Today's Word—Doublespeak (Vol. 1984+)

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Partisan politics:

“Say ‘conservative’ and they wag their tails. Say ‘liberal’ and they bare their fangs. More to the point, say either and all thinking ceases. . . . [P]eople hear this doublespeak and cheer. Why not? They have been taught that words mean what you need them to in a given moment. Turns out, all it requires is a limitless supply of gall and the inherent belief that people are dumber than a bag of hammers.”

—Leonard Pitts Jr., Pulitzer-winning columnist,
The Miami Herald, 2008 (See column here.)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Jerry Vonderbrink)

Speak up! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome. After all, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There are no false opinions.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Pease’s Soapbox:

Here’s what set Mr. Pitts off: Mitt Romney said,

“We need change, all right. Change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington. We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington—throw out the big-government liberals” (Romney, Sept. 3, 2008).

If you read Pitts’ column, “set off” is the correct term. After eight years of Bush Administration rule, Romney thinks we need a more conservative hand on the national tiller. Whaa? sputters Pitts.

George Orwell envisioned a world like that in 1984:

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

Sound familiar?

As in Orwell’s world, gobbledygook starts sounding like common sense. Of course, this is a presidential election season, when up is down, black is white, wrong is right and let’s gogogogo!

When we say, “common sense,” of course, it’s as in Lewis Carroll, not Thomas Paine (although Tom did refer to “times that try men’s souls.” Which would make him a sexist).

But back to gobbledygook:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

Which, indeed, shall be master in this election season? Promises? Soundbites? Oratory? TV ads? Policy or deeds? Just how freakin’ gullible are we? If we hear a thing, it must be so. And how we perceive a thing is as powerful as the thing itself. Promising “Hope” creates hope. Saying “Change” makes change.

How, we must ask ourselves, do we know what we think we know about the world? or about our candidates?

For a social conservative like Mitt Romney to call on Washington to clean up its “liberal” ways after 7+ years of Bush Administration policies may sound like it makes sense....if your brain isn’t engaged. But as U.S. financial markets fall through the floor, the national debt sets breath-taking records, international adventurism has never been so high and America’s global rep has never been so low—maybe Mitt has a point. Maybe we do need more conservation in America—conserving budget, brains, and basic common sense, which all are in sadly short supply.

Today's Word—Paradiddles

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Teaching Writing. And Paradiddles….

“Of course writing can be taught. This is not to say that you can teach anyone to be Faulkner. But you can’t teach anyone to be Thelonius Monk, and no one questions the value of piano lessons. You can’t teach anyone to be Andre Agassi, yet no one questions (at least from a tennis-playing perspective) the sending of 5-year-olds to tennis bootcamps in Florida to learn how to hit tennis balls for 17 hours a day.”

—Joshua Henkin, blogging at The Elegant Variation.

(Thanks to alert WORDster Javan Kienzle)

Today's Word—Campus Freedom and Judicial Activism

(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)

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Teaching Freedom of Ideas

ASSOCIATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA spoke yesterday at Utah State University on “Freedom and the Rule of Law,” calling for less judicial activism. In an ironic twist, press coverage to the Supreme Court justice’s address at the public, land-grant university campus was limited—student journalists with cameras were evicted. See journalism professor Penny Byrne’s criticism, “Shame on USU for agreeing to Scalia’s demand to exclude cameras,” on the USU HardNewsCafé. Today, BTW, is the 215th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol Building (1793).


(Scott Sommerdorf/Salt Lake Tribune)

Freedom of Thought, American Universities, and Judicial Restraint:

1. “Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia got the rockstar treatment Monday at Utah State University, where he argued that laws on ‘homosexual sodomy’ and abortion should be set by ‘the people,’ not judges.”
—Kim Burgess, reporter, The Logan Herald Journal, 9/16/08

2. “LOGAN—In recent years, American judges have taken to ‘abstract moralizing’ at the expense of their real job, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday.”
—Brian Maffly, reporter, The Salt Lake Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10472873)

3. “I attack ideas.”
—Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, 2008

4. “The real heart of a university is freedom to express and to criticize.”
—George W. Starcher, University of North Dakota president, 1968

Speak up! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome. After all, as Oliver Wendell Holmes (who was a pretty good writer) said, “There are no false opinions.”

Pease’s Soapbox:

I was there as masses of students, faculty, staff and local civilians filled not just the ballroom at Utah State yesterday, but overflowed into two additional venues to view Megatrons. Was it the SuperBowl? Bon Jovi? Mick and the Ancient Brits? Nope. Here were flocks of 20-somethings gathering to hear pearls from U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

Frankly, few of my students had ever heard of him, which is a bit of a concern. But otherwise, I was thrilled.

My beginning news writing students were there to cover their first live speech. My media literacy students were there for extra credit and because—well, how often do you get the chance in rural Utah to hear directly from one of the nine top judicial authorities in the world? We’ve been talking about how news and information in the modern world is framed for generally sheeplike audiences. Mostly, of course, we all get our “knowledge” about the world from the mass media—un-“vetted” (a term many have just learned) pundits (also a new term for them) who frame events and explain to us how to think about them. So what a great opportunity for real-world learning and first-hand framing of news events.

From the perspective of a First Amendment abolutist, though, a lifelong free-marketplace-of-ideas vendor, a university professor who believes our campuses need more freedom, not less, there were disturbing vibes. The Utah State PR office informed the press two weeks ago that Scalia would be here for a public conference on “Freedom and the Rule of Law,” with the caveat note to editors that press freedom would be restricted. “Still camera, pencil and pad coverage only.” For broadcasters, “no film or video allowed.” These strictures came from the U.S. Supreme Court PR office. A mugshot of Justice Scalia was provided.

Well, this seemed a little weird. Why would a justice of the highest court in the land of the free, whose primary role it is to interpret the U.S. Constitution, be so shy? Arguably, unconstitutionally so? Well, maybe not in the letter of the law, but certainly in its spirit.

And this is a U.S. university, after all—more than 20,000 students at a land-grant institution, whose charge is to prepare the sons and daughters of the land to be citizen-scholars.

But the place was packed. Good enough. As Justice Scalia was introduced by his presenters as the greatest mind of his age, the High Court’s greatest writer ever (!), teachable young minds swarmed into the overflow spaces. Well, I thought, no matter what happens, this is a good thing. After all, until last week, none of my journalism students could identify both U.S. senators from Utah.

But then police officers ejected a student because he was carrying a video camera for the student TV station. A faculty member wondered if he could get busted for videotaping the videoscreen in the overflow auditorium. Few in the audience had any idea that “free press” on the Utah State University campus is a conditional concept when a U.S. Supreme Court justice appears to apply his other First Amendment rights of speech and assembly.

Would it have mattered? Of course not—except to the student broadcast journalists involved, whose education on freedom in the real world has suddenly been starkly illustrated. Perhaps Justice Scalia was concerned about being caught in an embarrassing gesture, but in a public space at a public event on a public university campus where we try to teach young people how to think for themselves, this was a troubling contradiction.

About the press coverage: I don’t know what (if anything) Utah’s electronic media were able to air, considering that no video or recording devices were permitted, but the print media offered interestingly different leads on their stories. This is a good thing for me, since I’ll be talking in class today and tomorrow about how the mass media frame news events, and how media consumers should be wary.

The local newspaper—the Herald Journal—led its page one coverage with references to “homosexual sodomy” and abortion. The Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City also mentioned these topics in its lead. This is weird, because that’s not the focus I heard from Justice Scalia. His point, I thought (but what do I know?) was to decry judicial and beaucratic activism in favor of his concept of constitutional “originalism.” That was the lead on The Salt Lake Tribune’s story, too—about the “political snakepit” that the federal bench has become in reaction to overweening political appointments. (Note: See the current Supreme Court.) I suppose that “homosexual sodomy” and the rest may be one example of that kind of activism, although I might have focused on, say, judicial perspectives on individual rights and waterboarding in wartime.

But I’m no constitutional scholar and that’s just my take. Which will be my point when I meet with my news writing and media literacy students: What did you hear? What knowledge base do you bring to it? How do you think the event should be framed for people who weren’t there? How acurately do you think the press framed and presented the story?

And, by the way, what’s your take on throwing out student TV journalists?

—Ted Pease

Best Video Spoof of the Week

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Best political spoof of the week (at least)—Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live” as Sarah Palin. Click here for link.

Click here for Associated Press story.









Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on “Saturday Night Live” (9/13/08)
NOTE: Thanks to alert WORDster Ross Martin for catching my misspelling of Amy Poehler's name. My news writing students would have been fired for such a transgression; so I fired myself. More coffee is needed. With appreciation.

Today's Word—Free Expression

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Shin-Kickers of the Court:

“I attack ideas. I don’t attack people. And some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can't separate the two, you gotta get another day job. You don’t want to be a judge. At least not a judge on a multi-member panel. . . . I can be charming and combative at the same time. What’s contradictory between the two? I love to argue. I’ve always loved to argue. And I love to point out the weaknesses of the opposing arguments. It may well be that I'm something of a shin kicker. It may well be that I’m something of a contrarian.”
—Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, see “60 Minutes” transcript 2008.

NOTE: Scalia speaks today at Utah State University on “Freedom and the Rule of Law,” noon, Taggart Student Center

Today's Word—Campaign Rhetoric

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Forget the Facts, M’am; Make ’em Laugh:

“People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.”
—Robert Keith Leavitt, author & journalist

Speak up! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome. After all, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There are no false opinions.”

Pease’s Soapbox:

This is a pretty fair (and balanced?) capsule of how political decision-making works in this country. Far from the Age of Reason, Campaign 2008 is all about Sales. And Sales means Branding and Message and Misdirection and Emotion. The Bush Administration was famously accomplished in staying On Message, and most in the press and the American Flock queued up like sheep. The results play out daily in Iraq and worldwide.

The candidates of 2008 have learned these lessons well. Rather than offer more complex and difficult policy options, which are required to make significant differences in the lives of Americans, Obama and McCain fall back not just on sound-bites, but on mini-bites: “Change!” “Hope!” “New!” “Improved!” This is straight out of Madison Avenue. It means as much as a Cialis commercial.

What “change”? Whose “change”? What does it mean? We Americans have become so accustomed to the shorthand of the Information Age that we accept the emotional promise as a down payment on the substance it implies. But the principle payment never comes. Of course we all want “change”—70 percent of us do after seven-plus years of the Bush administration. But we need to be a little smarter than Pavlov’s dogs as we digest the latest “change” promise. What does Obama mean when he rides the Change Wave? And McCain’s version of “change”—does it mean Sarah Palin and a rifle, or is there more to it? (This is an important question in assessing a 71-year-old senator who has backed the Bush administration 90 percent of the time....)

Today’s WORDster, Mr. Leavitt, suggests that an emotional pitch—promising cleaner hair and fewer zits, for example—is more palatable and accessible to Americans than facts. Facts require word—hard work—including individual assessment, critical thinking, a knowledge base that most of us are too lazy to acquire. So just promise us “change,” Mr. Wannbe President—Lord knows, it’s worked before.

Today's Word—A Moment of Silence

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Compelling Narrative:

“The story of the . . . catastrophic intelligence failure that led up to the attacks is told with relish by the authors of The 9/11 Commission Report. Borrowing a technique from the intelligence services, publishers WW Norton refused to confirm or deny to The Observer whether the report was rewritten by John Grisham or Robert Ludlum to give it some narrative muscle. They claim it was the joint work of the Commission’s Republican and Democrat members.

“But I’d like to know which veteran member of Congress wrote the opening lines: ‘Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work.... For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better for a safe and pleasant journey. Among the travellers were Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari, who arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine.’

Who wouldn’t read on?”

—Martin Bright, columnist, The Observer, 2004 (See complete column.)

Speak up! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome. After all, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There are no false opinions.”

Pease’s Soapbox:

Along with the murders of JFK, MLK and RFK, “the Day Which Will Live in Infamy,” and the “giant leap for mankind,” 9/11 was one of those irrefutably defining moments in the collective American memory. We all remember where we were when we heard, unbelieving, that planes had struck the World Trade Towers. The world truly changed on that day.

On this anniversary, it’s not only worthwhile but essential to remember the event, the politics of hate that spawned it, and the national and global mindset that have resulted from it. Neither war nor terror is a new concept, but the new global political and cultural iteration that grew from 9/11 was and is new, and warps us all.

Today's Word—Deep Thinking

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Deep Thoughts

“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.”
—John Allston, writer and deep thinker

Pease’s Soapbox:
And, if you've had any experience with my mind, you’ll agree that that’s not necessarily a bad thing....

But—as usual—during this crucial presidential campaign homestretch, independent critical thinking and decision-making seems in short supply, in the unwashed masses, the press and the candidates alike. Pandering, soundbites, accusations, kneejerkery, demagoguery, brainless partisanship. Don’t know how to promote more independent thought (lord knows I've tried!)—maybe Mr. Allston does—but how about we all try to pay less attention to that man behind the curtain, whoever it is for you, and try to engage our own brains.

Today's Word—Puppy Swat

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NOTE: Due to a death in the family,the WORD will be away until Wednesday. But keep that wisdom flowing!

More Than a Puppy-Swatter:

“You know what people use these for? They roll them up and swat their puppies for wetting on the rug. They spread them on the floor when they’re painting the walls. They wrap fish in them, shred them up and pack their two-bit china in them when they move. Or else they pile up in the garbage until an inspector declares them a fire hazard! But this also happens to be a couple of more things! It’s got print on it that tells stories that hundreds of good men all over the world have broken their backs to get. It gives a lot of information to a lot of people who wouldn’t have known about it if we hadn’t taken the trouble to tell them. It’s the sum total of the work of a lot of guys who don’t quit. It’s a newspaper . . . and it only costs 10 cents, that’s all. But if you only read the comic section or the want ads, it’s still the best buy for your money in the world.”
—William Conrad, actor, playing a crusty city editor in “30,” 1959

Today's Word—Pitbulls

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Political Discourse:

“You know what’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.”
—Sarah Palin, GOP veep candidate and Alaska governor, in her speech to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last night (9/3/08)


(R.J. Matson, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2008)


(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2008)

Reax: Palin Speech Gets Rave Reviews
—U.S. News & World Report (Click here.)

After two days of unrelenting negative coverage, media analysts last night and this morning almost universally lavished praise on Gov. Sarah Palin’s convention speech. Immediate reaction by the broadcast punditry was positive. On NBC, Tom Brokaw said a few moments after Palin concluded, “Tonight makes a very auspicious debut as the vice presidential candidate before this hall and a national television audience. She could not have been more winning or engaging.”

On CBS, Bob Schieffer said after the speech, “I think she passed the first test. The people in this hall absolutely loved this speech. Now we'll see how it plays with the rest of the country.” On ABC, George Stephanopoulos said, “There were a lot beautiful and effective lines in this speech.” On ABC’s Nightline, Stephanopoulos added, “She definitely gets an A. ... It was appealing and funny and warm at times. Very, very tough at times as well. And she really did have an ability to bring these things down to earth, bring it down to earth.” . . .

On CNN, Wolf Blitzer said, “She really did hit it out of the park tonight not only here but for millions of Americans watching across the country. No doubt...their first real impression of her had to be very, very positive given this speech that was obviously very carefully written but very well delivered.” Anderson Cooper added, “If anyone is wondering why she is such a popular governor in the state of Alaska, you saw the answer tonight.” . . .

Print coverage this morning is echoing the praise in front page story across the nation. The New York Times reports on its front page that Palin’s appearance “electrified a convention that has been consumed by questions of whether she was up to the job,” while the Washington Post says on its front page that Palin “may be controversial, risky and untested on the national stage. But at the convention Wednesday night,” she “proved to be an instant jolt of energy for a political party that has been worried and demoralized for much of 2008.”

Today's Word—Meddlesome Politicos

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Free Press?

“It will be a cold day in Death Valley before I ever allow an elected official to tell me what to put in the paper.”
—Jay Evensen, editorial page editor, The Deseret Morning News
(quoted in Paul Rolly column, Salt Lake Tribune, 8/31/08. See column here.)

Pease’s Soapbox:
The Back Story: Evensen’s comment comes as members of the Utah Legislature have launched attacks in the blogosphere on DNews political editor Bob Bernick over a story that said the Senate leadership was considering making it harder for Utah citizens to get initiatives on the state ballot.

This has been a hot issue since a citizen-sponsored initiative on last year’s ballot rejected a law passed by the Lege giving tuition tax credits to parents with kids in private schools. The Senate president and majority leader, who Bernick wrote were thinking about toughening the intiative process for citizens during a DNews editorial board meeting, denied it, and said the story got their position wrong. Then legislators started called Bernick “a liar” (among other epithets), and calling for his firing.

This is extreme, even in heavily top-down Utah, especially considering the target is the LDS Church-owned DNews, which is generally on-board with the Utah power structure.

Also unusual is that Evensen’s rebellious and First Amendment-inspired statement above comes as the kicker in a Sunday column by political columnist Paul Rolly in the competing Tribune (“Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871”). In solidarity, Rolly writes:

“Elected government officials and members of the news media often are engaged in a strange, sometimes awkward dance in which each partner tries to lead without stepping too hard on the other’s toes.

Media types view themselves as public watchdogs, with a responsibility to scrutinize government officials, the motives behind their decisions and the impacts they may have on their constituents. For their part, politicians often claim that reporters have agendas and biases of their own.

But a phenomenon that is unprecedented in my experience as a Utah journalist has emerged over the past two weeks that seems, in at least one case, to raise the stakes in the relationship between the news media and members of the Legislature. Several lawmakers have posted blogs accusing a major newspaper of lying and, in so many words, calling for a reporter's head.”

And there’s a pretty good WORD in there, too.

Agree? Disagree? Have a different bone to pick? Click on the Comment link below.

Today's Word—Both Sides Now

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Fair & Balanced?

“A newspaper cannot really congratulate itself on having got all the facts impartially when it has quoted at length from two uninformed idiots on opposing sides of an issue.”
—James Russell Wiggins, former editor & publisher, The Ellsworth (Maine) American, and former managing editor, The Washington Post

Pease’s Soapbox:
I met the estimable Mr. Wiggins in the early 1980s, when I applied for a reporting job at the Ellsworth American—a “retirement hobby” for the former hard-bitten managing editor of the Washington Post. A classic journalistic curmudgeon, Wiggins let me down easy, first by ignoring my application letter and then by meeting me when I wandered into his newsroom without an appointment, and ushering me back out.

Wiggins’s perspective on journalistic “balance,” as exemplified in his quote, illustrates how the tradition of investigation, even muckraking, had devolved by the end of his career (he died at age 96 in 2000). When a network that is anything but can coopt the journalistic ideal “fair and balanced” and strip it of all meaning, then Wiggins’s definition has indeed become the standard of press responsibility. This kind of “balance,” so prevalent in the press today, equates to journalistic sloth and does little to advance citizen discussion and understanding of issues and events.

Agree? Disagree? Have a different bone to pick? Click on the Comment link below.

Today's Word—Truth Is Hard

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Low Expectations:

“A writer hopes to surprise his readers now and then. If we agree about everything, then one of us is redundant. Of course, rigorous truthfulness is good, but that gets harder and harder to achieve. So I settle for being amusing.”
—Garrison Keillor, writer and radio host, 2008

Today's Word—Appalling Silence

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What about well-meaning clamor?

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader

NOTE: Today is the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

Today's Word—The Right to Rant

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On protests at political conventions:

“The citizens of Denver and St. Paul, and Americans everywhere, should hope officials in those cities already have considered both the constitutional and monetary costs of silencing voices that have a right to be heard. . . . Well-expressed or wacky. Irritating or illuminating. Respectful or raucous. There’s nothing in the 45 words of the First Amendment that sets out any such qualifications or limits on protests. Time and again in our history, from women’s suffrage to civil rights to tax protests, to name just some, voices first raised in the streets—to the disgust or disappointment of some—have led to significant, positive changes in law and American life.”
—Gene Policinski, executive director, First Amendment Center, 2008.



John Cole • The Scranton Times-Tribune (8/21/08)

Today's Word—Citizen Skepticism

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On Critical Thinking:

“The media . . . shape perceptions and conceal issues. Look at the 2000 presidential campaign, for example, where the media were so heavily biased against Al Gore. That’s what brought Bush to within a Supreme Court decision of the White House. So if you look at, certainly these last seven years, the role of the media in not telling you reasons why you should be skeptical . . . [is] enormously important.”
—Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and author, The Conscience of a Liberal, 2007

WORD Escapes St. Mumbles, Launches 13th Season

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News Flash!

WORD escapes St. Mumbles; pithy verbiage
again afflicts an unsuspecting planet

LOGAN, Utah--The first panicky whispers came shortly after 2 a.m. as the dreamless sleep of the blissfully ignorant was rent by murky soundbites of quotable insight.

The news spread swiftly from the epicenter in the redwoods of the Northern California coast, where officials at the St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose confirmed early this morning that TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM had once again escaped from its padded maximum conjugation cell.

A breathless Renee Montagne confirmed the worst on National Public Radio from LA shortly after 5 a.m. (PDT): “It’s baaaa-aaack,” she announced, interrupting a breaking news feature on batiking. “The WORD is free and running rampant again. God bless us, every one.”

As the tremor rippled across the globe, a North African sheepherder muttered, “Tu es maître des paroles que tu n'as pas prononcées; tu es esclave de celles qui ne te sont pas échapées.” (“You are master of words you have never spoken; you are slave to those that have escaped you [your lips].”), acccording to alert WORDsters Karl Petruso and Blake Carpenter, who for some reason were lurking in Algerian grazing grounds.

No one was immediately certain what the heck that means.

In Denver, as the Democratic National Coronation, er, "Convention" was set to open, disenfranchsed delegates from Michigan and Florida caucused and promptly announced that they plan to place the WORD in nomination. For what, they were uncertain.

Sporting an “Impeach Cheney” hat, delegate Flora Mae Gerund said, “The heck with Obama. Remember what the real JFK said: ‘Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn’t any doubt at all that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.’ Or, in this case, the WORD!”

Pundit Stephen Colbert, known for his own reticence and abuse of the English language, cackled from Comedy Central, “It’s the 13th coming of the New Truthiness!”

As the mingled joy and horror spread, news that the WORD had once again shimmied down the drainpipe at St. Mumbles to launch its 13th horrific season of punditry and verbiage prompted the most violent response in the journalism department at Utah State University, which spawned the global online affliction in 1995.

(If you are one of my students--and if you are, everyone pities you--your assignment is to define both “punditry” and “verbiage,” and use each in a sentence that makes their meaning clear. Note: Wikipedia is NOT an accepted source!)

Back-story: The WORD was concocted (“conceived” is, I think, altogether too grand) as a way to get my journalism students to pay attention to their email. Strange as it may sound, email was then a new and unpleasant disturbance of the general peace, and many students did not then spend 16 hours a day online. As a professor hoping to get and keep their attention while also instructing them, my object was that the WORD would give them something to think about before class, and which might go on their quizzes.

I think it’s fair to say that this strategy was a dismal failure. Most of my students continue to ignore their daily WORDs and gaily accept point reductions on their quizzes for not knowing the day's wordish wisdom from philosophers ranging from Soren Kierkegaard to Brian Williams to Lisa Simpson.

But the WORD has become rather frighteningly popular with non-students, grown-ups, mostly, who actually ask to be afflicted or who send email addresses of unsuspecting friends/colleagues/parents/bosses, so that they might be victimized as well.

When the WORD was trundled by those nice white-jacketed men into St. Mumbles Sanitarium last spring, approximately 1,600 (mostly volunteer) victims subscribed to the direct email WORD list. More got the WORD by checking the website, and many more unsuspecting victims were forwarded the daily spam.

As usual, we launch this season with the ever-useful wisdom of the genial former colonial guv’ner of Virginia, whose high regard for both education and the press still rings with an increasingly popular fervor today. Enjoy!

TODAY’S WORD ON JOURNALISM—THE SEASON OPENER (8/25/08)

“I thank God we have no free schools or printing, and I hope that we shall not have these for a hundred years. For learning has brought disobediences and heresy and sects into the world; and printing has divulged them and libels against the government. God keep us from both.”
—Sir William Berkeley
Governor, Virginia Colony, 1671

And that's the WORD.

* * * * *
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,600 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don't want it anymore, send "unsubscribe." Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: While I just quote 'em, I don't necessarily endorse 'em. All, in theory, contain at least a kernel of insight.)

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
http://www.usu.edu/journalism/faculty/pease/
To receive Today's Word on Journalism, send "subscribe" to ted.pease@usu.edu
See the WORD online at the Hard News Café: http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu
“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." —Tom Stoppard

A Final WORD (for now)

Back to St. Mumbles

This marks the end of yet another season (the 12th? 13th?) of TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM. It’s been another good run, mostly: As Papa Hemingway would have said (did, in fact): “I have tried simply to write the best I can; sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”

That’s not been so hard in my case, since the WORDmeister’s job is simply to crib and collect the words of others—all better than I. One of those better writers—I forget who just at the moment—said an essential element of good writing is knowing when to quit. So I’m taking that advice.

Longtime WORD subscribers know what happens next: Every May, more or less at this time, classes end at Utah State, the students and faculty flee, and those nice but firm young men from St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose come and take the WORD away to the sanitarium for the summer. No one minds, really. It gets a bit quieter in cyberspace, and the WORD himself needs the time and space for a little reflective conjugation and electroshock.

For myself, this epitaph (or epithet), which I’ve used before. But I am pooped and I need the rest, if only until August . . . when the WORD will escape St. Mumbles and I will rise again.

Under the sod and under the trees
Lies the body of Edward Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod:
Pease shelled out and went to God.
—From an 1880s gravestone on Nantucket Island, Mass. (lightly edited)

Have a wonderful, restful summer.
TP

Today's Word—Big Bleeding Heart

Liberal Patriot:

“Molly Ivins was an unabashed patriot, and it drove right-wingers nuts. Conservatives somehow got it fixed in their brains that patriotism meant being in lockstep with their ideology, that dissent was treason. Molly made a career of reminding them otherwise, always careful to point out how cute they were when they acted like fools.”
—Gary Cartwright, senior editor, Texas Monthly, 2007.



Molly Ivins (1944-2007), a sharp-witted and clear-eyed columnist who died of cancer last year, was an unapologetic liberal. She once observed, “There’s nothing you can do about being born liberal—fish gotta swim and hearts gotta bleed.” (See 2007 tribute.)

Today's Word—Cuban Journalists

Captive Voices:

“Freedom of expression is an irreplaceable support for freedom of conscience, on which is founded modern political democracy as well as any other regime that hopes for international respect. The jailing of dissident journalists holds hostage not only their liberties but also the liberty of the entire Cuban people, who deserve to know the political alternatives to the dictatorial regime under which they suffer today.”
—Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher, writer and activist, 2005
(Click here for story.)

Today's Word—Not Too Many Facts

Twain on Truth: A little bit goes a long way...

“I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts. I don’t know anything that mars good literature so completely as too much truth. Facts contain a deal of poetry, but you can’t use too many of them without damaging your literature.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer, in a 1907 speech, “The Savage Club Dinner”

Today's Word—On Photojournalism

A theory of photojournalism

“You have to be a pineapple. You have to have a hundred eyes.”
—Dith Pran (1942-2008), Cambodian photojournalist and inspiration for “The Killing Fields”(1984).

Today's Word—Sex

Why op-ed pages thrive

“People like to argue more than have sex. If you don't think that’s true, count how many arguments you’ve had in the past month.”
—Lee Judge, editorial cartoonist, at national editorial writers convention, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Dick Hughes)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1945, Russian troops took Berlin and Nazis surrendered in Italy and Austria.
. . . In 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died.
. . . In 1670, the Hudson Bay Co. received English King Charles’s charter.
. . . In 1932, Jack Benny’s first radio show debuted on NBC’s Blue Network.
. . . In 1939, ailing Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive-game streak ended when he pulled himself from the Yankees’ lineup.
. . . In 1972, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director for 48 years, died at 77.

Birthdays:
72 . . . Englebert Humperdinck, singer
63 . . . Bianca Jagger, actress
62 . . . Lesley Gore, singer
33 . . . David Beckham, soccer player
23 . . . Sarah Hughes, figure skater
• Benjamin Spock (1903-1998), baby doc
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Italian composer
• Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Hungarian journalist; first president of the World Zionist Organization
• Manfred Richthofen (1892-1918), Germany’s WWI “Red Baron”

Today's Word—Trafficking in Semi-colons

Punctuating New York

“In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a ‘New York sentence.’ In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.”
—Sam Roberts, reporter, The New York Times, in a story about semicolons in the subway
(Click here to see story.) (Thanks to alert and literate WORDster Tom Hodges)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 2003, Mission Accomplished! President George W. Bush landed a Navy fighter on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared major combat in Iraq over.
. . . In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. spy plane and captured pilot Gary S. Powers.
. . . In 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created by merging England and Scotland.
. . . In 1941, Orson Welles’s new film “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York.
. . . In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.

Birthdays:
83 . . . Chuck Bednarik, football player
69 . . . Judy Collins, singer
57 . . . Dann Florek, actor (“Law and Order: SUV”)
Kate Smith (1907-1986), singer
Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), English general; defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815)
Jose Alencar (1829-1877), Brazilian journalist, novelist and playwright
Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930), American labor organizer known as “Mother Jones”

Time Out

The WORD is on the road. Back Thursday.

Today's Word—Twain on Editors

Letter to the Editor:

It’s no secret that Mark Twain had his own writing style and had little patience for editors. These excerpts from a 1890 letter to his editor is a useful reminder to overbearing editors today:
• “Amongst. Wasn’t ‘among’ good enough?”
• “Have you failed to perceive that by taking the word ‘both’ out of its proper place you have made foolishness of the sentence?”
• “And don’t you see that your smug ‘of which’ has turned that sentence into reporter’s English?”
• “‘Quite.’ Why do you intrude that shopworn favorite of yours where there is nothing useful for it to do? Can’t you rest easy in your literary grave without it?”
• “You have a singularly fine and aristocratic disrespect for homely and unpretending English. Every time I use ‘go back’ you get out your polisher and slick it up to ‘return.’”
• “You are really perfect in the great art of reducing simple and dignified speech to clumsy and vapid commonplace.”
• “I will remind you once more that clarity is a good thing in literature. An apprentice cannot do better than to keep this useful rule in mind.”
• “It is curious and interesting to notice what an attraction a fussy, mincing, nickel-plated word has for you.”
• “Have you no sense of the shade of meanings in words?”
• “It was English before you decayed it. Sell it to the museum.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer, 1890 (from Mark Twain’s Letters, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, 1917)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1507, German mapmaker Martin Waldseemueller named the huge New World land mass of the Western Hemisphere to honor Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
. . . In 1792, Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, a highway bandit, became the first person executed by guillotine.
. . . In 1898, the United States declared war on Spain.
. . . In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile license plates (and the dreaded DMV was born?).
. . . In 1945, American and Soviet troops reached each other on the Elbe, severing Nazi forces.
. . . In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened.
. . . In 2003, Georgia legislators voted to eliminate the Confederate cross from the state flag.

Birthdays:
76 . . . Meadowlark Lemon, Harlem Globetrotter
68 . . . Al Pacino, actor
63 . . . Bjorn Ulvaeus, singer (ABBA)
62 . . . Talia Shire, actress
44 . . . Hank Azaria, actor
• Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), American radio and television broadcaster
• Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland
• Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Russian composer
• Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor
• William Brennan (1906-1997), associate justice of the Supreme Court (1956-90)
• Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), American jazz singer

Today's Word—Journalistic Vigor

Wanted: Vigorous reporting...

“Good local reporting costs money and flourishes only in a newsroom with a climate of editorial vigor and independence, as well as a tradition of seeking significant news no matter whom it may displease. Often the better the local reporting, the more criticism it will attract; significant news is controversial.”
—Kenneth Macdonald (1908-2004), longtime editor, the Des Moines Register

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1898, Spain refused the U.S. demand to leave Cuba and declared war on the United States.
. . . In 1792, French Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed “La Marseillaise.”
. . . In 1800, the Library of Congress was created.
. . . In 1968, protesting Columbia University students began a week-long occupation of campus buildings.
. . . In 1962, MIT scientists achieved the first satellite TV signal relay, between California and Massachusetts.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter ordered an attempted rescue of American hostages in Tehran; eight servicemen died.
. . . In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was installed as leader of the Roman Catholic Church in cermonies at the Vatican.

Birthdays:
74 . . . Shirley MacLaine, actress
66 . . . Richard M. Daley, Chicago mayor
66 . . . Barbra Streisand, singer
63 . . . Doug Clifford, rock musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
31 . . . Carlos Beltran, baseball player
26 . . . Kelly Clarkson, singer
• Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), writer and first U.S. poet laureate
• St. Vincent De Paul (1581-1660), French clergyman
• Robert Bailey Thomas (1766-1846), American publisher of "Old Farmer's Almanac"
• Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), English novelist
• Henri-Philippe Petain (1856-1951), general and head of French Vichy government
• William Joyce (1906-1946), English propagandist for Germany during World War II (aka Lord Haw Haw)

Today's Word—Capturing "Echoes of the Past”

Storytelling:
“I’m sitting in a cozy little coffeehouse in Clarendon, listening for whispers of evil. It’s an important journalistic mission; I am trying to rescue an endangered literary cliche, the one about how places carry ‘echoes of their past.’ Every journalist depends on this cliche when we write our crappy stories about Civil War battlefields, or the razing of some venerable stadium, or some neighborhood that was once great and is now grim.”
—Gene Weingarten, columnist, The Washington Post, 2008. (See Column.) (Thanks to alert WORDster Nancy Williams)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 2007, journalist and author David Halberstam died in a car crash in Menlo Park, Calif.
. . . In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
. . . In 1789, President-elect George Washington and his wife Martha moved into the first Executive Mansion, Franklin House in NYC.
. . . In 1954, Hank Aaron hit his first MLB homerun, for the Milwaukee Braves.
. . . In 1992, McDonald’s opened its first Beijing restaurant.
. . . In 1995, sportcaster Howard Cosell died, age 77.
. . . In 1998, James Earl Ray, who confessed to shooting Martin Luther King Jr. and later recanted, died at 70.

Birthdays:
54 . . . Michael Moore, filmmaker
69 . . . Lee Majors, the “Six Million Dollar Man”
80 . . . Shirley Temple Black, child actress-turned-diplomat
59 . . . Joyce DeWitt, actress ("Three's Company")
47 . . . George Lopez, actor and comedian
25 . . . Daniela Hantuchova, tennis player
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the bard
• Max Planck (1858-1947), German Nobel Prize-winning physicist
• James Buchanan (1791-1868), 15th U.S. president (1857-61)
• Stephen Douglas (1813-1861), lost debate to Abraham Lincoln

Today's Word—On Interviewing

Can we talk?

“The best talk is artless, the talk of people trying to reassure or comfort themselves, women in the sun, grouped around baby carriages, talking about their weeks in the hospital or the way meat has gone up, or men in saloons, talking to combat the loneliness everyone feels. The talk when you interview someone for a newspaper is usually premeditated and usually artificial.’
—Joseph Mitchell, from My Ears Are Bent, 1938. (Thanks to alert WORDster Doug Cummings)

Today's Word—Say What You Really Think. . .

Feedback on last week’s (4/16) Clinton-Obama Pennsylvania debate:

“Tom Shales of the Washington Post said [Charles] Gibson and [George] Stephanopoulos ‘turned in shoddy, despicable performances.’ The media critic Greg Mitchell said it was ‘perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.’ Salon.com said, ‘I’m not sure if we’ve seen anything quite as train-wreck, cover-your-eyes bad as the spectacle on ABC last night.’ Will Bunch, a Philadelphia Daily News writer, posted an open letter to Gibson and Stephanopoulos on his blog telling them, ‘you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.’ And the group MoveOn said it would air an ad protesting ABC if 100,000 people signed their petition.”
—Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow (4/18/08) Click here for website.

Today's Word—Averting Mischief

What Newspapers Do

“Without newspapers, without someone telling us what is happening, all kinds of mischief can occur. It can be pretty serious, such as corporate and government corruption. Of course, unless newspapers really dig for stories, we won’t be able to root out shady goings-on. And today, many newspapers seem tame and timid, far from the old newspaperman’s challenge to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’”
—Steve Cartwright, columnist, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 2008 (Click here to see column.) (Thanks to alert Kiwi WORDster David Pease)

Today's Word—Final Edits

B. Franklin, in revision

“The Body of
B. Franklin,
Printer;
Like the Cover of an Old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost;
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new and more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended, By the author.”
—Today marks the 218th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), the colonial printer, statesman, writer, kite-flyer and inventor who penned this epitaph for his own gravestone.

Today's Word—Absurdity

Caveat Elector

“He who can lead you to believe an absurdity, can lead you to commit an atrocity.”
—Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Barbara Reed)

Today's Word—Tiny TV Minds

Who’s in charge, here?

“Television is a triumph of equipment over people, and the minds that control it are so small that you could put them in the navel of a flea and still have enough room for a network president’s heart.”
—Fred Allen (1894-1956), comedian

Today's Word—Torches of Truth

Truth & Facial Hair:

“It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.”
—George Christopher Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799) (Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey)

Today's Word—RIP Bob Greene

More from the Do-Gooder File

“For much of his career, he could outthink, out-hustle, out-report, outeat, outdrink and outwork any other journalist in the country. But if his excesses were occasionally unbridled, they were driven by his passion to get a good story and root out the bad guys. ... He could get excited about an investigation of public corruption or a bizarre animal story. We once spent weeks following a story about a dog on ‘death row’ that Bob believed was ‘innocent.’”
—Howard Schneider, former Newsday editor, on the death yesterday of Bob Greene, larger-than-life investigative reporter, editor and Pulitzer winner, April 10, 2008 (see Newsday obit.)

Today's Word—Do-Gooders

The Good Life

“I will tell you flat out that I am a very lucky guy. I have had many moments of satisfaction as a reporter. I have helped to save people’s homes, put a vicious slumlord in prison, aided migrant workers to get the elementary benefit of just having potable drinking water in the fields. I hope I have educated people about civil liberties and a myriad of problems in the criminal justice system.”
—Henry Weinstein, award-winning reporter, Los Angeles Times, 2006

Today's Word—First Draft of History

Overcooking the News

“Over and over again I would take out the five most important books on X subject, and then I’d go back to The New York Times, and by God, the story that was written the day after was by far the best source. Those reporters were writing with everything in the right perspective. Sometimes I think historians are a little like sauté chefs: they cook everything up and soften the edges.”
—Nicholson Baker, novelist/historian, on researching his new book Human Smoke: The Beginning of World War II, 2008. (Thanks to alert WORDster Andrew Merton) (Click here to see NYTimes story.)

Today's Word—Cuba

On Liberty:

“Even while condemning the blockade against Cuba and the constant attempts to overthrow its government, I stand firmly on the side of all Cuban journalists, who have every right to inform and criticize without fear of persecution. Liberty is indivisible.”
—Ariel Dorfman, Chilean novelist, and human rights activist, on some 20 journalists imprisoned in Cuba, 2008 (See Committee to Protect Journalists)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1513, explorer Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain
. . . In 1952, President Harry S. Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike
. . . In 1974, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home-run record with his 715th .
. . . In 1990, teenager Ryan White died of AIDS at 18.
. . . In 1994, rocker Kurt Cobain, 27, of Nirvana was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot..
. . . In 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first black woman to win a Pulitzer for her play “Topdog/Underdog.”

Birthdays:
90 . . . Betty Ford, former first lady
71. . . Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter
70 . . . Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general
68 . . . John Havlicek, basketball Hall of Famer
67. . . Peggy Lennon, singer (The Lennon Sisters)
45 . . . Julian Lennon, rock musician
Sonja Henie (1912-1969), Olympic gold medal skateer and entertainer
Albert I (1875-1934), King of the Belgiams
Mary Pickford (1892-1979), Canadian-born motion-picture actress

Today's Word—Remembering Dith Pran

Covering the Killing Fields

“To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in frightening places, Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism — the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do.”
—Bill Keller, executive editor, The New York Times, on last week’s death of Dith Pran (1942-2008), Cambodian photojournalist whose story inspired the 1984 film “The Killing Fields,” 2008 (See Dith Pran obit.)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first black man featured on a U.S. postage stamp
. . . In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to Elba.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter cut off diplomatic relations with Iran over hostages held in the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
. . . In 1949, “South Pacific” opened on Brodway, and won a Pulitizer a year later.
. . . In 1992, tennis player Arthur Ashe announced that he had contracted AIDS.
. . . In 1994, the Rwandan genocide erupted, ultimately killing between 500,000 and 1 million people..

Birthdays:
69 . . . Francis Ford Coppola, film director
88 . . . Ravi Shankar, musician
80 . . . James Garner, actor
70 . . . Jerry Brown, California attorney general, former presidential candidate and California governor
69 . . . David Frost, TV journalist
54 . . . Tony Dorsett, football Hall of Famer
44 . . . Russell Crowe, actor
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), jazz singer
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English Romantic poet
W. K. Kellogg (1860-1951), founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company
Walter Winchell (1897-1972), American journalist and broadcaster

Today's Word—Truth

Associate Press photo

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago today. (See Ted Pease columns on Martin Luther King Jr.)

Dream On

“Oh, our government, and the press generally, won’t tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader, from his 1967 “Where Do We Go From Here?” speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (see video clip from the History Channel)
. . . In 1818, Congress approved a new national flag, with 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars.
. . . In 1841, President William Henry Harrison was the first president to die in office, of pneumonia, which he caught giving his inauguration speech.
. . . In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
. . . In 1945, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
. . . In 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth’s career home run record by hitting his 714th, in Cincinnati.

Birthdays:
80 . . . Maya Angelou, poet
64 . . . Craig T. Nelson, actor
Muddy Waters (1915-1983), blues musician
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), social reformer and humanitarian
Arthur Murray (1895-1991), ballroom-dancing instructor and entrepreneur

Today's Word—Gin and Journalism

Gin, Wet Socks and Journalism

“Young poets are advised by their elders to avoid the practice of journalism as they would wet socks and gin before breakfast.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892-1992), American poet, writer and Librarian of Congress, from “The Poet and the Press,” Atlantic Monthly, 1941

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1860, the Pony Express between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., was born.
. . . In 1882, outlaw Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back for the reward, in St. Joseph, Mo.
. . . In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby, in Trenton, NJ.
. . . In 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "Mountain" speech in Memphis.
. . . In 1991, the United Nations Security Council voted to end the Persian Gulf War.
. . . In 1996, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was arrested.

Birthdays:
50, Alec Baldwin, actor
84, Doris Day, actress, singer
66, Wayne Newton, singer
64, Tony Orlando, singer
52, Mick Mars, rock musician (Motley Crue)
47, Eddie Murphy, actor, comedian
Henry R. Luce (1898-1967), American publisher of Time, Fortune and Life magazines.
Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
“Boss” William Marcy Tweed (1823-1878), American politician and leader of NYC’s corrupt Tammany Hall.
Bud Fisher (1885-1954), American cartoonist; created “Mutt and Jeff.”

Today's Word—Bad News

Turn It Off!

Everybody Tells Me Everything

“I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is
so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens.
And that is why I do not like the news,
because there has never been an era
when so many things were going so right
for so many of the wrong persons.”
—Ogden Nash (1902-1971), poet, 1941
(Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”
. . . In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.
. . . In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.
. . . In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh, through an intermediary, paid $50,000 ransom in a New York cemetery to a man who promised to return his kidnapped son. (The child was found dead the following month. The ransom money was eventually traced to Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed for the crime.)
. . . In 1968, “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered in Washington, D.C.
. . . In 1982, Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands from Britain.
. . . In 2005, Pope John Paul II died at 84 after 26 years leading the Roman Catholic Church.
. . . In 2007, in its first case on climate change, the Supreme Court declared in a 5-4 ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Birthdays:
66 . . . singer Leon Russell
63 . . . Baseball Hall of Famer Don Sutton
61 . . . country singer Emmylou Harris
84 . . . German artist Max Ernst (1891-1976)
71. . . conquerer and ruler Charlemagne (742-814)
73. . . Italian writer, soldier and adventurer Giovanni Casanova (1725-1798)
70. . . Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), French sculptor of Statue of Liberty

Today's Word—Foolishness

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

Man’s Best Friend:

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
—Groucho Marx (1895-1977), comedian-philosopher




On This Day . . . . . . In 1700, April Fools’ Day was formalized in England, but pranksters had been observing the tradition for more than 100 years. Says the History Channel: “These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as ‘poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.
“Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.
“April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with ‘hunting the gowk,’ in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or ‘kick me’ signs on them.” See History Channel link and video.
. . . In 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World War II.
. . . In 2003, American troops "rescued" Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier.

Birthdays: 58: Samuel Alito, Supreme Court Justice
79: Jane Powell, actress
76: Debbie Reynolds, actress
70: Ali MacGraw, actress
69: Phil Niekro, baseball hall of famer
60: Jimmy Cliff, reggae singer
83: Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (1815-1898)
47: Lon Chaney, "Igor," silent film actor (1883-1930)
60: Whittaker Chambers, journalist and accuser in the Alger Hiss case (1901-1961)

SPEAKING OF “Hilaria” . . . . .

This was sent to me by a well-meaning friend, perfect for the day.