what is an analysand?

     An analysand is someone who is undergoing psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a form of "talk" therapy. According to its own practitioners, it does not have an end. It begins at birth, I suppose--some analysands believe that they can relive the experience of being born. One famous analysand said that psychoanalysis was like being "born again". All psychoanalysts are also analysands--they have therapists whom they visit, or with whom they keep in contact, for life. Psychoanalysts start out as medical doctors--they attend medical school, and can prescribe medication, including narcotics, hypnotics, and anti-depressants.
     Psychoanalysis does not have an end because it does not have a goal--analysands spend a lot of time and money undergoing treatment, the purpose of which is usually described as "feeling better about themselves". Psychoanalysis seems like a waste of time and money to many people, and since it is sometimes paid for with public money, they have a point. When the public pays for therapy, we might expect at least a goal of improved behavior or social attitudes. Behaving better would make analysands feel better about themselves, without a doubt.

relations

     'Tis the season for family gatherings--do you know who your relations are?  Those cousins you haven't seen since the year before last? If they are your mother's or father's cousins, they are your "second cousins". If they are cousins to one of your grandparents, they are your "third cousins". If those cousins you don't remember are people you might never have met, except they are cousins of your cousins, they are your "cousins once removed"--for instance, your mother's sister marries, and her children are your cousins. Those children have cousins, to whom they are related on their father's side--these are your cousins once removed.
   

blackout

     Blackout usually means a power failure--one that affects a neighborhood or a large area, and not just a single home. When the power fails in our home, we say the electricity is out, or the lights are out.
     During the Second World War, a blackout meant that no one was supposed to let any lights show, in case enemy planes were looking for a target to bomb. People used blackout curtains to make sure that household lights could not be seen from the outside, and air raid wardens walked around checking for any light that was still visible.
     Now a blackout also means a sporting event that is not being televised, because all of the tickets have not been sold. The game will not be broadcast in the city where it is being played, to encourage people who want to see it to go to the stadium and buy a ticket.
     Blackout also means to lose one's memory during a drinking binge.

white nights

   It's a fairly new custom in some cities in Europe to have a "white night"--either during the Christmas holidays, or at some other time of year. A "white night" means the lights stay on all night--all kinds of businesses and museums stay open all night, and the people "make a night of it"--going out and staying out, all night.

jury nullification

     A group or party (whose name escapes me ) has been making a case, or attempting to make a case, for "jury nullification". The argument begins by accepting the notion that "jury nullification" is some kind of a legal right, by precedent, in the United States. It isn't. "Jury nullification" is the term used to describe a jury's refusal to convict, even when the defendant seems obviously guilty, and the case against him or her seems to have been plainly made. Juries have done this, but not because they have the "right".  If  a prosecuting attorney could prove that the jury had refused to convict, the members of the jury could be charged with obstruction of justice, among other things.
     "Jury nullification" got a good name when the jury hearing the case against John Peter Zenger refused to convict Zenger of sedition against the British crown. Zenger had published an opinion piece opposed to the British government's policies. In this case, American history looks on the jury's refusal to convict Zenger as patriotism--and rightly so.
     "Jury nullification" got a bad name, however, when white juries in the American South refused to convict members of the Klan, or white persons accused of crimes against blacks. Since no one can be tried twice, the federal government intervened and tried some of those acquitted through "jury nullification" of violating the federal civil rights statutes.

the first tea party

     The original "tea party" from which the "tea party" party takes its name happened in Boston in 1775. It is usually called the "Boston Tea Party". The British wanted the American colonists to pay a special tax on tea. This tax was part of a series of new taxes levied on the Americans by the British government, to pay for the costs of the French and Indian War ( the Seven Years War ). The Americans objected to the taxes, and resented having no say in the British government.  They refused to pay the tax on a shipment of tea, and it remained on the ship in Boston harbor. One night, several colonists, dressed up as Indians, boarded the ship and threw the tea into Boston harbor.
     This was something more than a colorful incident. The British demanded that the colonists pay for the tea. The colonists refused. The British blockaded Boston's harbor, and basically besieged the city--no one could go in or out, not even to deliver supplies, unless the British troops permitted it. This made great political capital for the cause of American independence from Great Britain. News of the poor people of Boston and their plight moved many people to side with the revolutionaries--people who had been lukewarm or indifferent supporters were moved by the accounts of British cruelty reported in the press.
     The Boston Tea Party and the events that followed may have done more to foment revolution than all the other taxes and protests. The British response to the "Tea Party" turned out to be one of the worst political moves of all time--what we would now call a public relations disaster.

us and them

      Some groups have special words to designate someone who is not a member of the group.  For instance, to a Jew, everyone who is not a Jew is a gentile. To a Catholic, every Christian who is not a Catholic is a protestant. To a Hispanic, everyone who does not speak Spanish is an Anglo--no matter if he or she speaks English or not. To an Amish person, everyone who is not Amish is English.
    These are not the same as the words that are used to describe people and the groups to which they do belong. The "out-group" words are used to define people according to the groups in which they are  not included. If you are reading this, you may be all of the above--a gentile--protestant--Anglo--English.

antecedents

     In the American South, people often say that they have "antecedents". This far north, we have ancestors--if Southerners mean ancestors when they say "antecedents". Most people think of  "antecedents" as a grammar term. An antecedent is the proper name or specific person or thing later designated by a pronoun--for example, in these sentences--
"John went to the store. He won't be back for an hour."--"John" is the antecedent of "he".
In these sentences--
"How's your leg? It's fine."--"leg" is the antecedent of "it".
When we read a piece with too many pronouns and too few antecedents, we sometimes lose track. We don't know who or what the pronouns stand for.
Do some people have antecedents, as many Southerners say?  An antecedent would be the person you modeled yourself on, with you a generic copy of some kind--like a weird form of identity theft.

lingua franca or "pidgin" ?

     Lingua franca literally means "money language"--the language people learn in order to do business. If the people who want to do business with one another don't speak the same language, it's impossible to make a deal. One person may learn the other person's language, of course, but they often meet in the middle instead--each learning a third language, which becomes a lingua franca to them. English is a commonly used lingua franca around the world. In Eastern Europe and the Middle East, French is a often used as a lingua franca. People can do business together if both speak French or English--or if they are willing to hire someone who does.
     A "pidgin" language is a bit different. It may be made of two languages or more--but only uses the words most important to the work or business at hand. Merchant marines, with crews who spoke many different languages, developed a "pidgin" language. Everyone could understand the words that were really necessary to keep the ship going and its crew safe. A few hundred words were enough. The "pidgin" became a sort of "work language"--anyone who wanted to understand it would need to translate all of the words, and also know something about the work they were meant to facilitate. Kappish?

why we still need the post office

     Some of the younger people out there in cyberland have decided that we don't need the post office any more. They believe that a package delivery service can handle anything they buy over the internet ( formerly called mail order ), so the post office is no longer necessary.  A lot of people have never mailed a letter--some don't know what a mailbox is. These are young people in their 20's, who consider themselves fairly hip. I would encourage any such young person to visit his or her local post office, and find out what they do there. Three billion pieces of mail a year--that's how many letters the post office delivers. Delivered everywhere in the United States--no extra charge, not even for servicemen overseas--that's what the A.P.O or F.P.O address is for.
     E-mail is a wonderful invention--no paper wasted, no waiting time--but we still need the post office for a lot of things.  If you have never mailed a letter, go out and send one. Or send a greeting card. It's an important life skill, and not merely a thing of the past--yet.

mail order math

     So much shopping is done on the internet now, that paper catalogs have become a thing of the past. Each year my mailbox used to be full of catalogs--especially in the months before the holidays. The Sears catalog was the size of a phone book. Items could be sent through the mail, or to the nearest Sears store for pickup--even large items like rugs or appliances.  A reproduction of an old Sears catalog is  fun to look at--one from a hundred years ago or more, not a recent one.  You can look through it and see all the things you could have bought with only five dollars. Children and teens may enjoy this, too. Pretend shopping is a good math lesson--and with an old-time catalog, there's no risk of actually wanting to buy the things--it can remain just "window shopping".

yes, they could all be wrong

     Don't fall into this trap--two people are arguing about something, and they expect you to take sides--to decide who is right and who is wrong. Assuming that one of them has the "right" answer, you will be expected to help that person win the day. But what if they are both wrong? For example, suppose that one is maintaining that 1+1=3, and one is maintaining with equal emotion that 1+1=5?  Which of them is right? Will you "side" with one of them? Or will you tell them that they are both wrong, and start a third party? 
     The two wrong people may believe that they are standing on a firm logical foundation, since two mutually exclusive propositions cannot both be true. Mutually exclusive would mean that if one is true, the other must be false--as in it's day or night outside--it is obvious, without formal logic, that only one of these can be true at any given time, and in any given place ( the clever will bring up time zones here, in an attempt to prove that these could both be true--not so).   In the example of 1+1, however, the propositions are not mutually exclusive--if 1+1 does not equal 3 ( and it doesn't ), it does not necessarily follow that 1+1=5. 
     

the real philosopher's stone

     The medieval myth of the philosopher's stone may not be as hare-brained as people once imagined. There is an entity that can turn lead into gold, perhaps, or hydrogen into iron--the sun. That's right, the sun. The fusion at the sun's core can combine atoms of hydrogen until they become atoms of iron. If hydrogen can become iron, perhaps lead can become gold.  Of course, if humans could do this, we would probably have so little lead that the price of lead would soar--and so much gold that the price of gold would plummet--so it might not make much financial difference, in the end.

homesteading

     The original homesteading happened in the American West in the middle of the 19th century. The federal government had removed the American Indians from a large territory. The government offered to give a tract of land to anyone (anyone not an Indian ) who would build a house on it and live there. This happened in more than one state. When the government gave away land in Oklahoma, people were lined up at the boundary, ready to run to a piece of land and "claim" it as their own.  People found fascinating ways to cheat--building doll's houses where building a house was required, raising one plant where farming was required, paying other people to stake out claims to land so that they could sell the land later. Many people did start farms, even with all the cheating, and the government goal of settling the territory with non-Indians was accomplished.
  

blacklist

     The most famous blacklist in recent memory was the Hollywood blacklist. In the 1950's, Hollywood film studios kept a list of people suspected of being communists or communist sympathizers, and refused to hire any of them. This was what it meant to be "blacklisted".  Hollywood didn't think this up all by itself. A ( probably ) small but vocal portion of the public complained ( loudly ) whenever they thought that Hollywood movies were being sympathetic to communism. The studios were afraid of them, and instituted the "blacklist" in an effort to appease them. Hollywood, in particular, was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee ( HUAC )--a committee set up by the U.S. Congress to investigate suspected communists and "fellow-travelers". You can search this under "HUAC" or "Hollywood Blacklist" or  "Mc Carthyism".
     The anti-communists feared that the people who made movies, along with other writers and artists, were in a position to promote a communist point of view. To some of these anti-communists, any movie or book that criticized our society in any way was suspect. If the author thought that poverty was a bad thing, for example, it meant that he or she was opposed to capitalism, and therefore in favor of communism. This extremism took several years to die out. The HUAC investigations, led by Joseph McCarthy, became famous as a "witch hunt". Those who confessed and threw themselves on the mercy of the committee might be left alone--but only if they agreed to provide the names of other communists. Anyone who maintained his or her innocence was suspect, and remained suspect.

school busing

     You might read in an old news article that people once argued about school busing--and they did. They weren't arguing about whether kids should take the bus to school or walk, however. They were arguing about whether or not kids should be bused to different school districts as a means of making unequal schools "fair". First they decided that since the city schools were terrible, compared to some of the suburban schools, that they would bus a few city school students to the suburbs to attend school. This was done as a sort of a lottery--the way people are "chosen" to go to charter schools now.  Instead of improving the schools, everyone in the worst schools might have a chance to attend school someplace else. Most of the parents in the suburban school districts didn't really have a lot to say about busing a few students from the city to their schools. When some districts, in the name of "fairness "decided it would be a good idea to bus a few of the suburban kids into the city schools, they had a lot to say. In a word, they said no.

the draft lottery

     During the Viet Nam war, in the 1970's, the federal government used a lottery to decide who should be drafted next. To be drafted meant to be inducted into the army--whether you wanted to be in the army or not. If someone was drafted and refused to serve, he was jailed.* Young men were eligible for the draft at the age of 19. There was a "lottery" each year, broadcast on television. The government--the Selective Service--put each day of the year into a hat, or some device--just as in a  lottery for a prize or jackpot . These dates were people's birthdays. If they pulled your birthday out of the hat first, you would be the first to be drafted.
     Young men are still required to register for the draft, although no one is being drafted into the army.  The army is all volunteer now. The government still requires registration for the draft in case of a war--a war we would need more soldiers to win.

*Muhammad Ali served a prison term for refusing to be drafted. He was much discussed, and admired by many for having the courage of his own convictions.

pirate radio

     You can see a depiction of a "pirate" radio station in the old movie American Graffiti. The radio "pirate" in the movie is modeled on a real radio pirate. His radio station broadcasts from a ship at sea to avoid detection by law enforcement authorities. Why law enforcement wants to find the radio pirate is not made obvious in the movie. When a pirate radio station broadcasts, other radio stations are lost to their listeners. We have an agency of the federal government--the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC--to assure that broadcasters share the radio wavelengths fairly. Each station is assigned a "frequency"--the number you see on the radio dial. If someone starts up an unlicensed broadcasting station, it can only be at the expense of a station already running. It's a form of censorship or shouting someone down--but this time it isn't by the government, but by the "outlaws".
    

blackball

    To "blackball" someone" is to refuse him membership in a club.  An old-fashioned gentlemen's club had a vote on whether or not to accept a new applicant as a member. Each person had a white ball and a black ball. The voting was accomplished by depositing either the white ball, for yes, or the black ball, for no, in a container of some kind. In some clubs one black ball meant membership would be denied. In some clubs it was three black balls. So one person could "blackball" a prospective applicant for membership.

double exposure

     A double exposure is two photographs made on the same piece of film. The photographs would be combined into one image--as if they were transparent and you could see both of them. You can probably see a double exposure on a photo-sharing site. A real double-exposure was made by taking two pictures, and developing them as one--but digital photo-editing software can produce a similar effect. Two people can be made to look like a third person who resembles both of them, for instance--as in the sites that will show you what your digital offspring would look like.

secret codes in the Bible

     People have claimed to find secret codes and hidden messages in the Bible--including instructions to commit crimes.  This is something worse than clever nonsense. They didn't "find" any messages in the Bible, or in any other book--they put them there. Any book can be used to send a message in "secret code". The recipient of the message would only need a copy of the same book the sender used.. The books would have to be exactly the same-- the Bible, which has been printed so many times, would be more difficult to match in this way than any other book. The sender of the message could use the words or the letters in the book--each letter could be numbered, in order, or each word. The numbers could be sent as a "coded" message. The person who received the message could use the book to "decode" the message--no supernatural agency required.

the value of a dollar

the value of a dollar

     When we talk about foreign trade we can understand what makes our money--American dollars--"worth" something to people in other countries. It is worth something to them because they can exchange it for something that America has that they want to buy. What makes our money worth something to us here in America is in many ways the same. Money is worth what you can buy with it. What puts the "value" in money?  Many people believe that work puts the value in money. There are things, of course, but they are usually made or obtained through work, or "labor" as a textbook would put it. Marx would have said that "capital"--money or the capacity to borrow it--is "stolen labor". Calling money "stolen" from labor is an extremist point of view. Money or "capital" as "stored" labor is actually a more accurate definition.
     Historically, we didn't actually "need" money--coins or bills--until we were doing so much trade with one another that using money would  make the trade easier. When people were exchanging the occasional cow for two sheep, they got along fine without money. The only people doing the "exchanging" would have been those with something extra to "trade". People using all their time and work just to survive had nothing extra to trade.Those who had some extra--for whatever reason ( more sons to help with work, thinking up a better way of farming )--eventually wanted to trade it with someone else. The trade became cumbersome when there were more people involved. The person with the cow to trade might not have wanted the two sheep--the sheep owned by the person who wanted the cow.  The person with the cow might have wanted a horse--owned by a person who wanted the sheep. It would work if they were all present, and all ready to deliver the goods. Money made it possible to store and save excess labor when there wasn't anything to trade it for--perhaps because not enough other people had an excess, but perhaps because all of the local farmers were growing the same thing. The person with the excess labor--turned into livestock, grain, or other stuff--could store it as money for use later. It could be saved for a bad year, in case of injury, or to get something that would cost more than one cow.

church and state, part 1

     The oldest description we have of the problems that can arise between church and state is in the Bible. The ancient people of the Bible had a priesthood, which became hereditary--only the sons of priests became priests. The priests were the only authority--they performed religious rites, but they were also the only government the people knew. Eventually the people wanted a king. They had encountered other people who had a king, and wanted one of their own. They got their king--but it didn't take long for the priests and the king to disagree over what the people should do. This is the oldest record of a conflict between church and state that I know of, and the conflict continues today--not just in our own country, but everywhere.
      Many "religious" people don't believe that they can support the state and be faithful members of their religion.  People who believe in supporting the state usually also believe that religion and the state can peacefully coexist. Both of these groups need to  understand one another better.

foreign exchange

     Foreign exchange is not all that difficult. Most people are just not used to thinking about it. Each country has its own money. You recognize American money--the green stuff with the pictures of American presidents and other founders of our nation. You can only spend American money in America. If you travel to another country, you have to "exchange" your American money for the local currency. The "exchange rate" at the time you make the "exchange" determines how much foreign currency you will get for your American dollars. The "exchange rate" changes frequently--the business that "exchanges" your money will have the latest rates. When you leave the foreign country, you can "exchange" any foreign currency you still have ( the money you didn't spend ) for American dollars again. That is how "foreign exchange" works on a personal level.
    What goes on between nations--foreign "trade"-- determines the exchange rate. On a fundamental level, you can't spend any money but the local currency, anywhere. So the only reason anyone would want American dollars, for example, would be because they want to spend them on something American. There would have to be something in America that they want to buy. Since there are laws everywhere, the something they want to buy would have to be something that our government and theirs would permit. It really is as simple as "trade" when you understand it. If we don't have any "stuff" that someone else wants, then our money is of no use to them. If another country doesn't have any "stuff" that we want, then their money is no use to us. Foreign exchange becomes more complex when we sell something to a foreign country, but we don't want to buy anything from them. Then we have "currency" ( even if the deal isn't made in cash ) from a foreign country, but nothing to spend it on. What happens next is more "exchanging"--we buy something we want from another nation, and pay them with the foreign currency. They may want the foreign currency because the nation it comes from has something they want. Or they may continue to "trade" both goods and currency, until each country has made a deal for something it wants.
     If a country has nothing to export ( sell to foreign nations )--either because it is too poor, or because no one wants what it has in surplus--it becomes very difficult, if not impossible to import ( buy from a foreign nation ) anything. It is called "foreign trade" for a reason. If there is really nothing to buy, no one will want the country's currency--so no one can sell them anything.  This leaves some countries, especially in this age of  technology, much poorer than others.

commission

     Many salespeople still work on a commission basis--something many of us were taught while shopping with our parents. Now that we are beginning the "shopping season" it may be a useful thing to understand. Commission means that the salesperson is paid a percentage of everything he or she sells. The wages of people who work on commission are often very low--and sometimes non-existent. They may get 4% of each sale they make, plus a small hourly wage. When an item is returned, the salesperson has to return the 4%. People often complain that salespeople are "following" them or that the salesperson seems "suspicious". These salespeople are probably just trying to make sure that the person they have been helping comes to them when they decide to buy something. If one salesperson helps a woman by bringing things into the fitting room, looking for different sizes, and offering suggestions, that salesperson expects that when the woman makes up her mind, she will buy the item from the salesperson who has been helping her. Otherwise the person who just stood at the cash register will get the 4%, and the salesperson who was helpful will get nothing.
     While shopping, if you can reassure a salesperson that you understand this--by repeating his or her name --or by otherwise showing that you have noticed him or her--you will find that the salesperson doesn't "hover" any more.

alphabetization

     Alphabetization means arranging words by order of their place in the alphabet. An alphabetized list begins with all of the words or names that start with the letter "A".  Then all of the words beginning with the letter "A" are arranged by the order of the second letter in each word--then the third letter, and so on, until each word in the entire list, no matter how long the list is, is arranged by order of the alphabet. This makes it easy to find any item on a long list. A computer can find something on a list for you, but if you need to search a list yourself, for any reason--taking attendance, checking off assignments turned in--alphabetizing the list will make the task much easier. Still wishing for an "app", or application that would alphabetize the items in a list for me.

Note--an old alphabetization "glitch" you may still run into--once upon a time, people were taught to put all of the names beginning with "Mc" at the beginning of the "M" list--ahead of the "Ma's". This made little sense, as the letter "C" would already go in between the "Ma" and the "Me". Anyone searching a list of names would need to look in both places, not knowing which "system" of alphabetization was being used. Most people now put names beginning with "Mc" in between "Ma" and "Me". There wasn't any need for the exception in the first place, and it makes it easier for someone else to find a file, or a name on a list.

Note #2--names beginning with "Mc" or "Mac" used to be so commonly confused that a type of scam was named after them--a "micmac" .
 

command and demand economies

     A lot of talk and writing about different political systems really ought to address different economic systems. Here in the United States, you may have heard the word "demand" used in the context of economics. Our producers are independent, and believe that they are manufacturing or importing goods according to the "demand" or will of the buying public. They decide what to manufacture or import based on what they believe the public will want--when the goods are produced. When they are wrong, the public doesn't buy the goods, or will only buy them at a discount. There is a  certain amount of financial risk involved--the public may not want the goods until they are reduced by 90%, for instance--but these losses are accounted for in the prices of the goods people do buy.   
      In a "command" economy, the means of production are owned by the state, which decides what should be produced, according to the anticipated needs of the people--what the people will need, when the goods are produced. This has been a popular economic system where goods were short and tough decisions had to be made, as there would be much less waste of goods and resources. There are also fewer choices for consumers--an odd notion to us-- we are used to many choices when we buy, and believe that offering a lot of choices is how to sell things. "Command " economies owe some of their good waste record to a general shortage of goods--when there is little to buy, consumers will eventually buy all of it, out of plain need--new shoes because old ones have holes, and so on.
     These are "textbook" examples. Most economic systems are really a mixture of these ideas. Our "demand" economy is subject to government regulation. A "command" economy may feel the pressure of the "demands" of the buying public. 
     Where the means of production are owned by the state, the people consider this a form of ownership by the people--there is no stock market, and no stock prices to rise or fall with business decisions.     
       We call a corporation owned by stockholders "publicly owned"--shares of the corporation are sold on the stock exchange, and protecting the price of shares is part of business decisions.
     This is a very basic outline. It becomes even more complicated when two countries want to trade with one another, and their economic systems are different.

omniscience

     Omniscience, as in being all-knowing, is usually attributed only to God, by people who believe in God. An argument to keep the theologians off the streets, I suppose. If you have been reading something, and the subject of omniscience is introduced, it may refer to omniscience in its literary form. When we say that an author is "omniscient", we mean that the author is privy even to the thoughts and beliefs of his or her characters. We know this because the author tells us when he or she tells us what the character is thinking. Some stories use dialog to tell us what the character thinks--we are privy conversations that happen when we are not there. But omniscience means we hear even the innermost thoughts and feelings--as if the author were a supernatural being or a god. After all, an author can create beings ( in print ), and do away with them mercilessly ( in print ). That matches a lot of notions people have about God or gods.

the right to keep and bear arms

     The "right to keep and bear arms" is guaranteed to American citizens by the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The argument starts when people disagree over what precisely is meant by keeping and bearing arms. For the purposes of the second amendment, most liberals decide that "keeping and bearing arms" means the right to have state militias ( like the National Guard ). Their argument is based on American history. The American colonists, before America won its war of independence from Great Britain ( England), had been drilling as soldiers--they called themselves "minutemen". The idea was to be ready to fight with only a minute's notice. They told the British this was in case they needed to fight the Indians. The British did not believe them, and moved on the guns and ammunition the colonists had stored at Lexington and Concord. This is what the famous poem "Paul Revere's Ride" describes, and it began the American Revolution. The colonists defended their stores of arms, and turned back the British army.  The battles of Lexington and Concord were immortalized in another poem, as "the shot heard 'round the world".
     The conservatives, for the purposes of the second amendment, have decided that the law is not to be "interpreted", and means just what it says--the "right to keep and bear arms".
     We, the people, as the authors of our own government, have the right to make and to change our own laws. This is what our elected representatives do for us. We regulate a lot of things, through the governments we have made, and certainly we have the "right" to pass laws regulating gun ownership and use. But wishing or believing doesn't make it so, and this time, the gun advocates are on legal high ground. Our laws are written in English ( or should be--a topic for another day ), and should not be subject to "interpretation", which means, in general, translating from a foreign language. Especially not when some laws are "interpreted", for some purposes, and other laws are taken as written. The idea of written law is important--so important that we should not permit anyone to chip away at it when it suits the purposes of the moment. Written laws mean that none of us are subject to the whims of a king or dictator--only to the laws made by our fellow citizens. The ideal is a "government of laws, not men". We the people made the laws, through our elected legislatures. We have set up courts to administer the laws--not to make laws, or even to decide what a law "means". If we cannot decide what a law "means", we need to urge our legislators to enact a new law--with a plain meaning. If we decide that we want the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution changed, we have to do that ourselves--with a new amendment to the Constitution. If one amendment to the U.S. Constitution can be "interpreted", all of the constitution is in danger of the same. If one law can be "interpreted", they might all be "interpreted"--and the government made by "we the people" won't really exist.
   

what is a token?

     A token is an item that stands for something else. The most common tokens we might encounter are coins minted for use in an arcade, a laundromat, or a public bus. People buy the tokens, and use them instead of cash, or because machines won't take anything but tokens. Technically this is called a "limited means of exchange"--it can only be used in the machines for which it was manufactured.
      The word token also is sometimes used to mean a symbol--something that stands for an idea--as a ring might be a token of an engagement. In this way token sometimes refers to a souvenir or memento.
     A "token sum" means an amount of money so insignificant that it is taken as a mere symbol that a professional or business transaction has occurred with the payment of it--a dollar, for example.
     In the 1970's, employers were accused of hiring  "token" minorities. If they hired one black, for example, they thought that no one could accuse them of unfair hiring practices. The one black employee might be referred to as a "token" minority, or a "token" black--meant only as a symbol that the hiring practices were fair. Further investigation sometimes proved that this was not the case--that the hiring practices were unfair to minorities.

horsepower

     Car engines are still described in terms of horsepower. Which means, well, horsepower--as in how many horses would you have to hitch to your wagon to get the same amount of power that the particular engine can deliver. If an engine is described as "300 hp", the manufacturer is claiming that it is as powerful as 300 horses hitched together. I'm not sure that anyone has ever hitched 300 horses together, but you get the point. The term has not become obsolete, as people now use it to compare one engine with another, instead of comparing the engines to horses, as they might have done 100 years ago.

can the federal government go bankrupt?

     Can the federal government go bankrupt? Well, yes and no. The government can always print more money, so it can't really run out of cash. Of course, if the government prints a lot of extra money, the money already in circulation will be devalued--it won't be worth as much, depending on how much money the government prints.  You may have heard that a thing is worth what the seller can get  for it--witness the price of things on an auction site. But the reverse is also true--money is worth what you can get with it. Older people reading this can remember how much the price of things has changed over the years.  When the price of everything changes, it seems more like the value of money has changed. It's called inflation. As soon as enough prices go up, employees want and need higher wages--then employers raise prices to cover the wage increase-- and the "spiral" continues.
     We have not had inflation in the United States the way that some other countries have--if inflation is still the right term for it. A money crisis is probably a better description. No one wanted the money--you couldn't buy anything with it, prices were going up so fast. This happened in Germany after World War I and before World War II ( between the wars ). The people were reduced to a barter system--they traded things with one another, because if they took money they couldn't be sure what it would be worth, even later that same day. Why was the money worthless? Basically, because the people believed that it was--it's impossible to separate faith and economics in some ways--faith meaning belief that the paper with old-fashioned engravings can get you something to eat and keep a roof over your head.  When enough people believe that the money is worthless, it is. When enough people believe that a stock is worthless, it is. When enough people believe that the government is powerless, or basically defunct, it is.

the stock market game

    In high school, both as a a student and as a teacher, I have played the "stock market game". It's an interesting way to learn about the stock market, and you don't need to be in school to do it. Just get some pretend money--any amount you like. You won't need to use the money from a board game, you can just pretend the money on a sheet of paper, or in an email draft or other computer note. Then, spend the money to buy stock. It will make looking at the stock market news interesting. Keep the stock as long as you like. You may sell your stock when you want to, and use the proceeds to invest in another stock. You can invest all of your money in one stock, or you may buy several different stocks. Remember that you didn't actually "make" or "lose" any money, unless you have sold the stock at a profit or a loss. Keep track of how much money you make--or lose. Your gains or losses will probably not be so dramatic that you retire to the Riviera or go bankrupt. But you will find the financial news much more interesting and easier to understand.

paper and plastic

     People get excited about using less paper because paper comes from trees. It doesn't actually grow on trees, but trees are cut down to make it. The wood from the trees is ground into a pulp, mixed with water, and pressed into paper or cardboard.  The paper manufacturers plant more trees, so paper is considered a "renewable" resource. But trees grow slowly, and if we use too much paper, some people think forests will need to be cut down to make it. So we try to recycle the paper, and to use less of it to begin with.
     Plastic, including styrofoam packaging, is made from oil. That's right, oil. Oil is not considered a "renewable" resource. After we get all the oil out of all the oil wells on the Earth, there just won't be any more oil.  Many people prefer to use paper packaging when they have a choice--so the oil will last longer--maybe long enough to find another way to fuel cars and generate electricity--which is where most of the oil goes.
    

status quo ante bellum

     "Status quo ante bellum" is a Latin phrase you might encounter in a history book.  It means "the state of things before the war". As part of the terms of a peace treaty, it means that no territory will change hands--the borders will be where they were before the war began.  Most wars are fought by countries that are next to one another, so during the war one army might have taken over the other country's territory.  A peace treaty in which the two countries agree to the "status quo ante bellum" means that the occupying army will have to retreat from the neighboring country. This might seem like the two countries have fought a war to no purpose, but there might be other concessions made to the "winner"--if there is a winner. Sometimes both countries just agree to stop fighting, conceding nothing.

E=MC 2

     E=MC 2 ( reads  eee equals em cee squared ) is one of the bits of science and philosophy that has made it into popular culture. The most unlikely people seem to like to argue about it. On a basic level, it is really not difficult to understand. E=MC 2 is a formula, or equation. It describes the relation of mass ( stuff ) to energy. It describes how mass is converted into energy--as it is when we burn a log to produce heat, or use the burning log to fuel a steam engine. The mass of the log is converted into heat when it is burned. This heat may be used to make steam to fuel an engine or generator. Energy is produced from mass in other ways, as when scientists "split" the atom. To Einstein, on some level, an atomic level, all the ways that mass can be converted into energy were the same. We seem to get different levels of energy only because the systems we have invented to produce the energy, or to make use of the energy, are different.

credit and debit

     Too many people don't understand the difference between credit cards and debit cards. A debit card lets you access the money in your bank account--money you have put in the bank, or which your employer has sent directly to the bank instead of paying you by check. This is called direct deposit. It is just a paycheck, sent automatically to the bank. Debit cards work like checks--if you don't have any money in your account, they are no good.
     Using a credit card is different. A credit card allows you to borrow money to make a purchase. If you pay the bill every month, you may pay little or no interest. If you permit the account to "revolve"--by making only the minimum payment--you may wind up paying substantial interest. You can get what you want without waiting until you have the money, but there's a fee, and it can be expensive.

what is a welfare state?

    The phrase "welfare state" is sometimes used by writers who don't seem to understand its original meaning. A "welfare state" is a country in which the government is responsible for taking care of everyone, from cradle to grave. In the United States, our government does take responsibility for some basic needs--such as elementary education and Social Security--but not others--such as health care. In a real "welfare state", the government would always be the employer of last resort ( the government would provide a job for anyone who didn't have one ). In a real "welfare state", the government would guarantee health benefits to everyone, and college to everyone who could pass the entrance exams. In a real "welfare state", the government would be paying for sick leave, maternity leave, and disability. Our government does not do these things.
    No government has money that it didn't tax its citizens to get--so it's really up to the voters or the public in each country to decide how much "welfare" their government should provide.At least in a "welfare state", everyone would have the same benefits.

sheriff

     I once mentioned the sheriff in front of someone who told me there was no such thing anymore--as if the last sheriff disappeared with the Old West, like in the movies. Yes, there are still sheriffs in America. As far as I know, every county has a sheriff--including urban counties, like Philadelphia. The sheriff is elected--you can read the campaign posters if you don't believe me. One of the things the sheriff does is impanel juries. If you have ever been called for jury duty, you received a letter from the sheriff's department. Sheriff's sales are another job done by the sheriff's department. You don't have to take my word for it--your local sheriff  may have a web site you can visit.

Wall Street

     Wall Street is the site of the New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE ). This is one of the busiest places where stocks and bonds are bought and sold. It is also one of the most famous. One of the reasons that stock is sold is to raise money to start a business. Investors can buy "stock" in the business--they own a "share" of the business, as long as they own the stock. When they sell the stock, they have sold their "share" in the business. They may sell the stock or "share" for more than they paid for it, and make a profit. If they sell the stock or "share" for less than they paid for it, they have lost money on that investment.
     One of the things that can go wrong with the buying and selling of stock is too much speculation. Speculation is like gambling--the only reason people are involved is to make a quick profit, instead of investing for retirement, or hoping for gains when they sell the stock years later. Any person, or group of persons, with a large sum of money to invest can make a profit on the small daily fluctuations in the price of stock--if they invest enough. If a stock's price goes up only ten cents a share, that may mean a large profit to someone with ten million dollars worth of stock to sell--stock they might have bought earlier the same day.  Too much of this behavior, and too much profit from it, alters business for the worse. Stock prices, and profits from stock deals, become more important than profits from doing business.  The "shares"of stock  were part ownership of a business --a business that now worries more about stock prices than about making better products or employing more people.
     A stock exchange is an invention. It is one way to start a business with little or no capital ( money, or the capacity to get it ). A stock exchange was not meant to be a casino, although many people use it that way.

what is a strike?

     A strike means a refusal to work. People employed in one factory, or in one industry, decide together, usually as a "union" to refuse to work unless their employers meet the strikers' demands. The strikers may want better pay, but they might also want safer working conditions. Strikes after someone has been killed or seriously injured on a job were once common. We have better labor safety laws now, but people sometimes still strike over safety issues.
     It hasn't always been legal to strike in the United States--or to form a union. No one could make the strikers go back to work, but any demonstration, including peaceful picketing, might have been countered with violence--both official and unofficial. Employers might hire roughnecks to fight with the strikers--then the police would be called. The US Army has been used to disperse striking workers. So it hasn't always been about a pay raise.
    Now we have a law that permits workers to form unions and to bargain collectively. This law is from the 1930's. Before that, unions were considered subversive and dangerous. If workers went on strike, they might have all lost their jobs to people hired to fill in until the strike was over--often called "scabs" by the workers.
    A "general strike" means all of the workers go on strike in support of one another. This has happened in England, but not in the United States, although separate unions here sometimes support one another when one union is on strike. The 'General Strike of 1919' is on that you can search if you want to read more. London's workers--called "labor" tried to bring the city to halt. Young ladies and gentlemen supposedly helped "break" the strike by driving the trolleys and delivering the mail.

don't mix these up

    Two things not to be confused--the American flag, which is sometimes called "Old Glory", and sometimes called "The Stars and Stripes" or "The Star-Spangled Banner". You'll know it by the red and white stripes, with a blue rectangle in the top left corner containing 50 stars--one for each state of the union that makes up the United States of America. Not to be confused with the "Stars and Bars"--also called "Dixie"--the flag raised by the southern states when they made war on the United States government by besieging a federal fort and firing on it. This flag is red with a blue "X" across the entire rectangle. The blue "X" has white stars in it.

hydroelectric power

    I recently read a long article on new forms of  technology for generating electricity--without a mention of hydroelectric power.  If  I were sponsoring scientists, this is what I'd want them to be working on. Hydroelectric power means harnessing the power of running or moving water. It is why we built the great dams at public expense--the water flowing over them could be used to generate electricity, with minimal expense and minimal pollution. Current technology only uses swiftly running water--but perhaps with research, technologists could learn how to harness slow-moving water to generate electricity--like the rivers so many cities are built on. Someday technologists may learn to generate power from the waves of the ocean, or ocean currents. Anything that moves naturally , like the wind and moving water, could be used to generate power--the same way it was used in windmills and water-powered mills. It could be powering an electric generator instead of a moving millstone.

matter can neither be created nor destroyed

    " Matter can neither be created nor destroyed" seems to have become a bit of barroom philosophy--I do not understand why. No matter, it has a plain and simple meaning--to a physicist or scientist. To a physicist, matter is atoms--what stuff, or "matter" is made of. If we burn a log, say, we have "destroyed" the log, but at an atomic level, the atoms of carbon, and the other elements which made up the log have merely been converted to some other form. The atoms are all still there. We don't have the log anymore, but there are carbon atoms in the atmosphere, and ashes in the fireplace. On an atomic level, we do not make or "create" matter, either. We may melt metal in a foundry to make car parts, but we didn't "create" the stuff out of which the metal was made--we dug it up out of the earth--from a mine. We didn't "create" it, but only altered its form. No human has ever "made" an atom.

Latin roots

   Latin--as in ancient Rome's language--is still the root of many English words, including the names of some of our months--
"September" means the 7th month
"October" means the 8th month
"November" means the 9th month
"December" means the 10th month

If that seems wrong, it is, and it isn't. Pay attention.
That is really what those words mean. But the Romans stuck 2 months in front of them (July and August--named after Roman Caesars), without changing the names of the numbered months. So now the 7th month is actually the 9th month, the 8th is the 10th, the 9th is the 11th, and the 10th is the 12th.  Trick or treat!

reinsurance, renewing insurance

     When your insurance policy expires, and you contact the insurance agent to pay for another year, you have renewed your insurance policy. The new policy is a renewal of the old one.
     Reinsurance means something completely different. You may have encountered this term if you have read all of the "fine print" on the back of your insurance policy. Reinsurance is what an insurance company does when it farms out some of its insurance. Another insurance company--a reinsurance company--is actually assuming the risk, or some of the risk, of insuring you. The relationship of the initial insurance company and the reinsurer is strictly financial--you will still deal only with the insurance company whose name is on your policy.

twenty-five cent words

     The expression "a twenty-five cent word" means a very long word. It's not simply a description, but a bit of bygone reality.  Very long words cost twenty-five cents to send, in the days of telegrams. Other words could be sent at the rate of ten cents per word. If someone tried to save money by substituting one very long word for three or four short ones, the telegraph company charged extra--twenty-five cents per extra-long word.  I don't know exactly how long a word had to be to cost twenty-five cents to send.
     In some ways telegraph messages were a lot like modern "texting". Any word not strictly necessary was left out--because the sender was paying by the word, not because typing was hard on a tiny keyboard. This is still called "telegraphic speech"--using only the few words necessary to get a message across.

bad, badly

To smell bad means to stink.
To small badly means to mistake garbage for roses--or roses for garbage.

Bad is an adjective--it modifies a noun (thing or idea).
Badly is an adverb--it modifies a verb (an action of some kind, even a mental action, like thinking ).

To feel bad means to be sick or to hurt. Saying it this way means the person is what feels the bad feeling.
To feel badly means to grab a cactus when you meant to grope for a towel. Ouch. Here you have a person doing a bad job of feeling.

dead letters, dead languages, a morgue for articles

     A dead letter is a letter or some other piece of mail that the post office has been unable to deliver. It may be missing an address, and have no return address. The address may be illegible ( impossible to read ). This mail sits in what the post office calls the "dead letter office". The post office keeps it there for a while before discarding it. So put your return address on any mail you send. If the post office can't deliver a piece of mail, and it has a return address, they bring it back to the person who sent it.
     A "dead language" is a language that no one speaks. Like Latin or ancient Egyptian, it exists only in old books and museums. There are a few people who can read some of these languages. They became interested enough to study them, and can read the old books or tablets written in "dead languages". No one really knows what these languages sounded like, because no one alive can speak them.
     A newspaper "morgue" is a file room where a newspaper keeps copies of articles it has published in the past. If you wrote to the newspaper and told them what you were looking for, they would find it and send you a copy. Sometimes they charged for copying and mailing, but that's all. Now some newspaper archives are available online, and the custom of newspaper "morgues" is dying.

acronyms

An acronym is a word made of the first letter of each word in a phrase--a longer name or title, for instance. "MADD" stands for "Mothers Against Drunk Drivers", for example. When the initials (the first, or "initial" letters ) of the phrase make a word, or something that can be pronounced as a word, that is an acronym. When the initials do not make a word that we recognize, we usually just say each letter, as in "USA".

"AIDS" is an acronym for "acquired immune deficiency syndrome."

"PTSD" doesn't spell a word, or what can be pronounced as a word, so we just say each letter--P--T--S--D--when we see it written down. It stands for "post-traumatic stress disorder".

"PIN" is an acronym for "personal identification  number". It is read just like the word, "pin".

"ATM" stands for "automatic teller machine", but we have to say each letter---A--T--M.

anthropomorphism and personification

     Anthropomorphism and personification are two very long words some people (you know who you are) love to bandy about, sometimes in the wrong way.
     For the record--anthropomorphism is all the talking animals you have ever seen in a cartoon, or in a children's book--or anyplace else. Making animals talk as if they were people, or dressing them in clothes and having them go to school, drive a car, or perform a human job of some kind--all of this is anthropomorphism--to make them into people.
     Personification means to make an idea, particularly an abstract (can't touch it, or put a "shape" on it) concept, into a person. One example of personification is the Statue of Liberty.  Another is the image of justice as a blindfolded woman with a balance scale and a sword. That is what we think justice would look like if it were a person. The concept of personification also applies to a depiction of the same kind of abstract concept in words--as in a poem or myth.

America's colonial era and the natives

      America's colonial era began when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock--we commemorate their survival every Thanksgiving.  The colonial era continued until America became a nation in 1776. After 1776, America's history is the history of the republic. Many settlers came to America during its colonial era, not only from England, but from other parts of Europe. Some made friends with the natives they found here in America ( called American Indians or Native Americans )--the story of one such friendship is part of the Thanksgiving story.  The colonists also fought with some of the natives they found here, but the wars they fought were local and limited in extent. The great campaigns of removal and extermination came later, when America was an independent nation.
     America never ruled over a body of natives. The Americans made treaties with the Indians, and until the 19th century Americans and Indians lived very separate lives. As long as there was still territory to which the Indians could remove or be removed, that was how any conflicts were settled. The Indians were, and for some purposes still are, considered independent nations. Their relationship with the federal (national) government was by treaty. Indians were not counted in the census, and did not become citizens of the United States until 1925. Some of the treaties signed by our government are still in effect, and the Indian tribes still have title to the lands described in them.
    The settlement of the American West ( from the middle of the 19th century, or 1800's ) left very little territory for the Indians, and a campaign of extermination or confinement to reservations began. Its motto, to many, was "the only good Indian is a dead Indian". Indians confined to a reservation became dependent on the government for food and supplies, which were often insufficient. They would leave the reservation to hunt, and would be hunted themselves unless they returned. Forcible confinement to a reservation continued into the 1970's. An Indian who left the reservation could be hunted as a felon by law enforcement officials.
     American history books do not use the term "genocide" to refer to the campaign to exterminate the Indians, but other history books sometimes do, and with reason. There are very few Indians left alive today, and most of their cultures and languages are extinct.

judge of elections

     A judge of elections is the person who asks your name when you go to the polls to vote, and then checks for your name in the list of registered voters for that particular polling place. Elections can be very local--in cities and towns we have many voting districts, each of which may have different candidates running in elections for city council or other local offices. It is not just important to vote in your own district, and at your own polling place, it is required by law. You will not be permitted to vote anywhere else. The judge of elections will only have a list of voters for the polling place in which he or she is working. If it isn't your polling place, your name will not be on the list.
     Each polling place has at least two judges of elections--one from each party, to make sure that one party is not taking advantage of its position by turning away voters from the other party. If a judge of elections from each party is not present, they might have to close the polls at that particular voting site. These people are volunteers, so remember that next election day. And find out where your polling place is, if you don't already know.

squirrels

   You can read that some people consider animals to be more intelligent than human beings.  Some claim that cats are superior, intellectually, to people. Some say it's dogs, or even pigs. I vote for squirrels, based on scientific (empirical ) evidence. How many cats have ever outwitted a human? Oh, sure, they refuse to do human bidding, but that's not the same thing. It's just part of feline political philosophy, or something like it. Cats live in our homes. If they were smarter than we are, they would run the world by now.
      Squirrels, on the other hand, have outwitted many humans--particularly those who go to great trouble and expense to keep them out of bird feeders. They always get the birdseed, no matter what kind of squirrel baffles the bird-feeding person installs. If you watch them, it's as if they were playing a game, and mocking petty human efforts to thwart their desire for birdseed. Some people with bird feeders decide at the start that the bird feeder is a combination bird and squirrel feeder, saving themselves the humiliation of being outwitted by a squirrel, and publicly. Search "squirrel obstacle course" if you would like to see this in action.

transliteration

     If you are reading this now, you are familiar with the alphabet I am using to type it. It is still called the Phoenician alphabet in textbooks. There are other alphabets--Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic (used in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe) , Sanskrit, Arabic, and more. An alphabet uses characters that stand for sounds--it is phonetic--based on sounds, or "phonics". Each of the different alphabets stands for the set of sounds making up the languages using that alphabet. Different languages may have sounds that are not used in other languages. The sounds are part of what a person learning to speak a foreign language has to practice. You may have noticed that the "th" sound is a difficult one for foreign speakers of English. It is uncommon, and to some foreigners it sounds rude--like hissing at someone, or giving the raspberry or "Bronx cheer".
     Learning to read or write a foreign language is difficult and time-consuming. Learning to read or write a language that uses a different alphabet is even more difficult. A student needs to begin with ABC--literally. To translate these languages, speaking, is like translating any other language--the translator needs to speak both languages well. When the translation is written down, it is done using the characters in our alphabet. This is called a transliteration. Someone takes the sounds of the foreign language, and renders them into a usable form using our own alphabet and its sounds. This is why you may have noticed different spellings for Russian names, for example. A new, and presumably better, style of transliteration meant a new way to spell Russian words in English--one that would be closer to correct when an English-speaking person tried to pronounce the Russian words.
     We have to do something like this to translate Chinese and other Oriental languages. The Chinese system of writing does not use an alphabet at all. The characters stand for ideas, concepts, and things, not for sounds. This makes translation even more difficult. A system of rendering the Chinese sounds in English characters is called "pinyin". Pinyin may also make it possible for Chinese-speakers to use a computer keyboard, which would be difficult using the Chinese written language--it has thousands of different characters. This is how "Peking" became "Beijing"--it helps us to name the city so that a Chinese person would understand what we are saying. The older form isn't "wrong", and it doesn't need to be corrected in old works in print--but it helps to be aware of the changes, and why they were made.

oh, zero

One short bit of cyber-advice--don't forget that the letter "O" is not zero--"0" when trying to read "captchas" or the passwords offered by some sites. Since printing can be different, it may not be possible to tell whether "O" or "0" is intended--you may have to try them both.

beware of these

Acme and smack me were playing on the roof. Acme fell off. Who was left?














correct. thwack.

suspension of disbelief

      When we read a book or watch a movie, we may enter into a world created by the author or filmmaker. While we are in this world, we believe that it is real--that the characters are real beings with real problems. In literary terms, this is "the suspension of disbelief". We may suspend our disbelief that people can do magic, for instance, and be entertained by a tale of magicians. When we do not believe that the characters are real, the book or movie seems boring. We may leave the movie or fail to finish the book.
     An author or filmmaker may tell a story set in the real world--but if the characters do not seem real, the story is unrealistic to us. The things the characters say, the feelings they express,  the way they interact with one another or respond to problems, all serve to make them real and convincing--or flat, unconvincing and boring. Political dramas in which the characters take themselves too seriously are often unconvincing--both the plot, which has the character being the only person alive who can save the world (even most comic books don't go this far), and the characterization, which has an actor trying to portray the only person who can save the world.
     The Wizard of Oz is a good example of suspension of disbelief. For the purposes of the film, most people (including me) believe that scarecrows can talk, that there really are wicked witches, and that there is a land somewhere over the rainbow, populated by munchkins. We not only believe that these characters and their problems are real, we care about them and hope that Dorothy gets back to Kansas, and that the wicked witch gets her just deserts.

what to do about trillions

     When they write about trillions in the newspaper, it all looks like a lot of zeros. It doesn't really have a meaning to the average person--not even if the average person is certified to teach social studies, as this one is. What I like to do when I read about trillions is to figure out how much money that would mean for every man, woman, and child in America. I round off the population of the United States to 250,000,000 (two hundred and fifty million ), which is a quarter of a billion. That makes four (4) dollars for every man, woman, and child in  America every time someone says "a billion". It makes four thousand (4,000) dollars every time someone says "a trillion".

more numbers, and how to say them

Some numbers, and how to say them--

1--one
10--ten
100-a hundred or one hundred
1,000--a thousand or one thousand
10,000--ten thousand
100,000--a hundred thousand, or one hundred thousand
1,000,000--a million or one million
10,000,000--ten million
100,000,000--a hundred million, or one hundred million
1,000,000,000--a billion or one billion
1,000,000,000,000--a trillion

Fractions--
1/2--one half
1/4--one quarter
1/3 --one third
1/8--one eighth
1/10--one tenth
.10--one tenth or ten percent
.50--fifty hundredths or fifty percent
.01--one hundredth or one percent

Percent--
100%--one hundred percent
50%--fifty percent
10%--ten percent

Ordinal--counting by rank--
1st--first
2nd--second
3rd--third
4th--fourth
5th--fifth
6th--sixth
7th--seventh
8th--eighth
9th--ninth
10th--tenth

how to conjugate a verb

How to conjugate a verb--sorry, this doesn't have anything to do with sex--

I--first person (speaking of oneself) , singular                                        we--first person, plural
you--second person (speaking to someone), singular                             you--second person, plural
he, she, it, one--third person (speaking about someone), singular           they--third person, plural

"to be"--present tense          "to be"--past tense               "to be"--future tense
I am          we are                 I was         we were              I will be        we will be
you are      you are               you were   you were             you will be     you will be
he is          they are               he was       they were            he will be      they will be


"to be"--present  perfect tense            "to be"--past perfect tense          "to be"--future perfect tense
I have been       we have been            I had been   we had been          I will have been       we will have been
you have been   you have been          you had been  you had been      you will have been    you will have been
he has been       they have been          he had been  they had been       he will have been     they will have been

The perfect tenses indicate actions or states of being already finished or "perfected" at the time shown by the auxiliary or "helper" verb--what has already been done in the present; what had already been done at some point in the past; or what will have been done by some time in the future.

"to be"--subjunctive                               gerund--being
if I were         if we were                        infinitive--to be
if you were     if you were                       present participle--being
if he was        if they were                       past participle--been


Conjugating a verb means writing out all of its forms and uses. There are more, but you get the idea. if you have formally studied a foreign language, you have probably encountered this, but it is rarely taught in English classes now.  You is used twice because it represents both the singular (one person) "you" and the plural (more than one person) "you". He, she, it, and "one" used as a pronoun all take the same verb forms.

what we owe to seaweed

     When Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in fourteen hundred and ninety-two, his men were ready to mutiny. They had been a long time at sea, and were beginning to think they would never find land again. The men wanted Columbus to turn around and go back to Spain. They didn't find land immediately, but they soon sighted the Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso Sea is a big pile of seaweed floating in the ocean. It looked a little bit like land to Columbus and his men, so the men put off plans to mutiny. They found real land in a few more days--landing in what is now the Bahamas, and discovering the "New World".  If Columbus and his men hadn't encountered the Sargasso Sea--the pile of floating seaweed--they might have turned back. And where would we be now? I suppose someone else would have found the Americas eventually, but we wouldn't have a Columbus Day Parade.

alphabet soup

     During the Great Depression of the 1930's, many people were out of work and had no money. It was very hard to get a job, because so many businesses failed. The federal government, led by the president at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt (the "FDR" you can see on the dime) started a lot of different programs to help people. Many of these programs were known by their initials--the first letter of each word. The WPA, the NRA, the CCC, the SSA (Social Security Administration--still in existence) were some of these. The set of government programs was called "alphabet soup"  in the press, and the name stuck. Many people thought that Roosevelt was wrong, and that he should leave the economy alone. They were sure that he was only making things worse through government intervention. One of the more accessible books to read, if you're interested, is Studs Terkel's Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. Terkel interviewed a lot of people about their experiences during the Depression, and collected the interviews in a book.

glasses

     People wear different types of glasses, depending on what is wrong with their eyes. Some people find that anything within arm's length of their faces becomes blurry. These people may need glasses only when reading or doing close work. These people are "far-sighted". The glasses they wear are commonly called "reading glasses", although they won't help you read--they can only help you see, and only if you need them. If your eyes are fine, and you put on someone else's glasses, things may look blurry to you. Most people get their glasses from an eye doctor or an optometrist. They are made just for the problem they have with their eyes--that is why they are called "prescription glasses". They are quite expensive, will not do anyone else any good, and people become upset when they lose or misplace them. They may need them to do their jobs, or to get to their jobs.
     Some people have trouble seeing things in the distance. These people are "near-sighted". They may need glasses only to drive, so a lot of people refer to these glasses as "driving glasses". There are still other people who need their glasses all the time--no matter what they are doing. Some of these people wear contact lenses--they put small lenses right on their eyeballs. The people who wear contact lenses have glasses, too. They wear them when they don't feel like putting in their contacts, or when their eyes are irritated.
     Glasses are made of plastic now, but we still call them glasses. Plastic is much safer and more comfortable than glass. Glass was heavy--the glasses didn't stay on as easily. Glass might break, so children with glasses weren't allowed to run around and play the way other children did. Modern plastic glasses can be scratched easily (making it difficult to see out of them), but otherwise they are a great improvement on glass.

the underground railroad

     The "underground railroad" does not mean the subway, although it seems a logical error. The underground railroad refers to the chain of "safe" houses that once made a "network" through which slaves from the American South could escape to the North--where they would be free. There are still a few old houses that have hidden cubbyholes--like closets--where a runaway slave might have been hidden, in case anyone had followed him or her. The federal law required people to return runaway slaves, but this law was impossible to enforce in the North. People had to be careful anyway, and would hide the runaway slave if strangers approached.

questions?

    Who, what, when, where, why, and how--those are the question words. I have been told that this is something reporters learn, and that they should answer each question when writing an article.  It's a good idea to check them when writing anything.

who?--the person or persons involved in the story. Please leave out the names of people having nothing to do with what's going on.  They distract the reader from the story, and can be annoying.

what?--the event or situation that makes the writer's subject.

when?--the time or date of the event or situation

where?--the location of the event or situation, or perhaps of the person or persons involved

why?--the reason for the event or situation, or the reason the event or situation should be interesting to readers

how?--other events or situations that make part of the development of the event or situation you (the writer) are telling readers about. Do not insert meaningless digressions here--no matter how interesting. They will distract and annoy your readers. Stick to the point. Save interesting asides for another piece of writing--or for the reporter who interviews you on your story.

the continental divide

     The continental divide is another bit of reality that some people believe to be fictional.  The continental divide is a point somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. From this point, all of the rivers run west on the one side, and east on the other, dividing the waters of the North American continent neatly in two.

why can't we kill all the bugs?

     A question still asked more frequently than you might think--"why can't we kill all the bugs?"  We can't kill all the bugs because we need the bugs to survive. Without them all the life on Earth might die. You may have heard on a nature show that bugs dispose of decaying organic (stuff that used to be alive--dead plants or animals) matter, and that by doing this they clean up the planet. That is what some of the bugs and insects do. Others pollinate (help make new plants grow) the flowering plants--including all fruits and vegetables--and probably the flowering grasses, too. This doesn't just mean a few flower gardens. It means everything but some ferns and mushrooms. Insects aren't always given credit for pollinating the grasses, but many people believe that they do. That doesn't matter, you might say, because you don't eat vegetables or grass--but you do. Wheat and rice are cereal grains (basically grass)--and all the bread or pizza crust or hamburger rolls you have ever eaten was made from them. All the meat you have ever eaten was fed on the grains and grasses. We don't "manufacture" food, although large factories may make it look like we do. We grow food and "process" it--milling the wheat into flour for bread, drying and grinding the corn for tortilla chips.
     We know that the bugs and insects make many crops grow. If we decided to kill all of the bugs, we might find out too late that they made everything grow.

flat tax

     The idea of a "flat" income tax is becoming news again. We now have what is considered a "progressive" income tax--the more money a person makes, the more he or she pays in taxes, not just because a certain percentage is being taxed ( say ten percent, or ten cents of every dollar earned), but because higher incomes are taxed at a higher rate. People with little money may pay five cents on each dollar earned, while people who make more money may be taxed fifteen cents on each dollar earned. The numbers are not accurate, as there are a lot of variations, but the idea is the same.
     Under a "flat" tax system everyone would pay the same percentage--the same ten cents, or the same rate, on every dollar earned. Many people think this would be more fair than taxing wealthy people at a higher rate. Many other people think that a "flat" tax would actually be "regressive"--that poorer people would be unfairly paying a larger portion of their income in taxes. The poorer people might actually be taxed on money they need for the rent or mortgage, while people with more money would be taxed on excess income. It might become a very unfair system. A "flat" tax law might be written with an exclusion for the income anyone actually needs to survive--but the exclusion or exemption would have to be high. With an exclusion set at at the first $20,000 or even $30,000 of income, a large group of people would be paying no taxes at all, and the wealthier would be making up the difference.
     A "progressive" tax system--like the one we now have--includes more people as a tax base, and avoids the danger that too many people might "drop out" of America's civic life because they do not have the personal political stake of watching politicians argue over how to spend the money they earned, and then paid in taxes.

tomb of the unknown soldier

     The tomb of the unknown soldier is a real American tradition--not pretend. There is a real dead soldier, killed in combat, buried in a tomb, with a memorial. Each of these "unknown soldiers" is someone whose body could not be identified. In this way the one soldier stands for all of the soldiers killed in the war. The unknown soldier of the American Revolution (1775-1783) is buried here in Philadelphia, with a perpetual flame as a memorial.

odds and evens

      Odd and even numbers--the concept is useful in a few ways, if you learn it. Odd numbered addresses are usually on one side of the street, evens on the other, for instance. Parking regulations sometimes stipulate different rules for odd or even license plate numbers. All of the "even" numbers can be divided by two. If you wanted to share any even number of things between two people, the amounts would come out "even". Odd numbers cannot be divided by two. When you start with the first ten numbers, it's easy to see--
odd--1,3,5,7,9
even--2,4,6,8,10
Larger numbers are odd if they end in odd numbers. They are even if they end in even numbers, including zero(0).
So two people can evenly divide 778, 962 M&M's between them---but not 778,963.

impressment

     Impressment was one of the main causes of the War of 1812, fought between the British and the young United States.  To impress someone was basically to kidnap him--usually from a port town or somewhere near a waterfront or dock. He might have been hit on the head or drugged in a tavern first. When the victim woke up, he was on a ship, out at sea--and in the British navy.  Unless he thought he could swim to shore, he was pretty much stuck with being a sailor. The navy, at the time, still flogged the disobedient and mutinous, so he probably quickly learned to work on a ship. The British had been doing this in England, but it caused a lot of outrage when they tried it in the United States, completely ignoring its status as an independent nation. The British burned the White House, but the United States won the war--the war Francis Scott Key wrote about in "The Star-Spangled Banner".

confederate

     Confederate is a word, with a meaning having nothing to do with the one-time Confederate States of America---the Southern states that attempted to secede from the union, resulting in the American Civil War. A confederate is a cohort, a partner in crime or some other business--with the connotation that the business is disreputable. This connotation must not have been current at the time of the Civil War, or the confederate states would not have named themselves as they did. A confederate ( a noun--a thing or idea) is a partner of some kind--to confederate  ( a verb--an action or doing word) is to make such a partnership. A confederacy would be what the confederates made--the group organized for some purpose--a partnership.

the second hand

    The second hand of a watch or clock actually means the third hand--which some clocks and watches do not have. The hour hand is the short or "little" hand. The minute hand is the long or "big" hand. If there is another hand for measuring seconds, this is called the "second hand".  Digital clocks don't have hands--only clocks or watches with dial faces have hands.

what's it worth?

     A thing offered for sale is worth whatever you can get for it--but not until after you get it. You can offer an Elvis commemorative plate for $500--but if you only get $50, then the plate is only worth $50. This would be the "market price" of your commemorative plate. If you think that accepting the offer of $50 is losing money, you will have to hold onto your plate until someone offers more money--even if that takes years.
     The stock market works the same way. People "gain" and "lose" money every time the price of stock changes--in theory. But they haven't really gained or lost any money until they have sold their stock at a price that makes money for them, or loses it. The people who owned stock at the beginning of the great depression didn't all lose money. If they could afford to hold onto the stock until prices rose again--which during the depression meant several years--they didn't lose any money at all. Some of the investments in firms that went bankrupt would have been lost--but nothing else. The "panic" sellers during the depression had bought the stock "on margin"--which means on credit. When it dropped in price, they had to sell--they no longer had stock in an amount equal to what they had borrowed to get it. They had to sell or make up the difference in price in cash--if they had it. Market prices "going down" don't have to mean losing money on investments.

how many?

a couple--2--of anything, or 2 people who are an "item"--sometimes called a "pair"

duo or duet--2 performers
trio--3 performers

twins--2 siblings born at one time
triplets--3 siblings born at one time

quartet--4 performers
quintet--5 performers--(these go on in number, even if people once invented a new word for them-sextet, septet, octet)

decade--10 years

dozen--12 of something--eggs or doughnuts, or anything else
half-dozen or "half a dozen"--6 of something

a "score"--an old-fashioned word for 20--"four score and seven years ago", spoken in 1863, meant 1776 (1863-87=1776)

century--a hundred years, or defining a particular century by the number of its years--as today, we live in the 21st century

a gross--a business term for 12 dozen, or 144

triangle--a 3 sided shape--as in a "yield" sign
"quad" or quadrangle-a 4 sided shape, hence a public court or square
pentagon--5 sided shape--the Pentagon in Washington, DC has 5 sides
hexagon--6 sided shape--some quilts or old-fashioned floor tiles are hexagons
octagon--8 sided shape--as in a stop sign-different shapes make the signs easier to see quickly

a quarter--1/4 (of a dollar), or of anything else--1/4 is what you get when you divide something in 4 parts
a quarter to 12 is 11:45, or 15 minutes (a quarter of an hour) before 12
half is what you get when you divide something in 2--so half an hour is 30 minutes

All of the words above mean a specific number--although we agree on what, or how many, "a few" is, or "several", they are vague--they don't mean an exact number--an approximation will do.

sharecropping, tenant farming

     A sharecropper or tenant farmer made a deal with a landowner to farm some or all of his or her land, in exchange for a "share" of the crops raised on it.  It was something like renting land. Someone who literally had nothing but the clothes on his back could become a sharecropper, and many of them were poor. The person who owned the land got crops to sell, even though he didn't farm the land himself. According to the deal made with the owner, the sharecropper or tenant farmer got the rest.

poll tax

     A poll tax was a tax a citizen had to pay just to vote. This is now illegal, by the 24th amendment to the US Constitution. Citizenship tests as a voting requirement are also illegal. Either an American was born in this country, and can be assumed to have been educated in our public schools or an approved substitute (private school), or an American has become a citizen by residing here for at least five years and passing a citizenship test. The only time a citizenship test is given in the United States is when a foreign born person (an immigrant) wants to become a citizen, which he or she would have to do to be able to vote--so no citizenship tests just for voting are necessary. The citizenship tests were made illegal because they had been used unfairly, to keep some people from voting. This happened in parts of the American South, where one person's citizenship test might merely ask him to name the president, and another person might be asked to recite the US Constitution. Citizenship tests were particularly used in some parts of the South to keep blacks from voting.

grandfather clause

     A grandfather clause was a ploy used in the South to keep the recently emancipated blacks from voting, during the era of reconstruction after the Civil War. After the US Constitution was amended to give black males the right to vote, some Southern states passed "grandfather clause" laws.  Under these laws, you couldn't vote unless your grandfather could vote--they effectively disenfranchised blacks in the South. This is illegal now. What is more recently called "grandfathering" something means to make it retroactive--as if it had begun at an earlier date.

Latin

     Latin properly refers only to the language spoken by the Ancient Romans more than 2,000 years ago. In modern times it has become a "dead" language--meaning that no one speaks it. It was kept alive in Europe for many centuries by clerics and scholars--priests, lawyers, doctors, scientists and philosophers--as a written language, although a few people could speak it.  In this way scholars from all over Western Europe could read what the other educated people were writing. There were very few people who could read and write at the time, so they made something of an international community. Almost no one can read Latin now--perhaps just enough to understand medical terms and scientific nomenclature.
     We commonly call South America and Central America "Latin America".  This is because the languages spoken there are "Latin" languages. Both Spanish and Portuguese are "Latin" languages--said to be linguistic "descendants" of Latin. Modern French and Italian are also "Latin" languages. English is not called a "Latin" language, although we have used Latin for many scientific and technical terms. Much of English has its roots in the ancient language of the Anglo-Saxons. More words were added when the Normans conquered England. The Normans came from part of what is now France, and had been led for centuries by Vikings and their descendants--so the "story" of English becomes quite complicated.

ad hominem

    One of the Latin phrases still in use in English is "ad hominem".  It means "to the man", and refers to what was once taught as one of the standard logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are ways to lose an argument, or to argue badly--not unfairly, but badly--they weaken or ruin your own argument, and allow your opponent to make a case against you. This sounds like a bit of philosophical idle chitchat, but it isn't. Most people who use the internet probably encounter it every day.  An argument "ad hominem" means throwing an insult, instead of offering a refutation, rebuttal, or retort. Someone says he thinks taxes should be lower, for instance, and by way of disagreement, someone else calls him stupid--or worse. That's not an argument. It's an argument ad hominem. An argument ad hominem can be more subtle--as in " I didn't think someone like you would agree"--but it's still an argument ad hominem--an argument to the man (or woman) instead of his or her ideas.

gerrymandering

     Gerrymandering is in the news today. Voting districts are being redrawn here in Philadelphia, and someone suspects at least potential gerrymandering. There are really two subjects here. The first is the reason for the census. We have a census every ten years because people move, die, and have children, who eventually become old enough to vote. Leaving the voting districts in the same place for decades (or centuries) can result in very unfair apportionment of representatives. The people who wrote our Constitution knew this, and provided for it with a census every ten years.  They knew from experience--England's system of representation became so corrupt that three people could elect a Member of Parliament (MP) in one district, and 50,000 in another district had no representation at all--that reapportioning representatives would be necessary. Every ten years, districts that lose population may also lose a representative in Congress. Districts that gain population may gain a representative. Districts may also be redrawn--be given different boundaries--to keep them even. If each representative has 500,000 constituents, for instance, the lines of voting districts may be redrawn so that 500,000 voters live in each one. Local government follows the same procedure, using the federal census data.  In this way we ensure that every vote "counts" the same. "One person, one vote" is always the goal to be achieved. If 100,000 people can elect a representative in one place, and 500,000 can elect a representative in another place, the district with 100,000 people has more than one vote per person, compared to the district with 500,000 people. Because we have a census every ten years, differences in population are not as large as in this example, but the principle is the same.
      Gerrymandering means drawing voting district lines irregularly--with the idea in mind that if one party or group draws the lines, they can arrange it so that their party wins more seats than they would if districts were drawn as simply as possible. This has usually meant that the party in power has tried to keep or extend its influence by gerrymandering--Republicans and  Democrats have each been accused of this at different times. In parts of the South, there have been accusations of racial gerrymandering--drawing voting district lines so that as many districts as possible would have a white voting majority.  Gerrymandering winds up in court when a person or party sues. The districts are a matter of public record, so once an accusation of gerrymandering is brought to court, the districts may be redrawn.
    

culling the herd

     Lions don't cull herds--of anything.  Lions, when hungry, pounce on the creature that looks easiest to catch. If the lion catches the creature, it eats it. No animal "culls" herds--or works with the idea of enforcing the notion of "survival of the fittest". People may do this, if they keep herds of cattle, for instance. Perhaps they kill all of the weakest to have for dinner, and are left with the stronger animals to reproduce and increase the herd. This would be "culling " a herd, as beans are culled by removing the "bad" ones, or clumps of dirt that may be mixed in with them.  Lions and other predators do not do this, so to continue to state that they do is poor science and worse grammar.