AWADmail Issue 69 ,
 AWADmail Issue 69
                         February 24, 2002

        A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
          and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages

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From: Wordsmith Sponsor (sponsor@wordsmith.org)
Subject: Sponsor of this AWADmail issue: Zeus Systems

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From: Brian Swisher (swisherb@biotronik.com)
Subject: Booth's escape...
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/sockdolager.html

I commend your choice of the word "sockdolager" and its unique place in
American history, but I have to differ with you on your history:

"Booth fired his gun at that precise moment to muffle the loud noise
of his shot with the guffaws from the audience, and quietly escaped."

That certainly was his plan, but it didn't work out that way. Mary Lincoln
shrieked when Abe slumped over with blood on his head, and Booth struggled
briefly with Major Rathbone, slashing him badly with the big knife he was
also carrying. Then Booth attempted to vault from the Presidential box to
the stage. He was an accomplished athlete and might have made the 10-12
foot jump had not his spur caught on the bunting around the railing. He
landed askew on one foot and broke his ankle, which did not prevent him from
hobbling off in the confusion, while shouting something that is most often
reported as "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus with all tyrants!" -- the state
motto of Virginia).

Incidentally, Booth's broken leg was treated by Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was
later, probably wrongly, accused of being one of the assassination
conspirators and exiled to the Dry Tortugas. Because of his heroic actions
during a yellow fever epidemic there a few years later, he was pardoned, but
his name gave rise to another American colloquialism: "Your name is mud."

   Thanks for your correction on Booth's "quiet" escape. That was quite
   an escape. Unfortunate incrimination of Dr. Mudd may have helped
   popularize the idiom but it didn't originate with him. It existed many
   years earlier.                                               -Anu

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From: Mary C Locker (kago2@juno.com)
Subject: Sockdolager

I've been fortunate enough to go river rafting on the Colorado River
through the Grand Canyon. Between mile 78 and 79 there is a rapid to run
that is both exceptional and outstanding (rated a 9 on the grade 10 scale
of difficulty). The rapid is named Sockdolager because, as our river
guide warned us, "it packs quite a wallop". He was ever so correct, and
I'd do the entire trip over again just to ride those particular waves.

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From: Judy Gustafson (kb6unf@aol.com)
Subject: Sockdolager

The word, "sockdolager," also made its way into Twain's Huck Finn. In
chapter twenty, Twain writes,

"... about ten o'clock it come on to rain and blow and thunder and
lighten like everything; ... a body don't see such a storm as that
every day in the week, not by a long sight. My souls, how the wind did
scream along! And every second or two there'd come a glare that lit up
the white-caps for a half a mile around, and you'd see the islands
looking dusty through the rain, and the trees thrashing around in the
wind; then comes a h-whack! -- bum! bum!
bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum -- and the thunder would go rumbling
and grumbling away, and quit -- and then rip comes another flash and
another sockdolager. The waves most washed me off the raft
sometimes...."

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From: Ed Tabor (thousandyears@aol.com)
Subject: Presidents' Day

Despite the fact that the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington were officially
separate until 1971, only Washington's birthday was a federal holiday, and
only Washington's birthday was a bank holiday in most states.

The move to have all official holidays be observed on Mondays to provide
three-day weekends, pleasant as the results are for all of is, was primarily
the result of very heavy lobbying of Congress by the hotel and travel
industries. Long weekends enable more of us to travel.

   I've received a few other messages about this. Some said moving
   holidays to Monday was to avoid a four- or five-day weekend. Others
   claimed it was to save on heating/cooling costs. -Anu

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From: Eleanor Dugan (duganek@aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--bloviate
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/bloviate.html

President Warren G. Harding is also partially responsible for adding another
cobbled word to the English language. A grammarian wag once commented that,
"Harding came from a small Ohio town called Normalcy to which he constantly
desired to return."

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From: Sam Robinson (robinsons@un.org)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--watergate
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/watergate.html

The suffix "-gate" seems to be used not just in English. Indonesia has had
amongst its big headline-makers over recent years:

Baligate - a scam that relieved Bank Bali of about US$70 million during its
bail-out by the state
Bruneigate - the alleged misappropriation of a multi-million dollar gift
from the Sultan of Brunei
Buloggate - the alleged theft of funds from State-Owned Enterprise BULOG
... and in keeping with the American origin of the suffix, there was even a
Hollywood flavoured Buloggate II.

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From: Gerard McEwen (grmce@cobweb.com.au)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--watergate

During the recent Australian Federal election the Government propagated the
false story that asylum seekers had thrown their children overboard when
confronted by H.M.A.S. Adelaide. As this story unravelled in Senate
Estimates hearings a letter writer to 'The Australian' newspaper referred
to it as 'childreninthewatergate'.

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From: Earl Bender (earl@avenel.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--throttlebottom
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/throttlebottom.html

As one of the few folks who have probably ever seen Of Thee I Sing
performed, I concur that it is quite a funny and sometimes brutal satire.
For me, the funniest running gag continuing through the whole production is
that Throttlebottom cannot get a Washington, D.C. library card because no
one will recognize the Vice President as a person or a job.

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From: Lee Hartsfeld (hartsfl@nationwide.com)
Subject: Presidential connections

This week you promised "words with presidential connections," but "Enron"
has yet to appear. Or "Lay."

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From: Joe Chapline (joechap@srnet.com)
Subject: dactyls

In choosing Wintergreen and Throttlebottom as the names for the two
candidates, (Pres. and VP) the authors of "Of Thee I Sing" reflect the
law of the tripod. A tripod can always find stability no matter how
rough the ground under it. The dactyl is the "tripod" of language. It
represents stability and gives a feeling of comfort and is easy to remember.

The names of the two candidates, Wintergreen and Throttlebottom reflect
this point of sensitivity. Wintergreen is a dactyl; Throttlebottom, with
four syllables, clatters and suggests instability. He is likely to be the
loser, or to come in second, in an election.

The mottoes that have become famous are all tripods: "Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity;" and " Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness." Winston
Churchill tried to break the mold with "Blood, Sweat, Toil, and Tears"
but the world has cut him down to size by eliminating one of his travails:
Today it is "Blood, Sweat and Tears." "Toil" has dropped out for
contributing "instability" to the motto. If tripods are so stable, where
did nature get our five-dactyl hands? The three-toed sloth would seem to
have the edge on us.

............................................................................
Dictionary: Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order. -John Ralston
Saul, essayist, novelist, and critic (1947- )

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