And I too of the Mannahatta, singing thereof and no less in myself than the whole of the Mannahatta in itself, ["Leaves of Grass," 1855] Joseph Alfred Scoville (rhymes with shovel )[1], born in 1815, was one of the poor boys of Connecticut who came to New York to get rich in business. The secret of their success, Scoville later wrote, was the perfect willingness to be useful and to do what they…
In personal curiosity I was looking at a webpage about the history of H.P. Sauce. The page also included a history of A.1. Sauce, which some people evidently think tastes similar. It claimed that this latter sauce was invented by the chef of King George IV and that the king himself gave it the name of A-1 . While I felt an initial burst of excitement I m a big fan of George IV or Prinny as he was…
One of etymonline s favorite correspondents asks, " are there data on when the word [soccer] became standard in the U.S. , diverging from UK usage?" Thanks to digital archives, used intelligently by humans, the data on soccer is deep enough to root through in quest of an answer. You won t come back with a clean date, of course. Such a word spreads in subcultures before it blossoms in the head of…
Certain foods are synonymous with the summertime . Those that are served at barbecues and picnics have an especial association with outdoor events that (in many places) are only possible in the warm summer weather. As one 1926 newspaper muses: This used to be the season of the year when one would get the agreeable odor of new mown hay when he went on a trip to the country. But since the auto has…
The orthographic mass-scrum known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee gets under way soon. Spelling bees are rooted in the old America. Their name grew out of a custom of shared work for the common wealth. Their form grew out of a holiday tradition in rural New England. Later, spelling bees were a great fad that swept the English-speaking world (and yielded commercial products such as the…
Modern English is a listy language. We have an A-list, checklist, blacklist, backlist, waitlist, wish-list, existentialist (kidding), bucket-list, playlist, shopping list, enemies list, mailing list yo-ho-ho, the listing life for us. And they become figures in our speech. We use shopping list in a general way for any set of things sought that must be paid for. Why, out of all of these, does…
Good weather infects people with a strange desire to eat outdoors, so that all the cute little bugs can share in your food while you're busy getting a sunburn. This was probably a great lot of fun back when alcohol was permitted outdoors and there was no air conditioning inside. But if, like myself, you find yourself cowering under the shade of the nearest building while all the good decent people…
Recently I stumbled across an earlier date than what we d had on the term rock and roll . The term itself is a sex reference (the imagery is pretty obvious) which started turning into a style of music. Whilst updating, I noticed our rock and roll entry didn t have much of a definition on it, and I thought I ought to write one. First thing to do towards the project was listen to the oldest rock…
On the one hand, I incline to worry that by telling people how to do this, I might teach scammers how to do it; but on the other, I m sure that just as many or more people will benefit from the knowledge of how this is done, using it to spot the first group of guys and not be fooled by them. Now, I may be famously a fan of fortune telling, but I don t think all methods of performing it are equal,…
To handle it with kid gloves is to treat the subject delicately. The phrase implies an attempt to manage what is at hand with a velvet touch. It can be a positive quality, involving civility, diplomacy, and discretion. It does not necessarily imply coddling of those who would be better spanked. And it has nothing to do with children. Kid as "child" is the old Scandinavian word for a young goat, in…