AWADmail Issue 261
May 13, 2007
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Anu Garg (words wordsmith.org)
Subject: Administrivia
It's time for a bit of administrivia...
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Thanks!
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From: R.J. Briggs (rj rebelbase.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--stormy petrel
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/stormy_petrel.html
The famous chess player Aron Nimzowitsch went by the nickname of
"the Stormy Petrel". Nimzowitsch's "My System" is still considered
to be a quintessential chess text.
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From: Marie P. Prins (marieprins hetnet.nl)
Subject: Stormy petrel
They do foreshadow a storm, but that is when they are seen outside their
normal range, for instance along the Dutch coast. Yes, I am a bird watcher.
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From: Debbie Savannah George (debbie dsavannah.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--stormy petrel
The mascot of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta is the Stormy Petrel,
as is the name of their newspaper:
http://www.oglethorpe.edu/campus_life/Stormy_Petrel/
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From: Harry Metcalfe (harry.metcalfe btinternet.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--catbird seat
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/catbird_seat.html
The catbird seat is also an old fashioned name for a seat for a crew
member at the top of the foremast of a sailing ship, giving a view
"over the horizon".
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From: Bill Johnson (jwjobx earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--catbird seat
A British film of the 1960s titled The Catbird Seat illustrated perfectly
the meaning of the term. A brisk efficiency expert (Constance Cummings)
arrives to whip into shape a Dickensian office crammed with files, papers,
and junk and presided over by a quizzical Alec Guinness, who promptly
counters every attempt she makes to bring order to chaos. He was firmly
seated in the catbird seat, and eventually drives her into hysterical
frenzy. The ploy was later used in The Desk Set, with Tracey and Hepburn.
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From: Lee J Rickard (berezowska comcast.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--kibitz
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/kibitz.html
I was taught that every chess game involves four players: white, black,
kibitzer, and titselmacher. As white and black ponder the board, the
kibitzer recommends a move. When the move is made, the titselmacher
shakes his head and goes "Tch, tch, tch!"
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From: BranShea (at bulletin board Wordsmith Talk http://wordsmith.org/board )
Subject: Clay pigeon, sitting duck and flying sparrow
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/clay_pigeon.html
Unfortunate difficult target:
In a current exhibition in the Rotterdam Natural History museum one of the
items shown is a stuffed sparrow, killed by a cricket ball played by the
legendary Jehangir Kahn (1910-1988) on the third of July 1936 at Lord's.
This sparrow is the only one ever known to be killed in flight in a cricket
match. It is exhibited on top of the ball that killed him. A serious museum
item on green velvet on a shining wooden pedestal in a show uniquely
dedicated to the House Sparrow.
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From: Pamela McCourt Francescone (mccourt tin.it)
Subject: Birds
You refer to the expression to kill two birds with one stone and say
you'd rather the idiom be to feed two birds with one grain.
Well, in Italian it comes close. "Prendere due piccioni con una fava"
translates to take two pigeons with one broad bean.
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From: Ian Ingram (ilh andrew.cmu.edu)
Subject: Re: bird metaphor
I have always liked "Feed two birds with one scone" since it matches
the original idiom more closely.
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From: Graham Shaw (gshaw5 csc.com.au)
Subject: Re: birds
Re birds and the use of them negatively, there is one positive saying:
"box of birds". E.g. I'm a box of birds today = I'm feeling great.
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From: P. Larry Nelson (lnelson uiuc.edu)
Subject: For the birds...
Timely word topic this week from my perspective. Just last week, my wife
and I were observing a Mourning Dove attempting to build a nest on the
hood of our truck -- in between the two windshield wipers! The next day I
watched as a sparrow grabbed a small square piece of white paper and took
it back into a tree -- perhaps as a wallpaper remodeling project for its
small home.
Witnessing these two endeavors so close together led me to upgrade my
opinion of birds a bit and instilled a new respect. Imagine trying to build
a house with just your mouth.
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From: Dr. Shantanu Sapru (quizzersapru gmail.com)
Subject: correction on a reader's comment on bracheology
I am a radiation oncologist, and needless to say was amused and bemused by
a reader's comment in the last AWADmail. Brachys means short and the term
brachytherapy is used to refer to giving radiation over short distances,
usually inside cavities (e.g. oesophagus) or organs (e.g. prostate). It
differs from "teletherapy" in that the source of radiation is inside or
very close to the organ interested in being treated, and the radiation has
to travel only a short distance.
Technically there are distance limitations to the term "brachytherapy"
being used, and related, although distinct, terms are "contact therapy",
superficial therapy" etc.
............................................................................
A language is never in a state of fixation, but is always changing; we are
not looking at a lantern-slide but at a moving picture. -Andrew Lloyd
James, linguist
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