaWuRb0MLdFED8uDVpScB1qs9aZ6t1o99k0Ma6sKa1VoHLuhxA-YdtvhDCHorBzAUBiU04D0SC9dPEf-IzV-_86xs1YCd3BvMt-OGF2nK833xli_kQMniUIu_rcEMk/s1600/493px-Thomas_Phillips_-_Mary_Fairfax%252C_Mrs_William_Somerville%252C_1780_-_1872._Writer_on_science_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="493" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieC96prBmVs3OAAbaWuRb0MLdFED8uDVpScB1qs9aZ6t1o99k0Ma6sKa1VoHLuhxA-YdtvhDCHorBzAUBiU04D0SC9dPEf-IzV-_86xs1YCd3BvMt-OGF2nK833xli_kQMniUIu_rcEMk/s400/493px-Thomas_Phillips_-_Mary_Fairfax%252C_Mrs_William_Somerville%252C_1780_-_1872._Writer_on_science_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Phillips_-_Mary_Fairfax,_Mrs_William_Somerville,_1780_-_1872._Writer_on_science_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" target="_blank">Mary Somerville, by Thomas Phillips, 1834</a></td></tr>
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><br /></span></span></i>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Garamond, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Which would be interesting enough, seeing that apparently such an important and general word can be pinpointed to a specific time and person. But what the etymology omits is that the word was coined by Whewell in his description of a <i>woman</i>, one Mary Somerville, whom Popova discusses in a separate <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/26/mary-somerville-scientist/" target="_blank">article</a>. Somerville was an interdisciplinary researcher, who we may feel a more current connection with because she was the tutor of Ada Lovelace and introduced her to Charles Babbage, with whom Lovelace would go on to collaborate with to invent the world's first computer. According to a quote in the article from </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: ff-tisa-web-pro, serif, Georgia;">Renée Bergland,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: ff-tisa-web-pro, serif, Georgia;"> the author of a biography on the aforementioned Maria Mitchell:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: fira-sans;"><span style="font-size: large;">[Whewell]<i> called Somerville a scientist, in part because “man of science” seemed inappropriate for a woman, but more significantly because Somerville’s work was interdisciplinary. She was no mere astronomer, physicist, or chemist, but a visionary thinker who articulated the connections among the various branches of inquiry. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: fira-sans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Popova adds:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: ff-tisa-web-pro, serif, Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Whewell called Somerville “a person of real science,” as opposed to the mere popularizers of science whom he held in mild disdain. In suggesting the term “scientist,” he emphasized its similarity to how the word “artist” is formed. Indeed, he had recognized in Somerville that singular creative genius of drawing connections between the seemingly disconnected, which is itself an artistic achievement. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: fira-sans;"><span style="font-size: large;">Popova's linked articles on women of science suggest quite a different history than the one many of us think we know. Even a reputable etymology source omits the woman for whom the word scientist was coined, and Popova's articles detail many other omissions in the history of women's scientific achievements. Maybe there would not be such a low percentage of women finishing STEM degrees if there was a broader cultural understanding that, when it comes to science, women have actually been there all along. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKlUVoVkfupZrdS9WKEuWtpi-IbpwOWuG47gz58s4aw_A1Xj2HO6st389h-Dlhe7xSmctgbdDUntzRBWoTlA0VnTppdV9eoza2CszUM7gSMyejhJHdtG3uG1dmxk5ep6WAJl6Uc8bEfYk/s1600/Hinode_Observes_Annular_Solar_Eclipse%252C_4_Jan_2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKlUVoVkfupZrdS9WKEuWtpi-IbpwOWuG47gz58s4aw_A1Xj2HO6st389h-Dlhe7xSmctgbdDUntzRBWoTlA0VnTppdV9eoza2CszUM7gSMyejhJHdtG3uG1dmxk5ep6WAJl6Uc8bEfYk/s400/Hinode_Observes_Annular_Solar_Eclipse%252C_4_Jan_2011.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hinode_Observes_Annular_Solar_Eclipse,_4_Jan_2011.jpg" target="_blank">Annular Solar Eclipse January 4, 2011</a></td></tr>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-46562657594737926312017-05-02T19:09:00.001-07:002017-05-02T19:09:59.179-07:00javelina<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of my Santa Cruz friends departed for Arizona a couple of years ago, but she was back this weekend with tales of living in the Southwestern desert. One of the creatures she sometimes has to contend with that we don't have on the Central Coast is the javelina. Apparently, they are rather awful creatures, although their offspring are quite cute. One of the sad trends of life in general, I'm afraid. They like to get into the garbage cans, and make horrible warring noises while contending with each other. It is not altogether out of the question that they will make themselves at home on the porch. Yikes. (Here's a little <a href="http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/audio/javlina_medley.mp3" target="_blank">mp3 </a>that the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum put out of how they sound when not fighting. Listen to the end.)<br />
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Then, I happened to be reading a novel today, <i>New Dawn</i> by Sudha Balagopal, which also takes place in Arizona. In the part I read, two friends are out on a hike and one hears a strange noise, and wonders, what was that? The other says, likely a coyote or a javalina. Obviously, it was time to do a little research.<br />
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I know vaguely that javalinas are a bit like wild boars in nature--or think I know that. But maybe I am visualizing them completely wrong. In any case, two references in under two days is always a sign to me to dig a little further. <br />
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"Running Javelina" by<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Running_Javelina.jpg" target="_blank"> Wing-Chi Poon</a></div>
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Hmm. Not as ferocious looking as I'd have thought. No long scary tusks, for one thing. (though the do have small straight ones, which have been adapted for crushing seeds and cutting roots.)The javelina, it turns out, is not a wild pig. It is a peccary. Pigs and peccaries bear a distant relationship, but have several differences. For one thing, all the extant peccaries are native to the Americas, while pigs and wild boars and the like are from Europe, Asia and Africa. Those we have here are all imports. Apparently there were some Old World peccaries, but they are all extinct.<br />
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Some other distinctions according to the folks at <a href="http://animals.mom.me/">Animals.mom.me</a>. While pigs have long, hairy tails, peccary tails are small and not visible. Peccary ears are smaller, and pigs ears are large and upright. Other small differences lie in the number of teeth they have and the number of back toes. Peccaries are apparently also distinguished by their scent glands, which this website says lie along their backs and above their tails, though Wikipedia says that they also have some under their eyes. In any case, they use them for marking territory and identifying themselves within a group. It's perhaps no accident, then, that some other names for the peccary are "skunk pig" and "musk hog."<br />
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"Peccary" comes from the Cariban language, which is a native South American language group. The original word is <i>pakira </i>or <i>paquira</i>, according to Wikipedia. "Javalina", unsurprisingly, is a Spanish word, which is an alteration of <i>jabalina</i>, the feminine form of <i>jabali</i>, or wild boar. <i>Jabali </i> stems from Arabic <i>jabal </i>meaning mountain. S<i>o hinzir (or khinzir) jabal </i>means "mountain swine."<br />
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As <a href="http://languagehat.com/javelina/" target="_blank">Language Hat </a>points out, one should not be swayed by folk etymologies such as one that claims they are called javelinas after their short sharp tusks, which would be named for the Spanish word for javelin or spear. It's a bit complicated, though, because Spanish javelins actually ARE called javelinas. And why are they called javelins anyway? Well, maybe we'll get into that next time. Meanwhile, here's a little picture book about javelinas in case you can't get enough of them. The story sounds a tad familiar...almost like a certain pig story you might happen to know.<br />
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-76345188422021964092017-03-08T14:16:00.001-08:002017-03-08T14:16:39.167-08:00dossier<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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With the reemergence of Christopher Steele, former MI6 guy, who went into hiding after compiling a not (yet) wholly substantiated intelligence report which became public through Buzzfeed, the word "dossier" has attained prominence in the news cycle. And I have become aware that I don't really know what a dossier is. I mean, I have a sense of it, just from this example, but I don't know its precise definition or its origin--though on that last, I assume it comes to us from the French. Let's find out.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yadelair/15379491165" target="_blank">Yann Riché</a></td></tr>
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A dossier is actually a pretty simple thing. It's just a collection of detailed papers about a certain person or a certain subject. And, yes, it's from the French. It came into English some time around 1880, according to the <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dossier" target="_blank">Online Etymology Dictionary</a>. The <em>dos</em> part comes from twelfth century French and means "back", which in turn goes back to Vulgar Latin <em>dossum</em>, a variant of the Latin <em>dorsum, </em>also meaning "back", like, you know, dorsal fin. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmXaussyrfzpCF8q6sO32fYL_toDaqBauo6RGgPb2MbcIjuOKAFWoD1XIchAyMDDnMxjRWLzLbgLYlFLk31FYD_XRJEELsqhZenlxJlE2-Y5Sx0pcCwaezuc1LWyCRgg5-GAkc1IOsc8/s1600/dorsal-fin-406706_960_720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmXaussyrfzpCF8q6sO32fYL_toDaqBauo6RGgPb2MbcIjuOKAFWoD1XIchAyMDDnMxjRWLzLbgLYlFLk31FYD_XRJEELsqhZenlxJlE2-Y5Sx0pcCwaezuc1LWyCRgg5-GAkc1IOsc8/s320/dorsal-fin-406706_960_720.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/dorsal-fin-wal-killer-whale-406706/" target="_blank">Pixabay/Hans</a></td></tr>
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There are a couple of ideas out there about why "back" has anything to do with it. One is that these packets of paper used to have characteristic labels on the back. Another, at first glance, a little more out there, is that such bundles of papers would have a bulge that <em>resembled</em> the curve of a back. (I say, show me.) But an interesting support to that hypothesis is that there is another Old French word, <em>dossiere,</em> which meant the back strap or ridge strap of a horse's harness. So, you decide. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSUwAIXKoE-TiHC0eDJvdZuw2jQ0tDgj1d1s17qKBJFibZcTQYyapMMcuChKXX7WPK9LLmoNLKzzv5rrxEyIQOPN6X-F9G5GibRsT_OLV6R3rqXIznO4-kbsFOGeDEOPvXaoP9hRzL3s/s1600/250px-Horse_harness_closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSUwAIXKoE-TiHC0eDJvdZuw2jQ0tDgj1d1s17qKBJFibZcTQYyapMMcuChKXX7WPK9LLmoNLKzzv5rrxEyIQOPN6X-F9G5GibRsT_OLV6R3rqXIznO4-kbsFOGeDEOPvXaoP9hRzL3s/s320/250px-Horse_harness_closeup.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_harness#/media/File:Horse_harness_closeup.jpg" target="_blank">Pete Markham</a></td></tr>
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In looking at the site <a href="http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/367860/connotation-and-etymology-of-dossier" target="_blank">English Language & Usage</a>, a different aspect of "dossier" came up, which hadn't quite risen to the surface for me, but is interesting in the current context. A commenter there said that for him, "dossier" had a negative connotation, and he wasn't sure why, given the neutral character of the definition. Another commenter said that this was because of its Cold War connotations, and still another that most of us know the word largely from spy novels. Someone else pointed out that in fact, dossiers had been kept on potential enemies of the state by regimes long before the Cold War, and that there are cognates and near cognates in several European languages. <br />
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That said, "dossier" is a word that can and often does have a completely neutral meaning. As I was looking up the etymology, I found a listing for <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199653782.001.0001/acprof-9780199653782-chapter-19" target="_blank">Etymology Dossier</a>, which turned out to be a detailed list of a chapter's contents on Medieval Grammar. <br />
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In the current moment, though, all our thoughts do tend to drift spyward... <br />
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-27690698240090611562017-02-02T16:29:00.000-08:002017-02-02T16:29:34.388-08:00overweening<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Not a word we hear all the time, but it's been in the air a bit lately. I know what it means in context, but I find it a bit hard to define. I would say that to be overweening is to be grasping for more than one is entitled to. I also have impressions of overbearing and and kind of leaning over or overshadowing others. <br />
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Let's what find out what it really means. <br />
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Okay. According to the <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/overweening" target="_blank">Free Dictionary</a>, it can mean either to be presumptuously arrogant or overbearing, or to be excessive or immoderate. Sound like anyone you know? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3zdv1uKMDRrh2oPgrIlipx98OhBLZiVuWimy2-hYxGQ3nAq7j-SJUBmcPMp6wGEV77gwuxEuQIgKR-RFrPmrNhzpFHAS0Eyg3LSSo5LADBDwijQF3nSX7bN90-hhoX18MCITAJ-y4Myc/s1600/quote-the-antidote-to-hubris-to-overweening-pride-is-irony-that-capacity-to-discover-and-systematize-ralph-ellison-104-19-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3zdv1uKMDRrh2oPgrIlipx98OhBLZiVuWimy2-hYxGQ3nAq7j-SJUBmcPMp6wGEV77gwuxEuQIgKR-RFrPmrNhzpFHAS0Eyg3LSSo5LADBDwijQF3nSX7bN90-hhoX18MCITAJ-y4Myc/s400/quote-the-antidote-to-hubris-to-overweening-pride-is-irony-that-capacity-to-discover-and-systematize-ralph-ellison-104-19-02.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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According to the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overweening" target="_blank">Merriam Webster</a> website, the word only dates back to the 14th century. "Over" we get, but what's the "ween" part about. The Middle English was <em>overwening</em>, the present participle of <em>overwenen</em>. "Ween" is derived from <em>wenen</em>, "to think or believe". There are records from earlier times showing that people sometimes used the word overween, meaning to have too high an opinion of oneself. <br />
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The image that I would most obviously post here is one that I think we are all already tired of looking at, but I bet you can figure it out.<br />
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<em>(The first two images come from something called AZQuotes.com, but the final one comes from IZQuotes.com. In case you're looking for more.)</em><br />
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-82819993674698633022017-01-20T19:55:00.000-08:002017-01-20T19:55:01.014-08:00And the water comes again...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In honor of the Women's March tomorrow. Loved this song back in the day, and I love it still. <br />
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You can't stop water and you can't stop women. Let it rain.</div>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-81022140973964957042017-01-20T00:55:00.000-08:002017-01-20T12:02:12.554-08:00Foolishness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Just got back from a Lucinda Williams concert here in town. Here is the song she ended with (before the inevitable encores.) <br />
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(Found out this morning that my friend shared the concert version of the song, which you can find <a href="https://www.facebook.com/annmarie.thurmond/videos/vb.100000227073471/1667842176566669/?type=2&theater" target="_blank">HERE</a>)<br />
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<strong>"Foolishness"</strong><br />
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<!-- Usage of azlyrics.com content by any third-party lyrics provider is prohibited by our licensing agreement. Sorry about that. -->All of this foolishness in my life<br />
All of this foolishness in my life, don't need it<br />
What I do in my own time<br />
Is none of your business and all of mine<br />
All of this foolishness<br />
All of this foolishness in my life<br />
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All of you liars in my life<br />
All of you liars in my life, don't need you<br />
You can talk all the trash you want<br />
But I know the truth even if you don't<br />
None of you liars in my life<br />
None of you liars in my life<br />
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None of your pie in the sky<br />
None of your pie in the sky, don't need it<br />
No matter how you go or where<br />
I ain't gonna follow you anywhere<br />
None of your pie in the sky<br />
None of your pie in the sky<br />
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All of you fear-mongers in my life<br />
All of you fear-mongers in my life<br />
You can try to scare me down<br />
But I know how to stand my ground<br />
None of you fear-mongers in my life<br />
None of you fear-mongers in my life<br />
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All of this foolishness in my life<br />
All of this foolishness in my life<br />
What I do in my own time<br />
Is none of your business and all of mine<br />
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None of this foolishness in my life<br />
None of this foolishness in my life<br />
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All of this foolishness<br />
All of you liars<br />
All you talk about is pie in the sky<br />
All of you fear-mongers<br />
Foolishness<br />
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I don't need you liars<br />
I don't need your pie in the sky<br />
I don't need you fear-mongers<br />
Don't need your foolishness<br />
All this foolishness<br />
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It's nothing but foolishness<br />
It's nothing but foolishness<br />
It's nothing but foolishness<br />
It's nothing but foolishness<br />
It's nothing but your foolishness<br />
It's nothing but your foolishness <br />
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<em>(Needless to say, on this particular night and in this particular place is was very well received.)</em><br />
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-69821316873668107632017-01-12T15:56:00.001-08:002017-01-13T17:58:47.628-08:00bathos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<em>(Apparently this got published somehow before I was actually finished with it yesterday. Apologies to anyone who read it and found it a bit abrupt and confusing.)</em><br />
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"Bathos" is one of those words that I kind of think I understand without really ever having checked to see if I do. It's a word that you can usually kind of fill in from context. Or think you can. Recently, I was in an exchange about whether something was bad writing or not. I wasn't sure, but the person I was having the conversation with said that, among other things, the writing was full of bathos. I must confess that the actual word almost immediately brings to mind the Three Musketeers--Bathos, Porthos and Aramis, right? (No, that's <em>Athos</em>, Porthos and Aramis.) I also think of it as being the name of one of those theater masks, although there are really only two, one associated with tragedy and one with comedy. I always think of bathos as having something false about it, perhaps sentimental. But I really can't entirely define it. Here are a couple of examples from <a href="http://wordsinasentence.com/">WordsinaSentence.com</a><br />
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<em>With a great deal of bathos, Lenny went from proclaiming his innocence to confessing he'd eaten the last slice of pumpkin pie.</em><br />
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<em>Bathos will change the play’s tone as soon as the audience realizes the corpse is nothing more than a big dog in a dress.</em><br />
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<em>It was pure bathos onstage when the singer switched from singing a classic aria to crooning nursery rhymes.</em><br />
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It seems that bathos has something to do with an inappropriate mixture of tone, possibly that of descending from a more exalted or grave one to a more juvenile or comic one. So what is bathos?<br />
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You know the idea of "from the sublime to the ridiculous"? Well, that's bathos. It's the unintended movement from an exalted vision or language to the trite, trivial or silly. I liked this example from <a href="http://grammar.about.com/od/alightersideofwriting/a/Bathos-And-Pathos.htm" target="_blank">About Education</a>:<br />
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"The director had clearly decided to confront us with the gruesome detail of the massacre, but the sight of artificial dismembered limbs, human torsos dangling in trees, and blood-stained cavalry men riding about brandishing human legs and heads, that all clearly had the weight of polystyrene, made his intentions ridiculous. The entire cinema burst out laughing as the film descended into<strong> </strong>bathos. We expected the gruesome and got the bizarre instead."<br />
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(John Wright, <em>Why Is That So Funny?</em> Limelight, 2007)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dpgPseAjSWuvAPDcj_lVXiDWGALDeT2tRvldeHJuyVBFsx3DGZvyDaTf7a98AeIu741jM5UZ3AB2jmJjGI86XZ29AvMRY0NuFcx6jSsp8nNfA55AcZ95u5IORTPI_7ancwEznYlDv4c/s1600/800px-Alexander_Pope_by_Michael_Dahl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dpgPseAjSWuvAPDcj_lVXiDWGALDeT2tRvldeHJuyVBFsx3DGZvyDaTf7a98AeIu741jM5UZ3AB2jmJjGI86XZ29AvMRY0NuFcx6jSsp8nNfA55AcZ95u5IORTPI_7ancwEznYlDv4c/s400/800px-Alexander_Pope_by_Michael_Dahl.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexander Pope--Michael Dahl, <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ap&npgno=4132&eDate=&lDate=" target="_blank">National Portrait Gallery</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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"Bathos" comes from the Greek and means depth but we owe its existence in English, at least in this sense, to a much more modern source. According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peri_Bathous,_Or_the_Art_of_Sinking_in_Poetry" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, In 1727, the British poet Alexander Pope published an essay called <em>Peri Bathous, or the Art of Sinking in Poetry</em>. It was a parody of a work by the classical writer Longinus called <em>Peri Hupsous </em>or <em>On the Sublime-- "hupsos" meaning height. Peri Bathous </em>gives many examples of how to write bad verse, or to "sink" rather than to rise to the sublime. Here is an example from the essay that Wikipedia offers:<br />
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<em>Many Painters who could never hit a Nose or an Eye, have with Felicity copied a Small-Pox, or been admirable at a Toad or a Red-Herring. And seldom are we without Genius's for Still Life, which they can work up and stiffen with incredible Accuracy</em>. ("Peri Bathous" vi).<br />
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Sounds quite lively. In the end, bathos seems like it must be pretty much in the eye of the beholder. This is Hogarth's conception.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOv3Q3BD_qqC9GY0fC9eFQvNV7t9RQ4hnNba0d3Sg51NkvsRQdLTpEXrXbW0IN6pEUivJiMZlBgMpLxjmF-FoKtTGOab5RhpAvRd-GOAnEIVFyR9Dm11DSO7DK9P-sKK1-mlyidbkovzM/s1600/619px-William_Hogarth_-_The_Bathos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOv3Q3BD_qqC9GY0fC9eFQvNV7t9RQ4hnNba0d3Sg51NkvsRQdLTpEXrXbW0IN6pEUivJiMZlBgMpLxjmF-FoKtTGOab5RhpAvRd-GOAnEIVFyR9Dm11DSO7DK9P-sKK1-mlyidbkovzM/s400/619px-William_Hogarth_-_The_Bathos.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bathos--William Hogarth</td></tr>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-44615304934768712182016-12-31T14:55:00.003-08:002016-12-31T14:57:32.047-08:00Happy New Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yes, just one more confession of ignorance before we slip out of the old year and into whatever the new one holds for us. And I realized as I woke up this morning that I had had something a little bit wrong for almost my entire life. And it just happens to be appropriate to the annual transition we are about to make. <br />
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You know the song 'Deck the Halls'? Fa la la la la and all that? Well, I was hearing the part that goes 'Fast away the old year passes' in my head and then started wondering about the next line. I had always thought it went something like 'Hail the new ye lads and lasses.' Meaning, to me, goodbye old year, let's welcome all the new people who are coming into this world in the coming year. But then I wondered 'What exactly are new ye lads and lasses?' I think I must have thought it meant something like 'the new year lads and lasses,' even though I knew the word was 'ye.' It was only in pondering it that I realized that it must be, 'Hail the new, ye lads ands lasses.' As in hail the new year, everyone. Looked it up just now and sure enough, there is a comma after new. <br />
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Frankly, I'm a little sad that the song isn't about welcoming the next year's infants. But I'll get over it. Or forget it. One or the other. <br />
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I decided I would post a YouTube video of this but if you look closely, you'll see that they get it slightly wrong too. But you'll have to watch to see how. <br />
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<iframe width="375.5" height="210" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RPCXMTnO2Yw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-67082164309041261072016-12-23T16:18:00.001-08:002016-12-24T18:51:06.077-08:00By way of a Christmas card<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOjpkXiDSTkXyxc-bMe0NhwiegpNkB8AK_0iGxXfyWceAihlcA4PPAgthjEoVPVDerPEUPGJnOqNgigjwQbYPgdgZELeYsSYFbXB25LevTKtDwWfvyqBvMKcGc5BttUoZa0sX4XxnTPOw/s1600/Wandas_Christmas_St_Cover_for_Kindle+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOjpkXiDSTkXyxc-bMe0NhwiegpNkB8AK_0iGxXfyWceAihlcA4PPAgthjEoVPVDerPEUPGJnOqNgigjwQbYPgdgZELeYsSYFbXB25LevTKtDwWfvyqBvMKcGc5BttUoZa0sX4XxnTPOw/s400/Wandas_Christmas_St_Cover_for_Kindle+%25281%2529.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
<br />
I've already posted about this on my more <a href="http://backlist-seanag.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-couple-of-chaps.html" target="_blank">book</a> and <a href="http://seana-storydump.blogspot.com/2016/12/wandas-christmas-story.html" target="_blank">story</a> related blogs, so not to be tiresome, but I made a little chapbook this year out of a Christmas story I wrote some time ago. Mostly I'm just putting it up here by way of a Christmas card, but you can <span id="goog_1919634033"></span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQX264L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482634108&sr=8-1&keywords=seana+graham" target="_blank">buy</a> <span id="goog_1919634034"></span>it if you want. Or if you don't want to buy it but still want to read it, just email me and I'll send you a file. I'm not in it for the money. No obligation, believe me. I just wanted to show off the cover, because I made it (accidentally) and I like it. <br />
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Merry Christmas.</div>
seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-7347801002180690022016-12-17T15:48:00.003-08:002016-12-17T15:48:54.536-08:00"You will discover the truth in time."<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've had some unusually provocative fortunes in my fortune cookies lately, and this was the latest of them. Perhaps it doesn't seem so on the surface. But pity the poor English language learner with this one, eh? Talk about your multiple meanings. Although I think I normally would only have gravitated to two meanings, I now think there are at least four. <br />
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Here are the two more obvious ones:<br />
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"You will discover the truth in time." <em>You will find out the truth before it's too late.</em><br />
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"You will discover the truth in time." <em>You will find out the truth eventually.</em> <br />
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But, perhaps, influenced by a recent viewing of the new movie <em>Arrival</em>, I also see a couple more slippery ones.<br />
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"You will discover the truth in time." <em>The truth you are seeking is to be found in this strange thing (or non-thing) which we call time. Or, time itself holds the key.</em><br />
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"You will discover the truth in time." <em>You will find out what is true about time itself. Or, you will discover what is true within our conception of time as opposed to what is untrue.</em><br />
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The concept of time seems to have been coming up for exploration a lot lately, and I don't think it's just me. In addition to the time aspect of <em>Arrival</em>, which I won't discuss further here for fear of spoilers, there is also a popular new television series called <em>Timeless </em>and a bestselling new book from James Gleick called <em>Time Travel</em>, which I'm quite eager to read. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxYCNnPR7SW41tGfLb_ozDa2ut0C1vItoV6Uwt4dbwKjRoyrRy5YHbBtTPbSqRQE7-xpVYm8_6HRYE9fIgWrUk8ueK_3KfsnTsMKyFCqBwe2Q7yeAR9dWiB5wZcMzr3qesJ2YE26T9ZY/s1600/untitled+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxYCNnPR7SW41tGfLb_ozDa2ut0C1vItoV6Uwt4dbwKjRoyrRy5YHbBtTPbSqRQE7-xpVYm8_6HRYE9fIgWrUk8ueK_3KfsnTsMKyFCqBwe2Q7yeAR9dWiB5wZcMzr3qesJ2YE26T9ZY/s1600/untitled+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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And for me personally, it seems to be cropping up everywhere. Part of this makes me think that we may be more adept at time travel than we know. Here's an example from the beginning of Lene Kaaberol and Agnete Friis's book <em>Invisible Murder </em>(sorry, the beginning is as far as I've gotten so far.)<br />
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<em>Tamas's mind was working at a fever pitch. It was as if he could suddenly see the future so clearly that everything that he would need to do fell neatly into place, almost as if he had already done it and was remembering it, rather than planning it. First we'll have to do this. And then this. And then if I ask...</em><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdZgr-JC-GBeNV2oldMTbRCX8AnlTz0dhcno6HZ6v_OfHN1njedVkSovznOHVHQ8A9U4J2llpx6QMjLibf8M6iXhRIpLy-CkX4tWEn5X9V07GunV3A8M9CguhwPIlRv_wAmmMYZuqIiYU/s1600/NEW-Invisible-Murder-By-Lene-Kaaberbol-Agnete.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdZgr-JC-GBeNV2oldMTbRCX8AnlTz0dhcno6HZ6v_OfHN1njedVkSovznOHVHQ8A9U4J2llpx6QMjLibf8M6iXhRIpLy-CkX4tWEn5X9V07GunV3A8M9CguhwPIlRv_wAmmMYZuqIiYU/s320/NEW-Invisible-Murder-By-Lene-Kaaberbol-Agnete.jpg" width="242" /></a></div>
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And this is from a book I happened to read recently, David Morrell's <em>Scavanger, </em>which I picked up after seeing him as the guest of honor at the recent Bouchercon in New Orleans. This thriller turns out to have a lot to say about time capsules, and the peculiar human impulse to memorialize our particular historical moment for the future, and how hard that turns out to be. But in the midst of this, Morrell, who is a scholar as well as a thriller writer, throws in a quote from Kierkegaard, which resonated with me as describing the condition of many of us in the days and weeks after the recent presidential election, and perhaps was similar to a state that many felt after Brexit as well. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI91xeHoxaqDM3DwK9rhMMB0-ixFtJ1_mU0tnPKTFunDgiGAlgwNTwHCJMSu9Dbcz2GnihLGMlaKcIyI8etohNeisg9oKuhPfmvs9jzu5JrNCT-CNKSIcsJbODSQeFIaLGGEVNp0VqiMc/s1600/51axIZ7KFTL._SX282_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI91xeHoxaqDM3DwK9rhMMB0-ixFtJ1_mU0tnPKTFunDgiGAlgwNTwHCJMSu9Dbcz2GnihLGMlaKcIyI8etohNeisg9oKuhPfmvs9jzu5JrNCT-CNKSIcsJbODSQeFIaLGGEVNp0VqiMc/s320/51axIZ7KFTL._SX282_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="182" /></a></div>
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<em>The most painful state of being is remembering the future, in particular one you can never have.</em><br />
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Here's hoping we all discover the truth in time in one of it's better meanings--sooner than later, but better late than never. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NNfJOVa730XuYsh3txAKnHYxczpGBHnQAgJUZAcAqspVje0SDlCOeKu0RUFgvDxILz4aweXxLoSVXakuDBLk_zQCaozD6Xo7JpN3TjQzuqy8gRAxcTeavQpV91PhVz30ECV4l3FgL4s/s1600/Fortune_cookie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NNfJOVa730XuYsh3txAKnHYxczpGBHnQAgJUZAcAqspVje0SDlCOeKu0RUFgvDxILz4aweXxLoSVXakuDBLk_zQCaozD6Xo7JpN3TjQzuqy8gRAxcTeavQpV91PhVz30ECV4l3FgL4s/s320/Fortune_cookie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054888927218536027.post-70569506887397774082016-12-04T19:20:00.001-08:002016-12-04T19:21:56.528-08:00Missing Maps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Oddly enough, I got another cool email about crowdsourcing you can do, this time from <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/" target="_blank">Doctors Without Borders</a>. Although I'm sure they'd also be thrilled if you simply wanted to donate money to their worthy organization, they sent out an email a couple of days ago asking people to volunteer some time to a project called Missing Maps. I'm pasting it in here (when they mention MSF, they're referring to their French name, <em>Médecins Sans Frontières)</em> :<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 20px;"><strong style="color: white;"><em>Help </em></strong></span></div>
<em>Help Put Aweil, South Sudan on the Map!</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>Aweil,
the capital of South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, is home to
tens of thousands of people, many of whom live on the city’s largely
unmapped outskirts. Putting these settlements on the map is the first
step to collecting crucial health and demographic data that will help
MSF provide essential medical care to this underserved population.
That’s where you come in!</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>When
MSF responds to disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and other health
crises, hundreds of teams have to cover enormous areas (as happened when
MSF responded to a </em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3AMg%3A%3AaHR0cDovL3d3dy5kb2N0b3Jzd2l0aG91dGJvcmRlcnMub3JnL2FydGljbGUvZHJjLTQwMDAwLXBlb3BsZS10cmVhdGVkLW1hbGFyaWEtZGlzZWFzZS1zdXJnZXM_c291cmNlPUFEVDE2MTJVMEQwMSZfY2xkZWU9YzJWaGJtRkFZM0oxZW1sdkxtTnZiUSUzZCUzZCZyZWNpcGllbnRpZD1jb250YWN0LWY5YWUzMjc4MGM0M2U0MTE5M2ZmMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5LTRkYjgxYWU4NjBkNjRiM2ZhOTUwM2I1YTJmNzdlM2EzJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9Q2xpY2tEaW1lbnNpb25zJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPUVtYWlsX0V2ZW50c18yMDE2LjEyLjAyX0F3ZWlsJTIwTWFwU3dpcGUmZXNpZD0yNDY1NWYxZS1lM2I4LWU2MTEtOTQyNC0wMDUwNTY4ZjQ1MTk&K=byCR82wuro6e7V1WTrblUQ" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year</em></a><em>). Now, with MapSwipe, you can help give MSF coordinators a super-fast snapshot of </em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3AMw%3A%3AaHR0cDovL3d3dy5kb2N0b3Jzd2l0aG91dGJvcmRlcnMub3JnL2FydGljbGUvZHJjLXNhdmluZy1saXZlcy1yZW1vdGUtbWFwcGluZz9zb3VyY2U9QURUMTYxMlUwRDAxJl9jbGRlZT1jMlZoYm1GQVkzSjFlbWx2TG1OdmJRJTNkJTNkJnJlY2lwaWVudGlkPWNvbnRhY3QtZjlhZTMyNzgwYzQzZTQxMTkzZmYwMDUwNTY4ZjQ1MTktNGRiODFhZTg2MGQ2NGIzZmE5NTAzYjVhMmY3N2UzYTMmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1DbGlja0RpbWVuc2lvbnMmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249RW1haWxfRXZlbnRzXzIwMTYuMTIuMDJfQXdlaWwlMjBNYXBTd2lwZSZlc2lkPTI0NjU1ZjFlLWUzYjgtZTYxMS05NDI0LTAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOQ&K=C3l_wl9LpRovXXWFC7thVQ" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>where the population clusters are</em></a><em>, helping them to send their teams to the locations where they are most needed to achieve maximum vaccination coverage.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em> </em></span></div>
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</em><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3ANA%3A%3AaHR0cDovL21hcHN3aXBlLm9yZy8_c291cmNlPUFEVDE2MTJVMEQwMSZfY2xkZWU9YzJWaGJtRkFZM0oxZW1sdkxtTnZiUSUzZCUzZCZyZWNpcGllbnRpZD1jb250YWN0LWY5YWUzMjc4MGM0M2U0MTE5M2ZmMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5LTRkYjgxYWU4NjBkNjRiM2ZhOTUwM2I1YTJmNzdlM2EzJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9Q2xpY2tEaW1lbnNpb25zJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPUVtYWlsX0V2ZW50c18yMDE2LjEyLjAyX0F3ZWlsJTIwTWFwU3dpcGUmZXNpZD0yNDY1NWYxZS1lM2I4LWU2MTEtOTQyNC0wMDUwNTY4ZjQ1MTk&K=SQ-WUV7q5RMt6Dkxfw8rWA" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>MapSwipe</em></a><em>, available free from the </em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3ANQ%3A%3AaHR0cHM6Ly9pdHVuZXMuYXBwbGUuY29tL3VzL2FwcC9tYXBzd2lwZS9pZDExMzM4NTUzOTI_bHM9MSZtdD04Lz9zb3VyY2U9QURUMTYxMlUwRDAxJl9jbGRlZT1jMlZoYm1GQVkzSjFlbWx2TG1OdmJRJTNkJTNkJnJlY2lwaWVudGlkPWNvbnRhY3QtZjlhZTMyNzgwYzQzZTQxMTkzZmYwMDUwNTY4ZjQ1MTktNGRiODFhZTg2MGQ2NGIzZmE5NTAzYjVhMmY3N2UzYTMmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1DbGlja0RpbWVuc2lvbnMmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249RW1haWxfRXZlbnRzXzIwMTYuMTIuMDJfQXdlaWwlMjBNYXBTd2lwZSZlc2lkPTI0NjU1ZjFlLWUzYjgtZTYxMS05NDI0LTAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOQ&K=Rue47e5o-H9oKo_R-OLvZw" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>App Store</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3ANg%3A%3AaHR0cHM6Ly9wbGF5Lmdvb2dsZS5jb20vc3RvcmUvYXBwcy9kZXRhaWxzP2lkPW9yZy5taXNzaW5nbWFwcy5tYXBzd2lwZSZfY2xkZWU9YzJWaGJtRkFZM0oxZW1sdkxtTnZiUSUzZCUzZCZyZWNpcGllbnRpZD1jb250YWN0LWY5YWUzMjc4MGM0M2U0MTE5M2ZmMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5LTRkYjgxYWU4NjBkNjRiM2ZhOTUwM2I1YTJmNzdlM2EzJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9Q2xpY2tEaW1lbnNpb25zJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPUVtYWlsX0V2ZW50c18yMDE2LjEyLjAyX0F3ZWlsJTIwTWFwU3dpcGUmZXNpZD0yNDY1NWYxZS1lM2I4LWU2MTEtOTQyNC0wMDUwNTY4ZjQ1MTk&K=1xKzMSFyIEHksF1x7XdQww" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>Google Play</em></a><em>,
enables users to view and swipe through satellite images of remote
areas to identify features such as settlements, roads, and rivers. The
information gathered helps to build maps for aid workers to use in
largely unmapped but crisis-prone regions like Aweil.</em></span></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>
</em></span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>Here's how you can help:</em></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;">
<em>
</em><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>
</em></span><ol><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>
</em>
<li><em>Download the free MapSwipe smartphone app from the </em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3ANw%3A%3AaHR0cHM6Ly9pdHVuZXMuYXBwbGUuY29tL3VzL2FwcC9tYXBzd2lwZS9pZDExMzM4NTUzOTI_bHM9MSZtdD04P3NvdXJjZT1BRFQxNjEyVTBEMDEmX2NsZGVlPWMyVmhibUZBWTNKMWVtbHZMbU52YlElM2QlM2QmcmVjaXBpZW50aWQ9Y29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMyZ1dG1fc291cmNlPUNsaWNrRGltZW5zaW9ucyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1FbWFpbF9FdmVudHNfMjAxNi4xMi4wMl9Bd2VpbCUyME1hcFN3aXBlJmVzaWQ9MjQ2NTVmMWUtZTNiOC1lNjExLTk0MjQtMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5&K=tnB0cYVRt1_3888OhNP_pA" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>App Store</em></a><em> or </em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3AOA%3A%3AaHR0cHM6Ly9wbGF5Lmdvb2dsZS5jb20vc3RvcmUvYXBwcy9kZXRhaWxzP2lkPW9yZy5taXNzaW5nbWFwcy5tYXBzd2lwZSZfY2xkZWU9YzJWaGJtRkFZM0oxZW1sdkxtTnZiUSUzZCUzZCZyZWNpcGllbnRpZD1jb250YWN0LWY5YWUzMjc4MGM0M2U0MTE5M2ZmMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5LTRkYjgxYWU4NjBkNjRiM2ZhOTUwM2I1YTJmNzdlM2EzJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9Q2xpY2tEaW1lbnNpb25zJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPUVtYWlsX0V2ZW50c18yMDE2LjEyLjAyX0F3ZWlsJTIwTWFwU3dpcGUmZXNpZD0yNDY1NWYxZS1lM2I4LWU2MTEtOTQyNC0wMDUwNTY4ZjQ1MTk&K=8dwao5SDjJ_IZeTDutiTdQ" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>Google Play</em></a><em>.</em></li>
<em>
</em>
<li><em>Create an account.</em></li>
<em>
</em>
<li><em>Start mapping! You’ll find the “Map South Sudan for MSF” mapping project in the app’s “Missions” section.</em></li>
<em>
</em></span></ol>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;">
<em>
</em></span><br /></div>
<em>
</em><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3AOQ%3A%3AaHR0cDovL3d3dy5taXNzaW5nbWFwcy5vcmcvYmxvZy8yMDE2LzA3LzE4L21hcHN3aXBldHV0b3JpYWwvP3NvdXJjZT1BRFQxNjEyVTBEMDEmX2NsZGVlPWMyVmhibUZBWTNKMWVtbHZMbU52YlElM2QlM2QmcmVjaXBpZW50aWQ9Y29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMyZ1dG1fc291cmNlPUNsaWNrRGltZW5zaW9ucyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1FbWFpbF9FdmVudHNfMjAxNi4xMi4wMl9Bd2VpbCUyME1hcFN3aXBlJmVzaWQ9MjQ2NTVmMWUtZTNiOC1lNjExLTk0MjQtMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5&K=BHRXsq2G0ahtAEwyn2i32g" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>Click here</em></a><em> for a tutorial on how to use MapSwipe—helping us map is easy and fun!</em></span></div>
<em>
</em><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em> </em></span></div>
<em>
</em><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><em>MapSwipe is part of the “</em><a href="http://elink.doctorswithoutborders.org/c/4/?T=NjQ4Mjk1MDY%3AMDItYjE2MzM3LWMxMWViZWI3ZTAzZTQ4MWZhZDU3YTIyMGM2MGEwZjhj%3Ac2VhbmFAY3J1emlvLmNvbQ%3AY29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMw%3AZmFsc2U%3AMTA%3A%3AaHR0cDovL3d3dy5taXNzaW5nbWFwcy5vcmcvP3NvdXJjZT1BRFQxNjEyVTBEMDEmX2NsZGVlPWMyVmhibUZBWTNKMWVtbHZMbU52YlElM2QlM2QmcmVjaXBpZW50aWQ9Y29udGFjdC1mOWFlMzI3ODBjNDNlNDExOTNmZjAwNTA1NjhmNDUxOS00ZGI4MWFlODYwZDY0YjNmYTk1MDNiNWEyZjc3ZTNhMyZ1dG1fc291cmNlPUNsaWNrRGltZW5zaW9ucyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1FbWFpbF9FdmVudHNfMjAxNi4xMi4wMl9Bd2VpbCUyME1hcFN3aXBlJmVzaWQ9MjQ2NTVmMWUtZTNiOC1lNjExLTk0MjQtMDA1MDU2OGY0NTE5&K=_cJAtDTiuxK8nj90av6JxQ" style="color: #e00000;" target="_blank"><em>Missing Maps</em></a><em>" project, an open collaboration that aims to map vulnerable places in the developing world.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately, I don't have a smartphone so that I can be the guinea pig on this. However, I think you can use a computer if you go to this <a href="http://www.missingmaps.org/" target="_blank">Missing Maps</a> page. Not sure if it will take you to this particular Sudan project, though. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although this is endorsed by organizations like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, I do wonder a little if there could be misuse of such maps. In fact, a quick Google search brought just such questions on a website called raised just such questions at a website called </span><a href="http://scidev.net/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">SciDev.net</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, though the article did not question Missing Maps or any of these groups ethics. Something to ponder a bit before jumping in. Meanwhile, back to looking for </span><a href="http://confessionofignorance.blogspot.com/2016/11/stall-catchers-game.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">blood vessel stalls</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px;"></span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKhs2QSvTMvDDLZAzAqCV-B9FcMoC1heF_c4f8022nscslvqIzJx4X6xh-snPJGwfFLj5AB_XSMuXEYv-FrlgNqBZXq66Ei6CdAf6Z8SPCvEuW4C_kVaW1Qer0aNjNw2HLZCyFC7UTg_g/s1600/400px-Missing-Maps-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKhs2QSvTMvDDLZAzAqCV-B9FcMoC1heF_c4f8022nscslvqIzJx4X6xh-snPJGwfFLj5AB_XSMuXEYv-FrlgNqBZXq66Ei6CdAf6Z8SPCvEuW4C_kVaW1Qer0aNjNw2HLZCyFC7UTg_g/s320/400px-Missing-Maps-logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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seana grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com3