Friday Fact!

1999 
(Updated most every weekend)

Currently FF is distributed to friends and co-workers via E-mail and is updated to this web every weekend. I am working on a Java applet to better present all the FFs on this web .... stay tuned.

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While the Gospels describe Jesus' birth in detail, they never mention the date, so historians do not know on what date he was born. The Roman Catholic Church chose December 25 as the day for the Feast of the Nativity in order to give Christian meaning to existing pagan rituals. The Catholic Church hoped to draw pagans into its religion by allowing them to continue their revelry while simultaneously honoring the birthday of Jesus.

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The twelve days of Christmas represent the twelve days from December 25th till January 6th. The sixth is known as Epiphany or the day that the Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem to greet the baby Jesus.

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The practice of kissing under the mistletoe during the Christmas holiday season is believed to have started in Scandinavia. For the Scandinavians, mistletoe belonged to Frigga, (Freya) goddess of love and the kissing custom is rooted in this romantic association.

Sources: Microsoft Encarta '99 & The Universal Almanac '92

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Word of The Week

PUERILE - (PURE-uhl or PURE-ile) - Adj

1 : juvenile
2 : childish, silly

The man's puerile attitude did not win him favor with the judge.

Robert May, an advertising copyrighter for Montgomery Wards Chicago department store, invented Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer in 1939. May wrote a poem that the department store distributed to its customers as a free holiday gift booklet. More than 2 million copies of the booklet were distributed during the 1939 holiday season. In the poem, Rudolph (originally named Rollo) was a shiny-nosed reindeer that became one of Santa's helpers.

Rudolph's popularity grew in 1949 after Gene Autry recorded a song based on May's poem. Autry's record went to the top of "The Hit Parade" and sold more than 8 million copies.

Sociologists have called Rudolph the only new addition to the folklore of Santa Claus in the twentieth century.

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Candy Canes were created as a tribute to Christ. The pure white candy in the shape of a staff refers to Jesus as the sinless shepherd; a broad red stripe symbolizes blood shed for the sins of the world, and three thinner stripes represent lashes from the Roman soldiers.

Sources: msn.com & Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things

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Word of The Week

ACCOUTREMENT - (ac·cou·tre·ment) - Noun

1 a : EQUIPMENT, TRAPPINGS specifically : a soldier's outfit usually not including clothes and weapons -- usually used in plural b : an accessory item of clothing or equipment -- usually used in plural 

The mall Santa, in his red suit and accoutrements, faced a busy day in front of the camera.

(Submitted by Lisa Wood)

Modern day photography is based on the fact that certain chemicals are photosensitive, that is, they darken when exposed to light. The compounds most widely used today are silver halide crystals, which are salts consisting of silver and chemicals called halogens (usually bromine, chlorine, or iodine). For the purpose of producing a photograph, these silver salts are distributed in gelatin to make a mixture called an emulsion, which is applied to a plastic film that can be used in a camera.

The amount of silver halide present within the emulsion determines how sensitive the film is to light. Film manufactures represent this light sensitivity with an ISO (International Standards Organization) rating also known as the films "speed." Speeds of less than 100 are considered "slow." ISO 400 and above is considered "fast." Slower speed film is less expensive and produces better pictures. The trade off with slow film is that it takes more light to properly expose it. Slow film is generally unsuitable for action photography due to the high shutter speeds required to properly expose the film and "freeze" the action. High-speed film requires more silver to produce, which increases its cost. The additional silver contained within the emulsion of high-speed film tends to produce "grainy" pictures. ISO 200 speed film is generally considered a good multi purpose choice. 

The most popular film type in use today is 35 millimeter. 35 millimeter refers to the physical width of the film

Source: Microsoft Encarta '99 and various film WWW sites.

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Quote of The Week

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

-- Albert Einstein

The United States Military Academy was conceived in 1783 after the Revolutionary War by then General George Washington. Washington wanted an institution devoted exclusively to the military arts and sciences of warfare so as to guarantee America's freedom by preparing professional soldiers. The Academy's location in a region known as West Point was chosen because of the strategic significance of an "S" curve in the Hudson River.

Thomas Jefferson actually founded the school on July 4th 1802 and it quickly grew to a cadet corps of 250. Several West Point graduates dominated on both sides of the Civil War of 1861 including Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Meade, Lee, Jackson and Jefferson Davis. Of the war's sixty major battles, West Pointers commanded both sides in 55. West Point began admitting female cadets in 1976 and today has 4000 cadets in training.

Source: The United States Military Academy and Panati's Extraordinary

Origins of Everyday Things

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Word of The Week

BURKE - \BERK\ - Verb

1 : to suppress quietly or indirectly
2 : bypass, avoid

The press release burked the fact that the company may soon file for bankruptcy protection.

The star Alpha Ursae Minoris, also known as Polaris, currently resides within 1 degree of the celestial North Pole. The star is now known as the North Star as it is frequently used to navigate and determine true azimuth and astronomic latitude.

The positions of the celestial poles change as the earth's axis moves with the earth's precessional motion, and as the north celestial pole assumes different positions relative to the constellations, different stars become the North Star. The Earth's axis will vary 23 degrees over about 26,000 years.

In the year 7500 the brightest star in the constellation Cepheus, Alpha Cephei, will mark the pole, and in the year 15,000 the star Vega, in the constellation Lyra, will be the North Star. About 9000 years after that, Polaris will again become the North Star.

Source: www.nasa.gov and Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word of The Week

PRECESSIONAL - Adjective

: a comparatively slow gyration of the rotation axis of a spinning body about another line intersecting it so as to describe a cone.

After many years, the Earth's precessional motion causes a new star to become the North Star.

Adolf Hitler kept a framed photograph of Henry Ford on his desk and Ford  kept one of Hitler on his desk in Dearborn, Michigan. Hitler had used in Mein Kampf some of Ford's anti-Semitic views, and he always welcomed Ford's substantial contributions to the Nazi movement. During the early 1920's Ford owned a newspaper, which regularly published anti-Semitic material. The paper was widely condemned. 

Source: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts and The Henry Ford Museum

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Word of The Week

CONVOKE - (kun-VOKE) - Verb

: to call together to a meeting

The CEO convoked a special board meeting to discuss the current state of the company.

The term Portland cement was first used in 1824 by Joseph Aspdin, a British cement maker, because of the resemblance between concrete made from his cement and Portland stone, which was much used in building in England. Portland cement is a finely ground, manufactured mineral product that when combined with water, sand, gravel and other materials forms concrete, the most widely used construction material in the world. Cement is the glue that holds together the sand and gravel to make concrete.

Cements manufacture consists of the mining of limestone and small amounts of clay and silica, followed by crushing and burning in a kiln, with the rate of firing depending on the slope and rotational velocity of the kiln. As the materials move through the kiln, they are heated to about 2700 degrees and calcined, or chemically converted into small, grayish-black pellets of cement called clinker. Clinker has no other use than for the production of cement. When the clinker cools, it is mixed with small amounts of gypsum (which regulates setting time), and is ground into a very fine powder. Only then it is called cement.

Source: www.txi.com & Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word of The Week

TOADY - (TOE-dee) - noun

: one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors

Jim was the ultimate office toady, bad-mouthing the boss behind her back, then leaping to fawn over her when she walked into the room.

Jim Crow was a character created by Thomas Dartmouth Rice for a song and dance routine that became popular during the 1830's. Rice impersonated an old crippled black slave who embodied the negative stereotypes of blacks.

The 1880s witnessed a profusion of segregationist legislation, separating blacks and whites. The system of Southern segregation was often called the Jim Crow system, after Rice's minstrel show character.

Source: Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word Of the Week

PROSELYTIZE - (PROS-uh-luh-tize) - verb

to seek to convert a person to one's own religion or belief

You may explain to me why you believe as you do, but please do not proselytize.

Saint Elmo's Fire is a traditional name for a luminous electric discharge that may appear on projecting objects during heavy storms. It is usually seen on steeples, the tips of aircraft wings, the mastheads of ships, and sometimes near the head of a person or the horns of cattle. The phenomenon is so called because Mediterranean sailors considered it a visible token sent by their patron saint, Saint Elmo, who has been identified with Saint Peter González, a renowned Spanish member of the Dominicans. The same electric discharge known as Saint Elmo's Fire in nature is known as a "neon light" when it occurs purposefully in a tube filled with neon.

Source Microsoft Encarta '99 & other sources

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Word of The Week

DAVY JONES'S LOCKER - (day-vee-jones-LAH-ker) - noun

: the bottom of the ocean

The distraught stockholder leapt from the bridge and ended up in Davy Jones's locker.

Cholesterol is an essential fat-like substance produced by the liver and found in all your cells, it is used to form cell membranes, and for the manufacture of sex hormones, bile acids and Vitamin D. Dietary cholesterol is found only in foods that come from animals. Concentrated sources in foods include egg yolks, organ meats, fatty meats, and whole milk dairy products. An excess amount of cholesterol is the blood is known to cause circulatory diseases such as atherosclerosis.

The most important factor about your serum cholesterol level is the ratio of protein carriers known as High Density Lipo-protein (HDL) to Low Density Lipo-protein (LDL). HDL carries cholesterol from the blood to the liver where it is metabolized and expelled from the body. LDL ("bad cholesterol") carries cholesterol from the liver to the blood. Since the body creates its own cholesterol a higher level of HDL ("good cholesterol") is a desirable trait because excess cholesterol from the diet will be expelled from the body.

Source: McKinley Heath Center and Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word of The Week

RUBICON - (ROO-bi-kahn) - noun

a bounding or limiting line; especially : one that when crossed commits a person irrevocably

Ted had hinted that he might run for office, but had not yet crossed the Rubicon by formally announcing his candidacy.

Trees shed their leaves during autumn to conserve moisture. Photosynthesis takes place in the leaves of trees. And the leaves also let excess moisture evaporate from the tree. But during the winter, when the ground is frozen, a tree can't absorb water through its roots. If it kept losing moisture through its leaves, the tree would dehydrate and die.

When a tree senses the shorter days, less intense sun, and cooler temperatures of autumn, it begins to form a layer of new cells at the place where leaves attach to their stems. These cell layers ultimately completely plug up the tubes that carry water and minerals to the leaves. No water -- no photosynthesis -- so the green pigment chlorophyll in the leaf is no longer needed. When it goes, the other color pigments present in the leaf are unmasked and the colors of fall appear.

Source: Deborah Byrd from NSF's "Earth and Sky"

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Word of The Week

PRECIPICE - (PRES-i-pis) - noun

a steep mass of rock, usually high up and often overhanging

When you get to the top of the mountain, don't walk out on the precipice.

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Several readers commented on the origin of the "$" symbol for the US dollar mentioned in the last Friday Fact.

The first issue was that the currency in Spain is the Peseta not the Peso. This is true, however the first Peseta (small Peso) did not appear in Spain until 1809. Prior to this time the units of currency were Reales and Pesos. It was not until the late 1800's that the Peseta became the official currency of Spain.

The second issue was a popular myth that the symbol originated from the combination of the letters U S.

The following link should provide a complete answer both issues.

www.ece.iit.edu/~prh/coins/PiN/ccp.html

Two hundred years ago when Americans were still using Spanish money (The U.S. did not begin minting money until 1794), it was common to shorten "200 pesos" to "ps 200." As time went by, the P and S began to get pushed together. Eventually people started writing the up-and-down stroke of the P on top of the S, and the dollar sign was born.

Source The Fun Stuff You Never Learned in School Ed Zotti(Editor)

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The joints in your fingers are enclosed in capsules that contain a lubricating fluid. When the joint is moved near the end of its range, gas that is dissolved in the joint fluid suddenly comes out of solution, forming a small bubble and making the popping noise. The joint can't be "popped" again until the gas redissolves.

Source http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/medicine/medicine11.html

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Word of The Week

NONPLUS - (nahn-PLUHS) - verb

to cause to be at a loss as to what to say, think, or do : perplex

It was unusual for anything to nonplus Tom, but Jason's question caught him so completely by surprise that it left him utterly speechless.

WD-40 was invented in 1953 by a small California company that set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry. After the 40th attempt they hit upon a winning formulation and its first use was as a rust inhibitor for the Atlas Missile. Word got back to the firm that several employees of the aerospace company that originally purchased the product were taking it home and using it around the house. Three years later the first cans of WD– 40 (Water Displacement – 40th attempt) hit store shelves. It went on to become an American institution.

In 1993 the WD-40 Company celebrated its 40th anniversary by breaking the $100 million sales mark with its one and only product. That year the company was also listed among the Top Ten Most Profitable companies on the NASDAQ exchange. The product can be found in 4 out of 5 American homes and is used by 81% of professionals at work.

Source www.wd40.com

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Word of The Week

KIPPER – (KIH – per) – Noun

a male salmon or sea trout during or after the spawning season

The traditional British breakfast of kippers and eggs was threatened in the 1980s when overfishing by foreign ships seriously depleted herring stocks in the North Sea

The Code of Hammurabi is a collection of the laws and edicts of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, and the earliest legal code known in its entirety. (1780 BC) It is one of the foundations of modern day jurisprudence. One of its principles is that "the strong shall not oppress the weak." The code is particularly humane for the time in which it was promulgated; it attests to the law and justice of
Hammurabi's rule. The provisions of the code cover many legal matters, including false accusation, witchcraft, military service, land and business regulations, family laws, tariffs, wages, trades, loans, and debts.

A copy of the code, engraved on a block of black basalt that is 2.25 m (7 ft 5 in) in height, was unearthed by a team of French archaeologists at Sûsa, Iraq, formerly ancient Elam, during the winter of 1901 to 1902. The block, broken in three pieces, has been restored and is now in the
Louvre in Paris.

Sources Microsoft Encarta ’99 and the World Book Encyclopedia

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Word of The Week

JURISPRUDENCE – (ju-ris-pru-dence) - Noun

1 a : a system or body of law b : the course of court decisions
2 the science or philosophy of law
3 a department of law

Frank earned a degree in jurisprudence.

NASDAQ is an acronym for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system. Stockbrokers acting on behalf of their clients initiate trading on the system. These brokers place orders with certain NASDAQ brokers, called market makers, who concentrate on trading specific stocks. The broker and the market maker negotiate to reach a price for the stock. Unlike the NYSE the market maker acts as an intermediary in the transaction. Each market maker competes for customer orders by displaying buy and sell quotations for a guaranteed number of shares. Once an order is received, the market maker will immediately purchase for or sell from its own inventory, or seek the other side of the trade until it is executed.

The NASDAQ system was started in 1971 and has no central location. Its market makers are located all over the country and make trades by telephone and via the Internet. Because brokers and market makers trade stocks directly instead of on the floor of a stock exchange, NASDAQ is called an over the counter (OTC) market. The term over-the-counter refers to the direct nature of the trading, as in a store where goods are handed over a counter.

Source: Microsoft Encarta ’99 and NASDAQ

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Word of the Week

MAWKISH – (MAW-kish ) (rhymes with "hawkish") – adjective

1 : having an insipid often unpleasant taste
2 : sickly or puerilely sentimental

The mawkish medicine caused the child to make a sour face.

Prior to the U.S. Revolutionary War, a border dispute broke out between the Calvert family of Maryland and the Penn family of Pennsylvania. In 1763 two British astronomers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were called upon to survey the area and settle the land dispute. The east-west boundary was drawn 393 km (about 244 mi) west of the Delaware River. (The current southern border of Pennsylvania) Further work was done in 1773 and 1779 that defined a north-south border between Maryland and Delaware.

The term Mason-Dixon Line was popularly used to designate the line that divided the so-called free states from the slave states during the debates in Congress over the Missouri Compromise in 1820. This legislation forbade slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30', except in Missouri. In this sense, the Mason-Dixon Line meant not only the old disputed boundary line but also the line of the Ohio River from the Pennsylvania boundary to its mouth, where it flows into the Mississippi River.

Source: The Random House Encyclopedia and The World Book

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Word Of the Week

SKULK – (skulk) – Intransitive Verb

1 : to move in a stealthy or furtive manner
2 : to hide or conceal something (as oneself) often out of cowardice or fear or with sinister intent

The aircraft’s design allowed it to skulk through the sky with ease.

Think it is impossible to become a millionaire during your lifetime? Sure, a lucky person may hit the Lotto, or get a visit from Ed McMahon but if you would rather count on a sure thing consider the following. Money invested at a return of only 9 % per year (a conservative growth mutual fund) will double in only 8 years. In order to amass 1,000,000 at age 65 look at the following chart.

Age 57 $500,000
Age 49 $250,000
Age 41 $125,000
Age 33 $62,500
Age 25 $31,250
Age 17 $15,625
Age 9 $7,813

If you can invest $31,250 at age 25 you will be a millionaire when you retire without saving another dime from that point on. The advantages of doing this include eliminating the worry over the liquidy of Social Security and / or Corporate pensions, not to mention the flexibility and freedom of a comfortable retirement.

I can assure everyone that this is not hard to do if you start young. It just takes discipline to get the job done!

Source: The Dallas Morning News

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Word of the Week

PRECOCIAL - (prih-KOH-shul) - adjective

capable of a high degree of independent activity from birth

The precocial offspring of ducks can run, swim, and find food for themselves within 36 hours of hatching.

The Greek words Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter directly translate into English as Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. The initials of this Greek phrase “IXOYE” spell the Greek word “ichthys” or “ichthus” which translates into the English word “fish”. Christians first used the ichthys symbol during the first century BC to protest persecution by Roman Emperors. Today the ichthys fish symbol and Greek lettering remain a popular symbol of Christianity throughout the world.

Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia and various web sites

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According to data reported in the 1995 Encyclopedia Britaannica, approximately 33% of the world’s population of 5.66 billion people claimed Christianity as a religion. Of the Christians, 55% claimed to be Catholics while Protestants accounted for only 20% of the total.

Source The 1996 Information Please Almanac

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Word of The Week

TENUOUS - (TEN-yoo-us) - adjective

having little substance; thin, flimsy

The supervisors' excuses were tenuous and did not prevent him from being fired.

With the conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy, the Anglo-Saxon language of the British Isles underwent several alterations.

As the French speaking Normans established themselves as the ruling caste, they treated the native Saxons and their language as inferior. Many Saxon words were regarded as crude simply because they were spoken by Saxons. Some of these words, once inoffensive, survived and passed into English as course, impolite or foul expressions.

Source: Panati's extraordinary origins of everyday things by Charles Panati

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Word of The Week

CADUCEUS - ( kuh-DUE-see-us or kuh-DUE-shus) - noun

1 : the symbolic staff of a herald; specifically : a representation of a

staff with two entwined snakes and two wings at the top
2 : an insignia bearing a caduceus and symbolizing a physician

Adrienne knew she had found Dr. Moore's office when she saw the familiar winged staff and double-entwined snakes of the caduceus on the plaque on the door.

Ethan Allen, one of the Green Mountain Boys in the American Revolution, informed the Continental Congress that he was fighting for the independance not of the United States, but of Vermont, which he wished to become a seperate nation. Vermont declared its independence in 1779, but this was not recognized by the Continental Congress. When his goal appeared doomed to failure, Allen later in 1779 negotiated with the British in an effort to have Vermont made part of Canada. On the basis
of this activity he was charged with treason, but, because the negotiations were demonstrably intended to force action on the Vermont case by the Continental Congress, the charge was never substantiated.

Source: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts and Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word of The Week

PLUVIAL - (PLOO-vee-ul) - ADJ
of or pertaining to rain; rainy

If you enjoy pluvial climates, Seattle would be a great place to live.

The Arctic Circle is a parallel of latitude on the surface of the earth at 66.5 degrees north. It marks the southern limit of the area in which the sun does not rise on the winter solstice or set on the summer solstice. Periods of continuous day or night increase from one day at the Arctic Circle to six months at the North Pole. Above the Arctic Circle periods of night and day are more heavily influenced by earth’s orbital position around the sun than earth’s rotation around its axis.
Areas just south of the Arctic Circle experience the “Midnight Sun” near the summer solstice as the sun only sets for a brief period each day.

A similar zone called the Antarctic Circle exists below 66.5 degrees south.

Sources: Microsoft Encarta ’99 and The World Book

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Word of The Week:

RETINUE - (ret' n-oo) - noun

The retainers or attendants accompanying a high ranking person.

The Queen of Sheba and her retinue arrived home safely after a visit with King Solomon

Florence Nightingale was a British nurse who established the foundations of modern nursing with her treatment of the sick and injured during the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856. Once back in London after the war, she founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses using money donated in tribute to her services. The school marked the beginning of professional education in the nursing field. Her book Notes on Nursing became the first definitive textbook for the field.

Source: Microsoft Encarta ‘99

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Word of The Week

DONNYBROOK – (DAH-nee-brook) - noun

1 : free-for-all, brawl
2 : a usually public quarrel or dispute

A donnybrook broke out on the pitcher’s mound when the batter was struck by a wild pitch.

Origin:

The Donnybrook Fair was an annual event held in Donnybrook -- then a suburb of Dublin, Ireland -- from the 13th to the 19th centuries. The fair was legendary for the vast quantities of liquor consumed there, for the number of hasty marriages performed during the week following it,
and, most of all, for the frequent brawls that erupted throughout it. Eventually, the fair's reputation for tumult was its undoing. From the 1790s on there were campaigns against the drunken brawl the fair had become. The event was abolished in 1855, but not before its name had become a generic term for a free-for-all.

Source: Merriam Webster

The Bastille was a former French prison fortress in Paris that became a symbol of royal tyranny. It was built about 1370 as part of the fortifications on the east wall of the city. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Bastille was used primarily for housing political prisoners. Citizens of every class and profession, if for any reason deemed obnoxious to the royal court, were arrested by secret warrants called lettres-de-cachet and imprisoned indefinitely in the Bastille without accusation or trial.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, the Bastille was attacked and captured by a mob assisted by royal troops. Two days later the destruction of the stronghold was begun amid great public rejoicing. The site is now an open square, called the Place de la Bastille. Bastille Day is the national holiday in France, celebrated annually on July 14.

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Word of The Week

TINCTURE - (TING-chur) - noun

a tiny bit of something

The admin's stern demeanor showed for a moment a slight tincture of amusement.

The name Yugoslavia means Land of the South Slavs. The name comes from the fact that the first Yugoslav state was formed in 1918 with the goal of uniting three groups of South Slavs: the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. These people migrated from what are now southern Poland and Russia. Each Slavic group formed its own independent state.Yugoslavia's mix of people gave the country a rich variety of cultures. However, differences in religion, language, and culture eventually contributed to Yugoslavia's breakup and the current fighting in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

From 1946 to 1991, Yugoslavia was a federal state consisting of six republics. In 1991 and 1992, four of the republics--Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia--declared their independence. Serbia and Montenegro formed a new, smaller Yugoslavia. However, the United
States and most other nations refused to recognize the country.

Source: The World Book Encyclopedia

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Word of The Week

EXTOL - (eks-TOLL) - Verb

praise highly

The system proposed by the instrumentation designer was extolled for being cost effective and easy to understand.

Esperanto, pronounced ehs puh RAHN toh, is the most widely used international language. More than 10 million people have learned Esperanto since its creation. There are currently about 2 million
speakers worldwide. L. L. Zamenhof, a Polish physician is the languages creator. He published a book about the language, Lingvo Internacia (1887), under the pen name Dr. Esperanto. The word esperanto means one who hopes in that language.

Esperanto has a simple, uniform structure. For example, the accent of a word always falls on the next-to-last syllable. Adjectives end in a, adverbs end in e, and nouns end in o. But when a noun is used as an object, an n is added at the end of the word. Plurals end in j. The basic vocabulary of Esperanto consists mainly of root words common to the Indo-European languages. The following sentence is written in Esperanto: La astronauto, per speciala instrumento, fotografas la lunon. The translation: The astronaut, with a special instrument, photographs the moon.

Source: The World Book encyclopedia

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Word of the Week

PALLIATE - (PA-lee-ate) - verb

1 : to reduce the violence of (a disease) : abate
2 : to cover by excuses and apologies
3 : to moderate the intensity of

The salesman tried to palliate for his products poor performance, but in the end he lost the account.

Aspirin was originally a trade name for Bayer’s pain reliever acetylsalicylic acid or ASA. Willow bark is the original source of the drug that was known by the Greeks more than 2,500 years ago. In the early 1970’s researcher John Vane discovered that aspirin relieved pain not by working as an anesthetic to deaden pain but rather by working to reduce the production of prostaglandins. This discovery explained why aspirin seemed to work to relieve headache pain as well as the pain of a
sprained ankle without affecting anything else.

Prostaglandins are fatty acids that are manufactured by nearly every cell in the human body. These acids serve many biological functions. In particular a certain prostaglandin known as PGE2 increases the sensitivity of pain receptors and produces discomfort, inflammation, fever and irritation in areas of the body that are injured and / or not functioning properly. PGE2 is also known to constrict blood vessels which is one of the most common causes of a headache. Hence aspirin
works peripherally or directly at the source of pain or discomfort rather than centrally in brain like morphine does.

Sources: Microsoft Encarta '96 and "How does asprin find a headache" by David Feldman

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Word of the Week

FETID - (FED-uhd) - adj.

having a heavy offensive smell

The trash collector was accustomed to the fetid odor of rotting garbage.

The idea of daylight saving was mentioned in a whimsical essay in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin; it was first advocated seriously by a British builder, William Willett, in the pamphlet Waste of Daylight (1907). Daylight saving has been used in the United States and in many European countries since World War I, when the system was adopted in order to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power. Some localities reverted to standard time after the war, but others retained daylight saving.
During World War II the U.S. Congress passed a law putting the entire country on "war time," which set clocks 1 hour ahead of standard time for the duration of the war. In the U.S during peacetime, daylight saving was a subject of controversy.

The Uniform Time Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1966, established a system of uniform time (within each time zone) daylight saving time throughout the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the state legislature voted to keep the entire state on standard time. Under legislation enacted in 1986, daylight saving time begins at 2 AM on the first Sunday of April and ends at 2 AM on the last Sunday of October. Currently Arizona, Hawaii and parts of Indiana do not observe DST.

Source: The World Almanac '93 and Microsoft Encarta '96

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Word of the Week

PALAVER - (pal-la-ver) - noun

1 a: Idle chatter b: Talk intended to charm or beguile
2 a: a long parley usually between persons of different cultures or
levels of sophistication b : conference, discussion

Ross Perot's palaver did little to convince voters.

The distinction between a vowel and a consonant is simply the free flow of breath. The open sounds with free breath are called vowels. The closed sounds, called consonants, are made with the breath wholly or partly checked. Stopped consonants require complete stoppage of the breath. They are b, d, g, k, p, and t. Other consonants require only partial stoppage of breath. They are l, m, n, r, w, and y. The spirants are open consonants that require friction in the oral passages. They are f, s, v, and z. H is an aspirant, or breathed, consonant.

Source: The World Book Encyclopedia

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Word of The Week

RUBRIC – (ROO-BRICK) – noun

1 a : an authoritative rule; especially : a rule for conduct of a liturgical service b (1) : NAME, TITLE; specifically : the title of a statute (2) : something under which a thing is classed : CATEGORY c : an explanatory or introductory commentary
2 : a heading of a part of a book or manuscript done or underlined in a color (as red) different from the rest
3 : an established rule, tradition, or custom

The aspiring author hoped that his novel would some day come under the rubric of classic fiction.

In the old Roman (Julian) calendar, the ides was a day near the middle of each month. It was the 13th of all months except March, May, July, and October, when the ides fell on the 15th. The term "Beware the ides of March" is a reference to the day Julius Caesar was assassinated by his friend Marcus Junius Brutus, March 15th, 44 B.C.

Source: The World Book Encyclopedia

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Oklahomans are called "Sooners" to honor the states first settlers who crossed into Oklahoma Territory sooner than the rest and obtained the choicest pieces of land
.
Source: The Book of Answers by Barbara Berliner

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Word of The Week

PERFIDIOUS - (per-FID-I-us) - Adjective

untrustworthy

The perfidious scientist was fired for selling nuclear secrets to China.

During the spring of 1999 the US mint will begin distribution of 50 newly designed quarter dollars that feature reverse designs unique to each state. The new coins will be issued each year from 1999 through 2008. The order of distribution reflects each states admission to the Union. The first five coins that will be minted belong to Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut.

Delaware’s design features Caesar Rodney (see attachment). On July 1-2, 1776, Rodney embarked on a ride that made him the “Hero of Delaware.” The Continental Congress was meeting during the spring and summer of 1776 to contemplate declaring its independence from the British Crown. Rodney was one of two delegates out of Delaware’s three who favored independence. The Delaware patriot made an eighty - mile ride through the summer's heat and terrible thunderstorms while suffering from a serious facial cancer and asthma. He arrived at Independence Hall on the
afternoon of July 2 during the last minutes of the debate on Independence in time to cast a deciding vote for Delaware in favor of Independence.

Source: The US Mint

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Word of the Week

SISYPHUS – (sis-y-phus) – Noun
SISYPHEAN – (Sis·y·phe·an) - Adjective

A legendary king of Corinth condemned eternally to repeat the cycle of rolling a heavy rock up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down again as it nears the top. - Noun

Of, relating to, or suggestive of the labors of Sisyphus. – Adjective

The instrumentation system designer faced a Sisyphean struggle in an effort to collect believable data.

“Shock” as a physiological term refers to a state of acute circulatory insufficiency of the blood. It is the result of the inability of the heart to pump an adequate volume of blood at sufficient pressure for
normal blood passage through the major organs of the body. Shock may be caused by heart failure, injury, burns, hemorrhage, or major surgery. Sudden infection or poisoning and abnormal extracellular fluid volume resulting from excessive loss of water and electrolytes from the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, or skin may also cause shock.

Apathy, weakness, shallow breathing, rapid heartbeat, feeble pulse, lowered blood pressure, and coldness and clamminess of skin generally characterize shock. During the early stage consciousness is retained, but alertness is diminished. Sudden peripheral circulatory failure, however, affects the brain and causes fainting. In less severe shock compensatory constriction of the blood vessels helps restore circulation, but if shock persists, compensatory mechanisms fail and local anemia damages vital organs, such as the brain, heart, liver, and lungs.

First aid for shock includes having the victim lie down, keeping him or her warm but not overheated, stopping any bleeding, and, if the person is not breathing, administering artificial respiration. A physician or paramedic may administer oxygen and sedative drugs and take measures to lower the body temperature if it is very high. Medical personnel may give intravenous glucose and salt solutions, and transfusions of plasma or whole blood may be required when shock is due to blood loss.

Source: Microsoft Encarta ‘99

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Word of the Week

DALLIANCE - (DAL-ee-unts) - noun

Frivolous action

Dancing around the “May Pole” is a dalliance enjoyed by British school children and telecommunications companies alike.

Diphtheria is an acute and highly infectious disease, affecting children particularly, characterized by the formation of a false membrane in the passages of the upper respiratory system. The cause of the disease is Corynebacterium diphtheria, a bacillus discovered in 1883.

The diphtheria bacilli enter the body through the mouth and nose and attack the mucous membranes, where they multiply and secrete a powerful toxin. The toxin damages the heart and central nervous system, and can lead to death. Beginning about five days after exposure to diphtheria, a gray-white exudate is formed where the bacteria attack the walls of the nose and throat. This exudate increases in size and thickness, becoming a grayish false membrane, and it may block the air passages. Surgery may be necessary to prevent asphyxiation. Before the development of diphtheria antitoxin in 1894 the mortality rate from the disease averaged 35 percent and was as high as 90 percent in cases of diphtheria of the larynx.

Diphtheria antitoxins are administered as a series of 5 injections during the first 5 years of life. The DTaP (or DTP) vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough) DTaP and DTP are different forms of the same vaccine. DTaP is generally preferred, as it has fewer side effects, but both are acceptable.

Source www.kidshealth.org & Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word of the Week

BESOT - (bi-SOT) - Verb

1: Infatuate
2: to make foolish or intoxicated

By the end of the evening, the bride was besot by champagne and happiness.

The word “noon” comes from the Latin nonus, which means “nine.” Originally, it referred to the ninth hour of the day counting from sunrise, which, on the year average, is at 6:00 am. This put nonus at 3:00 pm, or halfway between midday and sunset. What was originally the middle of the afternoon has come to mean the middle of the day itself.

Source: Issac Asimov’s Book of Facts

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A carat measures 200 milligrams and was originally the weight of a seed of the carob tree in the Mediterranean region. The unit of measurement is used to classify precious gems.

Source: The 1996 Information Please Almanac

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Word of The Week

PERNICIOUS – (per-NISH-us) - Adjective

harmful or damaging

Experts agree that drinking and driving is a pernicious activity.

The Caesar salad has nothing to do with Rome or Julius Caesar. In the 1920s an Italian-American restaurateur named Caesar Cardini ran a Tijuana hot spot favored by Hollywood bigwigs and their glamorous gal pals. One fateful day the food truck failed to deliver. And the restaurant was booked solid.

Food pro that he was, Cardini went to work with whatever he could find around the kitchen, crunchy sweet romaine, the whole elegant inner leaves only; aged mellow Parmesan; a swipe of garlic; plenty of olive oil; and a raw egg to hold it all together and give it depth—and protein. Finally a squeeze of lemon, a grind of pepper, a pinch of salt, a drop of Worcestershire with its hint of anchovy were added. Cardini put all the ingredients together in a wooden bowl……. as they say in
French—voilà! The Caesar salad was born. It is an American success story and shows up on more restaurant’s menus than any other classic dish.

Source: Clark Wolf in Forbes Magazine

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www.greatguy.com is approaching 200,000 hits! You are invited to have a
laugh...... :-)


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Word of The Week:

IMPORTUNE - im-por-TUNE - Verb

1. To ask urgently or repeatedly
2. ANNOY, TROUBLE
intransitive senses : to beg, urge, or solicit persistently or
troublesomely

The children importuned their parents to take them to Six Flags.

On April 1, 1999 Canada will gain a new territory named Nunavut. The area, currently the central and eastern part of the Northwest Territories, covers about 2 million sq km (about 772,000 sq mi) and comprises one-fifth of Canada's land mass. The new territory will be, in effect, a homeland for the Inuit, the original inhabitants of the region. They make up about 85 percent of the region's estimated 1995 population of 24,900. The agreement to create the new territory resulted from a land claim settlement between the Canadian government and the Inuit. Nunavut, "Our Land" in the Inuit language, will become the third Canadian territory, joining the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory.

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Bonus to make up for last week.

Barisâl Guns are mysterious sounds, as of distant cannon, heard in many parts of the world, especially on or near the water, now generally believed to be caused by earth tremors that are too feeble to be felt. This phenomenon is known scientifically as brontides and commonly as
Barisâl guns because it is particularly prevalent near the city of Barisâl in Bangladesh. In the United States, on Seneca Lake, New York, they are called lake guns

Source for both facts: Microsoft Encarta ‘99

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Word of the Week

EBULLIENCE - ebul-lience – noun
EBULLIENT – ebul-lient – adj

The quality of expressing feelings or ideas in an enthusiastic and lively manner. (noun)
1: Boiling; bubbling 2: Marked by ebullience (adj)

The instrumentation systems designer was very ebullient while presenting his successful software system to the group..

Dred Scott was the slave of John Emerson, a United States Army surgeon who, in 1834, took him from Missouri to live in Illinois and then Wisconsin Territory, both of which forbade slavery. Three years after Emerson’s death in 1843, Scott sued the surgeon’s widow for his freedom, arguing that his residence in a free state and a free territory made him free. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided in 1857 that the government could not make citizens either free or slaves, and
that no black could claim U.S. citizenship.

The Dred Scott case intensified ongoing debates over slavery that further polarized the American
North and South and eventually gave rise to the American Civil War in 1861.

Source: Microsoft Encarta ’99

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Word of The Week

GENUFLECT - gen-u-flect - intransitive verb

1 a : to bend the knee b : to touch the knee to the floor or ground especially in worship
2 : to be servilely obedient or respectful… (Acting like a slave or being submissive)

The congregation routinely genuflects during Sunday services.

“Little Miss Muffet” is the most frequently published nursery rhyme in children’s books. It was written in the sixteenth century by an entomologist with a special interest in spiders, Dr. Thomas Muffet, the author of a scholarly work, “The Silkwormes and their flies.”

Dr. Muffet wrote the rhyme for his young daughter Patience. At the time a “tuffet” was a three-legged stool, and “curds and whey” was a milk custard.

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
There came a big spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Source: Panati's Extraordinary Orgins Of Everyday Things

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Word of the Week

SHILL – noun

: one who acts as a decoy (as for a pitchman or gambler); also : one who
makes a sales pitch

A shill who worked for the seller drove up the bids during the auction.

A firefly (aka a lightning bug) flashes when oxygen, breathed in through the abdominal tracheae, is allowed to combine with a substance called luciferin under the catalytic effect of the enzyme luciferase. This reaction produces a very efficient light, with almost no energy lost as heat.

Both sexes usually fly, and they emit these intermittent light signals to attract mates. The timing of the firefly's flashes is controlled by the abundant nerves in the insect's light-making organ. The duration of the flashes depends on how long the luciferin takes to oxidize. In the pyralis, a common North American firefly, for example, the male flies around and flashes about every five seconds. The female stays on the ground and flashes in response about two seconds later, thus providing
the crucial cue to their union.

Fireflies are actually beetles not flies and have a lifespan from one to three weeks.

Source: Microsoft Encarta '99

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Word of the Week

CHALLAH - KHAH-luh or HAH-luh - noun

egg-rich yeast-leavened bread that is usually braided or twisted before baking and is traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays

The smell of freshly baked challah wafted through the house, and we couldn't wait for the evening meal to begin so we could taste the warm, rich bread.

New Years Day was originally a festival that celebrated the completion of a growing cycle and it occurred before the sowing of seeds around the vernal equinox (late March). The festival began in the city of Babylon long before there were calendars. (around 2000 bc.) Festivities were held and rituals were preformed in order to appease the gods to allow for a bountiful cycle of new crops.

Nearly 2000 years later in 153 bc. the Roman Senate moved New Years Day from the first day of spring to January 1. This was done in an attempt to synchronize a corrupted calendar. Further political corruption of the calendar led Julius Caesar to create the Julian calendar in 46 bc. (The
year 46 contained 445 days) This system kept New Years Day on January 1.

During the 4th Century ad. the Catholic church condemned pagan (non - Christian) celebrations and planned its own festivals to compete with the pagan New Years celebrations. January 1 became the Feast of Christ’s Circumcision. March 25th became Annunciation Day and celebrated the occasion on which it was revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God. During the Middle Ages most European countries celebrated March 25th as New Year’s Day.

In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII synchronized the calendar yet again to correct for astrological anomalies that the Julian Calendar had. This new system proclaimed January 1st as New Years Day. Most of the world had adopted the Gregorian calendar by the late 1700’s. Notable exceptions to this are the Arabs, Jews, Chinese and Hindus, all of which have separate
calendars and New Years Days.

Sources: Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things & The Universal Almanac & Microsoft Encarta ‘99

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Word of The Week

ENNUI – en-nui – Noun
Pronounced (on-noo-EE)
Origin - French

Listlessness, dissatisfaction, or boredom

A sense of ennui pervaded the office during the slow holiday season.

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