quote "end quote"

     Something I actually saw in print, that took a moment to decipher--"blah blah quote blah blah and quote". I don't remember the author's name, or the name of the publication.  What the author should have typed was--"blah blah".  Nothing more. The writer must have taken this from an audio source, such as might be used by a reporter phoning in a story, or dictating a story into a recorder for later transcription  In order to let the person hearing the tape ( or call ) know which words were a quotation ( the words of someone other than the author ), the speaker said "quote" to denote the beginning of the quotation, and "end quote" to denote the end of the quotation. Quotation marks are always used in pairs--one set at the beginning, one at the end. By placing words in quotation marks, the author indicates that the words were said, or written, by someone else. The words within the quotation marks should be faithfully rendered, and their source identified.


Example--Marie Antoinette supposedly said "let them eat cake", when told that the peasants had no bread.

a poem

 Cacoethes Scribendi


If all the trees in all the woods were men;
And each and every blade of grass a pen;
If every leaf on every shrub and tree
Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea
Were changed to ink, and all earth's living tribes
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes,
And for ten thousand ages, day and night,
The human race should write, and write, and write,
Till all the pens and paper were used up,
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup,
Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink
Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

medieval problems

     In medieval times, a king might have a problem with a noble subject. The noble subject--a duke, count or earl, for example--had access to travel, and perhaps a relationship with another royal house or government. This was particularly true in England, where many of the nobles had relatives among the French nobility. If the British king attempted to chastise a British noble, the noble might appeal to the French king, in hopes that he could exert pressure and the dispute would be settled in favor of the British noble, instead of the British king. It became such a problem that Britain passed a statute  ( law ) expressly forbidding this type of  appeal to a foreign power--the "Statute of  Praemunire". Subjects of the king of England were forbidden to bypass British courts to appeal to a foreign power, including the pope at Rome. England took the first step toward being a truly sovereign nation, instead of a nation ruled by a king who was actually a vassal of the pope.

a house organ

     A "house organ" is the newspaper or newsletter of a business, a corporation, or another organization. The house organ is published for the employees of the business or organization. It has news about promotions, hiring, employment policies, and projects. The house organ may be published weekly, monthly, or even daily, if there is a lot of news to share.
      Other newspapers and magazines you won't find at a newsstand are published by colleges and universities. A college or university may have a daily, weekly or monthly newspaper. It may also have a separate publication sent to alumni.
     Unions also publish newsletters or other periodicals. So do charities, political parties, hobbyists, trade and professional groups, among others.
     The internet has made it possible to stumble upon these publications. Even libraries had trouble trying to list them all without the internet.

abbreviations

     You may see these letters at the end of a letter or email, or even in the body of an article or comment--


p.s. stands for post script. It is written at the bottom of a letter after the writer has signed off. The p.s. indicates an afterthought; something that was added after the letter was written.

n.b. stands for nota bene. Nota bene is Latin for pay attention, or make sure to notice this. It may be added at the bottom of a letter, or it may be at the bottom of the page of a book, marked by an asterisk (* )--one that matches the item to which you were meant to pay attention. The n.b. may add an additional fact or explanation to something that was mentioned earlier in the letter or on the page.

etc. stands for et cetera. Et cetera is Latin for "and so on", or "and other things".  Etc. is added onto a list to indicate that it continues. The writer doesn't need to exhaust every possibility. He or she adds "etc." instead of saying "and so on, and so forth", or some other windy phrase.

et al is an abbreviation for et alia. Et alia is Latin for "and others", meaning people. It may be placed at the end of a list of names that are used to identify the owners of a property. As long as we have the first few names, we probably don't need the whole list. For legal or insurance purposes the entire list will be somewhere in the same document. After the list has been written in its entirety once, any further reference may read "Smith, Jones, et al".

dba stands for "doing business as". DBA is another legal or insurance term, used to indicate the business name of an individual or group not otherwise incorporated. "John Smith, dba Smith Plumbing" may be on an insurance policy or business license.

aka means "also known as". Aka may also indicate the business use of a name, for legal purposes called a "fictitious name". If you have occasion to sue a plumber in court, you may be suing "John Smith, aka Smith Plumbing".

women and property

     Until fairly recently, historically speaking, women didn't own property. Laws varied from country to country and from state to state within some countries ( like the United States ), but in most places women didn't own property of any kind. Any property that seemed to belong to a woman actually belonged to her father, then to her husband or brother, and then to a son or nephew.  Countries with the oldest traditions sometimes kept  the custom of dower property--property left by a mother to a daughter. In more enlightened and "modern" countries, this was considered a throwback to the Middle Ages, or to ancient times. Women didn't need property when  enlightened "modern" men could keep it for them.

the tomb of the unknown soldier

     The tomb of the unknown soldier is another reality many people insist is pretend--something Hollywood invented to dramatize a war story. The tomb of the unknown soldier is real. The unknown soldier is a soldier who was killed in action in a war, but whose remains cannot be identified. The reality of his death in combat and lack of ID make him a symbol of all of the soldiers who were killed in wartime, particularly those whose remains were never returned or identified. This is not a new idea. The tomb of the unknown soldier of the American Revolution is in Philadelphia, right near Independence Hall. There are other unknown soldiers from other wars, and in other countries.