WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
Word of the week: "haplography." From the Greek for "single writing," it's the accidental omission of a letter or group of letters that should be written more than once, such as "Missippi" instead of "Mississippi." The opposite of haplography (more or less) is dittography, which is the incorrect duplication of letters or a group of letters that should be written only once.
The Write Stuff? We happened to come across a rather old Eberhard Faber Blackwing pencil, displaying proudly that it's "woodclinched." With an Internet search, we were able to find plenty of references to the word "woodclinched" relating to pencils, but no explanation of what the word means. If you can help, please let us know.
Price-Per-Gallon Update: Thanks to Dick Anderson of Pacheco, Calif., who figures that the typical cost of the ink in an inkjet printer cartridge exceeds an eye-popping $2,000 per gallon. That's figuring 58.5 milliliters per cartridge, 3785 milliliters per gallon, and a typical $33 cost per cartridge. But we were able to find full gallons of cartridge ink for sale on the Web for a reasonable(?) $150 or so per gallon.
Why Election Day is when it is has much to do with our agrarian past. It's in November because it was considered the most convenient month for farmers to travel to the polls. It's on a Tuesday so that farmers wouldn't have to begin a two-day journey on Sunday to vote. And it's on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to prevent it from ever falling on November 1 -- All Saints Day, and a day when merchants would work on their books for the previous month.
25 Years Ago in TV Guide: The Sept. 3, 1983, issue had a multi-article tribute to "All in the Family," which was ending its 13-year run, including four years of the successor "Archie Bunker's Place." Producer Norman Lear recalled that he had to shoot three pilot episodes (the first two for ABC), before CBS finally agreed to put the series on the air.
Like "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "America," the music for "Hail to the Chief," the official anthem of the president, wasn't composed by an American. The composer was Englishman James Sanderson, who wrote the tune circa 1810 for a theatrical adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake." But Sanderson does have an unexpected American connection, sort of. He was born in the northeast English town of Washington.
Eponym of the week: The German-born Princess Adelaide, who was the queen consort of Britain's King William IV from 1830 to 1837. The city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, was named for her. It was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for what was at that time the only freely settled Australian region. Adelaide's niece succeeded William as Queen Victoria.
Attu, the westernmost of Alaska's Aleutian Islands, is well known to crossword fans. Its current population of about 20 consists entirely of workers at the U.S. Coast Guard station there. Though it's on "our" side of the International Date Line, Attu is actually in the Eastern Hemisphere, situated about 1,100 miles west of the Alaskan mainland. It's at 173 degrees, 11 minutes east longitude.
There's only a last-letter difference between "police" and "policy," so you shouldn't be surprised that these two words are related. Both "police" and the "course of action" meaning of "policy" are both ultimately derived from the Latin word for "government." However, the "insurance" meaning of "policy" comes from an entirely different Latin word, which means "receipt."
Weird Wide Web: Visit www.jacksonpollock.org and you'll be able to create your own Pollock-like virtual painting. There's no help page, so here's what you'll want to know: the thickness of your line is controlled by the speed at which you move your mouse; clicking the left mouse button will change the color of your virtual paint. Have a nice drip!
TRIVIA
1) What people in Italy call Bracchio Di Ferro (Iron Arm), Americans call:
A) A forklift
B) The Eiffel Tower
C) Popeye the Sailor
D) A food processor
2) Two-time Oscar winner Jack Lemmon was born into a well-to-do family, attending the Phillips Academy prep school (a.k.a. Andover) and Harvard University. In what unusual location was Lemmon born?
A) On an airplane
B) In a hospital elevator
C) In a donut shop
D) In a cow barn
3) The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people. "Lama" is the Mongolian word for "priest." What does "Dalai" mean?
A) Beloved
B) Eternal
C) Ocean
D) Red
4) The all-time longest running PBS series premiered in November 1970 and is still going strong. The series' target audience is:
A) Children
B) Homeowners
C) Investors
D) Classical-music lovers
5) Which of these North African capitals is not located on the Mediterranean Sea?
A) Algiers, Algeria
B) Tunis, Tunisia
C) Rabat, Morocco
D) Tripoli, Libya
ANSWERS
1) Bracchio Di Ferro (Iron Arm) is the Italian name of Popeye the Sailor.
2) Actor Jack Lemmon was born in the elevator of the suburban Boston hospital that his mother had just arrived at.
3) "Dalai Lama" literally means "ocean teacher" in Mongolian, the "ocean" being a metaphor for the Lama's spiritual depth. (Thanks to Donna Levin of Singer Island, Fla.)
4) The all-time longest running PBS series is "Sesame Street," now in its 37th season on the network. "Masterpiece Theatre" premiered two months after "Sesame Street," in January 1971.
5) Previous answer: Rabat, Morocco, situated west of the Strait of Gibraltar, is on the Atlantic Ocean.
STAN'S WEEKLY TRIVIA CHALLENGE CONTEST NO. 102
Who was the only U.S. president who was defeated for re-election by his own vice president?
HOW TO WIN: Send your answer, with your full name and address, either by e-mail to TriviaBits@gmail.com, or on a postcard to Stan Newman's Trivia Challenge No. 102, P.O. Box 69, Massapequa Park, NY 11762. Only one submission per person, please. Answers must be received within seven days of publication. One winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries, who will receive a copy of Stan's new book "15,003 Answers: The Ultimate Trivia Encyclopedia," courtesy of Random House. Answer and winner will be announced in a future issue.
ANSWER TO TRIVIA CHALLENGE CONTEST NO. 95
Neil Diamond, whose first appearance on the U.S. Billboard Top 40 was in 1966, didn't have a No. 1 Billboard album until earlier this year, with "Home Before Dark." Winner: Leah Harris of Edmonds, Wash.
Stanley Newman is the editor of the Newsday Crossword and author/editor of more than 125 books on crosswords, word games and trivia, including "15,003 Answers: The Ultimate Trivia Encyclopedia" (Random House). To find out more about Stanley Newman visit StanXwords.com, or e-mail him at StanTrivia@aol.com.
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