I’m experimenting with a new program for the Vocabulary In the News and perhaps for other postings as well. This is a work in progress but I would appreciate feedback from my students.
30 November 2009
29 November 2009
Cartoon : Idiom – To Be Swamped
‘To be swamped’ is a common idiomatic expression that means to be overworked or to have too much work to do. The expression comes from the word ‘a swamp’ which is an area of land coverd by water but where trees and plants grow. In Louisiana, they call this the bayou.
Here are some example sentences :
| Online bookstores were swamped with orders during the pre-Christmas rush. |
| I can’t take this new project because I am swamped. |
28 November 2009
Vocabulary In the News : 27 November 2009 - US First Lady Receives White House Christmas Tree (VOA News)
27 November 2009, VOA News
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama received the official White House Christmas tree Friday.
Mrs. Obama emerged from the White House to inspect the tree with daughters Sasha and Malia, after it was delivered on a horse-drawn carriage.
The first lady could be overheard commenting that the more than 5.5- meter tree was the biggest Christmas tree the family has ever had.
The tree comes from a West Virginia Christmas tree-farming couple, Eric and Gloria Sundback, who won a contest run by the National Christmas Tree Association to earn the honor.
After presenting the tree to Mrs. Obama and having tea with her inside the White House, they described the experience as "wonderful" and "a thrill."
The National Christmas Tree Association says this is the 4th time the Sundbacks have won and presented a tree to a U.S. first lady.
The group says its members have presented the official tree for display in the White House Blue Room since 1966.
Vocabulary In the News : 27 November 2009 – Daily Record (Parsippany, New Jersey)
To visit the homepage for the Daily Record, go to :
Joann Tyler, president of Missionaries of God, a nonprofit charitable group that helps feed the homeless, risked receiving a summons from the city of Dover for feeding the homeless a Thanksgiving meal from the back of a truck. Dover has already served Ms. Tyler a dozen summons in the past for giving food to the homeless without a license. The city is concerned with public health and the handling of food. A summons is an official document that orders someone to appear in a court of law.
A helping is the amount of food served to one person during a meal. At a huge dinner after you have eaten what is on your plate, you may want to eat more. If so, you might help yourself to a second helping. Perhaps you wouldn’t have had that second helping if you first had had a heaping helping! Heaping here means a lot or very full especially when we talk about something that can be piled. For example, let’s say you like ice cream so much that when you serve yourself a helping of ice cream, you give yourself a very large portion of ice cream. We would say you served yourself a heaping portion of ice cream.
To learn more, read the article :
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20091127/COMMUNITIES/311270004/Thanksgiving-for-Dover-needy
27 November 2009
Poem : The Thanksgivings (an Iroquois Indian Poem of Thanksgiving)
http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19276
The Thanksgivings
by Harriet Maxwell Converse 
Translated from a traditional Iroquois prayer
We who are here present thank the Great Spirit that we are here
to praise Him.
We thank Him that He has created men and women, and ordered
that these beings shall always be living to multiply the earth.
We thank Him for making the earth and giving these beings its products
to live on.
We thank Him for the water that comes out of the earth and runs
for our lands.
We thank Him for all the animals on the earth.
We thank Him for certain timbers that grow and have fluids coming
from them for us all.
We thank Him for the branches of the trees that grow shadows
for our shelter.
We thank Him for the beings that come from the west, the thunder
and lightning that water the earth.
We thank Him for the light which we call our oldest brother, the sun
that works for our good.
We thank Him for all the fruits that grow on the trees and vines.
We thank Him for his goodness in making the forests, and thank
all its trees.
We thank Him for the darkness that gives us rest, and for the kind Being
of the darkness that gives us light, the moon.
We thank Him for the bright spots in the skies that give us signs,
the stars.
We give Him thanks for our supporters, who had charge of our harvests.
We give thanks that the voice of the Great Spirit can still be heard
through the words of Ga-ne-o-di-o.
We thank the Great Spirit that we have the privilege of this pleasant
occasion.
We give thanks for the persons who can sing the Great Spirit's music,
and hope they will be privileged to continue in his faith.
We thank the Great Spirit for all the persons who perform the ceremonies
on this occasion.
26 November 2009
Thanksgiving in America : Featured Podcast – What Thanksgiving Day Means to People in the US (VOA News – Special English)
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-11-22-voa2.cfm
Sharing some favorite memories, mixed with cold reality about the effects of the economic downturn.
Download MP3 HERE
Transcript of radio broadcast: 22 November 2009
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Faith Lapidus. This Thursday is a day for families and friends to share a special holiday meal and think about what they are thankful for. This week on our program, we ask some people to share their favorite memories of Thanksgiving Day.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Special English reporters June Simms and Dana Demange talked to people about the holiday.
JIM OLDHAM: "My name is Jim Oldham and I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. I remember my father drove a bus and my mother was a waitress, and so we often didn't get to have Thanksgiving together. And I remember when I was about twelve, her work and his work permitted us all to do that. And we had brothers and sisters, and the traditional turkey and all the trimmings. We always had pumpkin pie, and if we were really lucky, a little bit of whipped cream on top. And it was just a wonderful day."
ANN GEIGER: "I'm Ann Geiger from Tucson, Arizona. Thanksgiving is special for our family because like so many families our adult children live around the country. And we usually get at least part of them together for Thanksgiving."
REPORTER: "And what is one of your fondest Thanksgiving Day memories?"
ANN GEIGER: "Oh, I think a recent Thanksgiving when my son and I had a turkey cook-off. He brined his turkey and I didn't brine mine. And we decided which one was the best."
REPORTER: "Who won?"
ANN GEIGER: "He did."
VOICE ONE:
Brining is a way to prepare meat in a salt solution, whether for a competitive "cook-off" or just any meal. Traditionally the meat served on Thanksgiving is turkey. The bird is usually served with side dishes including a mixture known either as stuffing or dressing.
Many families also bring out their finest table settings -- the "good china" -- for Thanksgiving.
JOEL UPTON: "My name is Joel Upton. I'm from Livingston, Tennessee. Thanksgiving at my family was always a time when brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, we all got together. And someone would bring different dishes. Someone would bring the sweet potatoes. Someone would bring the meat. Someone would bring the dressing. And we would all sort of combine the efforts to have a family Thanksgiving dinner and bring out the good china for that particular event.
And Thanksgiving also, in my early days when I was a child, the kids would all get to play, maybe we hadn't seen each other for a while. The men would always watch a football game on TV. And Thanksgiving was just a really, really special time. And, of course, we had in mind the Pilgrims and what it was all about too. But it was a family time."
VOICE ONE:
The Pilgrims first arrived in America in sixteen twenty. They were separatists from the Church of England and other settlers. The ship that brought the first group was the Mayflower.
An exploring party landed at Plymouth, in what became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state is named after an American Indian tribe -- a recognition of the groups that came long before the Pilgrims.
The first Pilgrims established a village. Those who survived the first difficult years held harvest festivals and religious celebrations of thanksgiving. These events formed the basis of the holiday that Americans now celebrate.
But there are no official "rules" for a Thanksgiving meal. Some people like to find ways to do things a little differently.
BUTCH HUNSINGER: "Butch Hunsinger from Williamsport, Pennsylvania."
REPORTER: "The bird. What are you going to do differently this year?"
BUTCH HUNSINGER: "Try to shoot it myself, instead of go to the store to buy it. Go to the family cabin, and hunt on the family land and try to call in a turkey and fire away."
REPORTER: "And who's the better shot in the family?"
BUTCH: "Oh my son, by far."
REPORTER: "What about your worst Thanksgiving memory?"
BUTCH: "Worst…[Laughter] The worst was also the funnest, 'cause I got up early Thanksgiving day and we went to the Burwick Marathon, but it's a nine-mile road race. Just a crusher." [Laughter]
HUGUETTE MBELLA: "Hi, my name is Huguette Mbella. And I was born in Cameroon and grew up in France. And I live now in the United States in Washington, D.C. The whole concept of Thanksgiving was a little bit bizarre. In France, the main celebration is Christmas, not Thanksgiving."
REPORTER: "Can you think of one of your most fond Thanksgiving memories?"
HUGUETTE MBELLA: "I would say my first one. It was in New York. Suddenly the turkey comes on the table, and I was amazed by the size. It was huge! The first thing that came to my mind was actually that's a lot of food!"
ELIZABETH BRINKMAN: "My name is Elizabeth Brinkman and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. It was always a day that my mother did all the cooking. And we had turkey and I got to chop the vegetables for the dressing. And we got out the good china."
GORDON GEIGER: "Gordon Geiger from Tucson, Arizona. We used to get together at my parents' house and all of my relatives would come over and we'd have a big dinner. And after dinner we would watch football games on the television.
I think it's probably really the most important holiday in the United States because it is a day that is not tied to a particular religion. It is not tied as much to commercial activities. It's more a reflection of the fact that we've had a good life and we appreciate it."
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This Thanksgiving, Americans can be thankful that the Great Recession may be over. But the job market faces a long recovery. Unemployment is now above ten percent. And if the underemployed are added, the rate is seventeen and a half percent. The underemployed are people no longer searching for work or only able to find part time jobs.
Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture released its "household food security" report for two thousand eight. The study found that families in seventeen million households had difficulty getting enough food at times during the year. That was almost fifteen percent -- up from eleven percent in two thousand seven. It was the highest level since the current surveys began in nineteen ninety-five.
The Agriculture Department says poverty is the main cause of food insecurity and hunger in the United States.
President Obama, in a statement, called the report unsettling. Especially troubling, he said, is that there were more than five hundred thousand families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times during the year.
He said the first task is to renew job growth, but added that his administration is taking other steps to prevent hunger. These include an increase in aid for people in the government's nutrition assistance program, commonly known as food stamps.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The Continental Congress wrote the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen seventy-seven, during the Revolutionary War. George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen eighty-nine. Here is part of what he wrote.
READER:
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the twenty-sixth day of November next to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ...
VOICE ONE:
Sarah Josepha Hale was a magazine editor and writer who campaigned for a Thanksgiving holiday. That way, there would be "two great American national festivals," she said, the other being Independence Day on the Fourth of July.
In September of eighteen sixty-three, Sarah Josepha Hale appealed to President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had made proclamations in the spring of eighteen sixty-two and sixty-three. But these gave thanks for victories in battle during the Civil War.
Then came another proclamation on October third, eighteen sixty-three. It gave more general thanks for the blessings of the year. This is part of what it said:
READER:
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. ...
I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
VOICE ONE:
Lincoln's proclamation began a tradition. Presidents have issued Thanksgiving proclamations every year since eighteen sixty-three. All can be found on the Web site of the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth.
In nineteen forty-one, Franklin Roosevelt was president. Roosevelt approved a resolution by Congress. It established, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
(MUSIC)
Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
Thanksgiving in America : Thanksgiving Cartoon Discussion
Why not practice your written English by leaving a comment.
What do you think is the message of the cartoonist in this cartoon?
25 November 2009
Cartoon : The Begging Turkey
to beg - to ask for help, an opportunity, etc. in a way that shows you want it very much
seldom – rarely, not often
24 November 2009
Cartoon : Cutting Some Slack
| to sleep in (American) / to lie in (British) – faire la grasse matinée |
| to waste (time, opportunity) - perdre |
| “I get it!” (idiomatic expression)– “J’ai capté!” |
| to cut/give someone some slack (idiomatic expression, from the word slack – le mou) – lacher quelqu’un un peu |
| ground - moulu |
23 November 2009
Cartoon : Idioms – A Foodie
A foodie is someone who enjoys eating or cooking different types of food and who talks a lot about food. A fatty is an insulting term for someone who is fat.
22 November 2009
Thanksgiving in America : Thanksgiving Quotes
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
| to express – exprimer |
| gratitude – la reconnaissance |
| to utter – prononcer |
“What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?” Erma Bombeck, American humorist
| to set aside – réserver pour |
| to diet – faire régime |
“It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.” Alistair Cooke, American/British journalist
| unchallengeable – incontestable |
| goo – une substance gluante |
| overtone – une connotation |
| delectable – délicieux |
| board – le repas, le couvert |
| uneatable – non comestible |
Featured Podcast : Half of US Jobs Now Held by Women (VOA News)
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. (19 Nov 2009) - http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-11-19-voa3.cfm
To download the MP3 audio file to the report, right click with your mouse HERE
Women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs. The latest government report shows that their share of nonfarm jobs nearly reached fifty percent in September. Not only have more and more women entered the labor market over the years, but the recession has been harder on men. In October the unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent, compared to eight percent for women.
Industries that traditionally use lots of men have suffered deep cuts. For example, manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. But health care and 
temporary employment services have had job growth. Both of those industries employ high percentages of women.
Thirty years ago, women earned sixty-two cents for every dollar that men earned. Now, for those who usually work full time, women earn about eighty percent of what men earn. And women hold fifty-one percent of good-paying management and professional jobs.
Yet a study released Thursday said men still hold about nine out of every ten top positions at the four hundred largest companies in California. The results have remained largely unchanged in five years of studies from the University of California, Davis.
Also, a new research paper in the journal Sex Roles looks at the experiences of women who are the main earners in their family. Rebecca Meisenbach at the University of Missouri in Columbia interviewed fifteen women. She found they all valued their independence and many enjoyed having the power of control, though not all wanted it.
But they also felt pressure, worry and guilt. Partly that was because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. Also, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.
The job market continues to suffer the effects of last year's financial crash. Now, a judgment has been reached in the first case involving charges of criminal wrongdoing on Wall Street.
Last week, the government lost its case against two managers at Bear Stearns, the first investment bank to fail last year. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of lying to investors.
The hedge funds they supervised lost their value in two thousand seven. But jurors said there was no clear evidence that they meant to mislead investors.
The Justice Department continues to investigate other companies.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
19 November 2009
Culture Spot : On This Day . . . 19 November – Happy Birthday James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States
On this day in 1831, James Abram Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio. He would become the 20th President of the United States and would have the second shortest presidency in the history of the country with only 199 days in office.
James A. Garfield was a major general in the US Army during the Civil War and later became a member of the US House of Representatives. In fact, Garfield is the only sitting member of the House to have been elected President of the United States.
Garfield’s life was changed at the Republican National Convention of 1880. Just before, in January of that year, Garfield had been elected by the Ohio legislature to become US Senator for the state of Ohio starting in March of 1881. Senator-elect Garfield went to the convention supporting Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman for the Republican nomination. In all, there were 14 nominations for the party’s nomination (this predates the modern primary system). The top three candidates were former President Ulysses S. Grant, James G. Blaine and John Sherman. Grant, who was president from 1869 to 1877 was seeking a third term in office.
After 35 ballots, none of the candidates obtained the required number of votes to capture the party’s nomination. Sherman and Blaine along with their delegates decided to look elsewhere and threw their support to a ‘dark horse,’ James A. Garfield. In political terms, a dark horse is someone who is little known and rises to prominence, much like current President Barack Obama. On the 36 ballot, Garfield, who didn’t even go the Republican Convention seeking the nomination, was elected with 93 more votes than Grant. Finally, the convention chose Chester A. Arthur as Garfield’s vice presidential running mate ending the longest Republican Convention in history. Ironically, Sherman, whom Garfield went to the convention to support, was chosen to be the senator for Ohio in the place of Garfield.
In the general election of 1880, the Republican Garfield-Arthur ticket won 214 votes in the Electoral College against the Democratic Hancock-English ticket’s 155 votes. In the popular vote, Garfield and Arthur received only 1,898 more votes. The smallest popular vote majority in the history of US presidential elections. President Garfield and Vice President Arthur were sworn into office on March 4, 1881.
On July 2, 1881 Garfield was on his way to deliver a speech and was shot twice while walking through a train station in Washington D.C. by Charles J. Guiteau who was disgruntled for not being able to obtain a federal post. One bullet only grazed the President’s arm and the other was believed to have lodged itself in the spine. Garfield survived but was bedridden in the White House as he became increasingly ill from infection. The doctors were unable to locate the bullet and Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, devised a metal detector to locate the bullet. Unfortunately the metal-framed bed in which the President lay caused the detector to not function correctly. Such beds were so rare, they had no idea that it was the cause of the metal detector’s deviation.
President Garfield’s infection worsened which weakened his heart. He had constant fevers and severe pains. On September 9, he was moved to the New Jersey shore hoping that the fresh air would help aid the President in his recovery. Unfortunately, on September 19, President Garfield suffered either a massive heart attack or an aneurysm due to blood poisoning and pneumonia from infection. Garfield became the second American president to have been assassinated after President Lincoln. On the same day, Vice President Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st President of the United States.
Other interesting facts about the 20th President of the United States (taken from Wikipedia) :
- Garfield was a minister and an elder for the Church of Christ (Christian Church), making him the first—and to date, only—member of the clergy to serve as President. He is also claimed as a member of the Disciples of Christ, as the different branches did not split until the 20th century. Garfield preached his first sermon in Poestenkill, New York.
- Garfield is the only person in U.S. history to be a Representative, Senator-elect, and President-elect at the same time. To date, he is the only Representative to be directly elected President of the United States.
- In 1876, Garfield discovered a novel proof of the Pythagorean Theorem using a trapezoid while serving as a member of the House of Representatives.
- Garfield was the first ambidextrous president. It was said that one could ask him a question in English and he could simultaneously write the answer in Latin with one hand, and Ancient Greek with the other.
- Garfield was a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Billington through his son Francis, another Mayflower passenger. John Billington was convicted of murder at Plymouth Mass. 1630.
Read more about President James A. Garfield at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Garfield
http://www.answers.com/topic/james-garfield
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/jamesgarfield/
18 November 2009
Cartoon : Trimmings
Trimmings is a strange word in English. In comes from the verb to trim meaning to ornament or decorate. For example, at Christmas we say to trim the tree. This means to decorate the Christmas tree. Trimmings is used to talk about all the the extra parts added to a meal to make it traditional or more interesting. This word is usually used for the festive meals of Thanksgiving or Christmas. In the United States, some of the trimmings you might find gracing the Thanksgiving table along with the turkey are stuffing (une farce), sweet potatoes (des patates douces), various types of casseroles (des gratins), mashed potatoes (une purée), cranberry sauce or relish, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and other various desserts.
For some American Thanksgiving recipes, go to:
Allrecipes.com - Thankgiving recipes homepage
Holidays.net - Thanksgiving recipes
Foodnetwork.com (Food TV) - Thankgiving and Turkey recipes
Idioms & Slang : Turkey
Reposted from last year
This is the month when Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving. As you know, a roast turkey traditionally graces our Thanksgiving tables. In honor of this month, let's look at a some slang and idioms that use the word 'turkey!' You might hear someone called a turkey which isn't a very nice thing to say about someone. If you called someone 'a turkey,' it's because you think that person is an idiot, fool or a moron. A film or a theatrical production might be referred to as a turkey if it turns out that the film or play is a complete failure. In the business world, turkeys are investments or securities that failed to yield the profit expected. They also refer to any failed business deal. A turkey is also a sports term in bowling meaning three consecutive strikes. If you need to speak quite openly and frankly with someone, you would talk turkey. Do you have any annoying addictions such as smoking cigarettes? Well, if one day you decided to stop abruptly without taking one more cigarette, we would say that you went or stopped cold turkey. It's very hard to do for most people!
17 November 2009
Cartoon : Not Into the Thanksgiving Spirit
To renege on something, you decide not to do something that you promised to do. In the cartoon, Babs states that we reneged on every single treaty. In other words, she’s accusing earlier Americans of not honoring the treaties they signed with the native peoples.
As a result, Babs states that Native American culture was decimated and that they were forced into poverty onto squalid reservations. If something is squalid, we say that it is dirty and unpleasant. It can also imply unpleasant conditions because it involves dishonest, illegal or immoral behavior. Many people who live in government housing projects (les cités) live in squalid living conditions.
16 November 2009
Important Note!
All of Mr. Joseph Boen’s classes are canceled today, Monday, 16 November and tomorrow, Tuesday, 17 November!!
14 November 2009
Cartoon : First the Turkey Then the Fat Boy!
Cartoon by Randy Bish of The Tribune Review (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) published on 12 November 2009.
A criticism of how early the commercialization of Christmas starts every year!
hop in/on/out - (informal) to get into, onto, or out of a vehicle quickly
a sleigh - a vehicle that is pulled by animals and used for traveling over snow
Interesting Words : Staycation
The global economic turndown has also had its effects on the English language. The crisis may weaken our pocketbooks but it has enriched the English language with some new terminology!
I came across a new word that has come into fashion. It is ‘staycation.’ Is this word just a passing fad or will it eventually find itself in our dictionaries? Well, the word is already found on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary meaning it is probably destined for a long life!
The fad started in Canada and started to be widely used in the United States as gasoline prices soared a couple of years ago. It has continued in use due to the overall economic situation causing many families to not wander far from home due to the high cost of travel. There is a bunch of things written about staycations in books, travel magazines, newspaper articles, television and a host of other media!
What does staycation mean? The word is the melding of two words ‘stay’ + ‘vacation.’ Staycation refers to a vacation (or holiday for you British English purists!) spent relaxing at home and perhaps visiting the sites in your area in short day trips.
I googled* the word and found tons of sites, even French ones, that use the word. Take a look and google* the word yourself!
*to google – This verb is another recent addition to the English language that has become quite popular and widely used. As you can guess, it simply means to research the internet with Google.
12 November 2009
Video of the Moment : John Adams, Making Of (HBO)
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post commemorating the birthday of America’s 2nd First Lady, Abigail Adams, I am posting a 20 minute video on the making of the 2008 HBO television mini-series John Adams. I cannot praise enough this historically accurate television series.
11 November 2009
Happy Veterans’ Day!
November 11 is known as Veterans’ Day in the United States and is observed to honor the service of all US military veterans living or dead.
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day in on November 11, 1919. After World War II, there was a push to expand Armistice Day to include all veterans. On May 26, 1954 President Eisenhower signed into law an act that expanded Armistice Day to include all veterans. On November 8 of that same year, Congress amended the law by simply changing the name to Veterans’ Day.
However, if November 11 falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the official observance will be held on Monday in order to have a three-day weekend.
Culture Spot : On This Day . . . 11 November – Happy Birthday Abigail Adams, 1st Second Lady & 2nd First Lady of the United States
On this day in 1744, Abigail Adams (née Smith) was born in town of Weymouth in the colony of Massachusetts. Of all the First Ladies of the United States, she is the one I most admire. She is most remembered thanks to her letters with her husband, John Adams, the first Vice President 
and the second President of the United States. She was the mother of the sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. She was the first Second Lady of the United States. When her husband John Adams succeeded George Washington as President of the United States, Abigail became the second First Lady and the first to live in the White House.
The letters written between Abigail and John Adams well document their marriage relationship and exposes one of the greatest love stories in American history! The letters shed light on their emotional attachment and their mutual intellectual respect.
Abigail’s father, was a minister in the Congregational Church who preached the importance of reason and morality. Her mother was from the Quincy family, a very influential political family in the Massachusetts Colony. Although she did not receive a formal education due to frail health, her mother taught her and her sisters to read and write. She was also well versed in English and French literature. Thanks to her open-mindedness and idea’s on women’s rights and government, Abigail would become one of the most erudite First Ladies in American history. She would also be one of the most influential and politically active First Ladies. Her political opponents referred to her as “Mrs. President.”
She was also the first First Lady to live in the White House. In 1800, near the end of his term, the President and the First Lady moved into the President’s House, as it was known at the time, while it was still under construction by slave labor, a practice that both she and her husband abhorred!
President Adams lost his bid for re-election in 1800 to then Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Upon Jefferson’s inauguration, the Adams retired back to their home in Quincy, Massachusetts. During her time back in Quincy she closely followed the political career of her son, John Quincy Adams, and renewed correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, their one-time close friend and later political enemy. Thanks to this renewed correspondence, Abigail rekindled the close friendship that the Adams had with Thomas Jefferson.
On October 28, 1818, Abigail Adams died rom typhoid fever and unfortunately never had the pleasure of seeing her son, John Quincy Adams, elected the 6th President of the United States. She was just shy of her 74th birthday. Her last words to her husband were, "Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long."
To learn more about this great American First Lady, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/abigailadams
http://www.familytales.org/results.php?tla=aba
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/ADAMYD.html
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=2
Watch excerpts from the 2008 HBO miniseries “John Adams” with scenes depicting Abigail Adams played by Laura Linney and John Adams played by Paul Giamatti:
The 2008 HBO series was based on the Pulitzer Prize winning biography John Adams by David McCullough. I read this book and I highly recommend it and the miniseries!!
You can buy the book and the series in DVD or Blu ray at Amazon !
I also very highly recommend the documentary American Experience: John and Abigail Adams (2005)
10 November 2009
Culture Spot : The Food That Kept America Growing
Although early Americans lived with uncertain harvests, their bountiful new land was amply supplied with finned (having fins), furred (having fur), and feathered (having feathers) fare. Indeed, one writer claimed that “game made the settlement of America possible.”
Some colonists suffered a surfeit of seafood. In 1622 the Pilgrims bemoaned the fact that they could offer newcomers nothing but lobster 
(some of which weighed 11 kilograms). And Captain John Smith observed, “He is a very bad fisherman who cannot kill in one day one, two or three hundred cod.”
In later centuries the abundance of game on the frontier was equally astonishing. On a wagon trip west from Missouri, one boy wrote that “frequently my father killed three deer (note: singular and plural forms are the same!) before breakfast.” Countless settlers made meals of the then-ubiquitous passenger pigeon. The birds (now extinct – in part as a result of overhunting) flew in flocks so vast that they darkened the sky. A single blast of buckshot could fell as many as 125. In 1736 the birds were so prolific that farmers fed them to their pigs, and city dwellers could by a half-dozen for a penny.
Those with more refined palates dined on the delectable canvasback duck – a treat praised by the hard-to-please English novelist Frederick Marryat. Describing the “countless profusion” at American markets, Marryat wrote that he had seen “nearly three hundred head of deer, with quantities of bear, raccoons . . . and every variety of bird. Bear I abominate,” he cautioned, but “raccoon is pretty good.”
Another observer, however, noted that a companion enjoyed bear meat “so passionately that he would growl like a Wild-Cat over a Squirrel.” Other native delicacies included beaver tail, moose (especially the nose), and terrapin.
Taken and adapted from Reader’s Digest Discovering America’s Past – Customs, Legends, History & Lore of Our Great Nation
09 November 2009
In the News: French Babies Cry With a French Accent (a follow-up!)
As a follow-up to Saturday’s post, here is a link to a BBC page with a recording of German infant’s cry and that of French baby. Can you spot the difference?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8346000/8346476.stm
Cartoon : Hoarse Thief
to break in - to enter a building by force, especially in order to steal things
a cough drop - a type of candy containing medicine that you suck when you have a cough or a sore throat
hoarse - someone who is hoarse or has a hoarse voice speaks in a low rough voice, usually because their throat is sore
08 November 2009
Vocabulary In the News : 8 November 2009 – Richmond-Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia)
Visit the Richmond-Times Dispatch
Sniper John Allen Muhammad is slated to be executed by injection Tuesday in the state of Virginia for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers in October of 2002. If you say something is slated, this means it is arranged or scheduled to happen at a particular time or date. A slaying is the act of killing someone. It comes from the irregular verb ‘to slay’ (slay, slew, slain).
Muhammad unleashed terror in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. in 2002. In other words he did something that had a very powerful and harmful effect on those regions! Here’s another example of this word’s use: “The passing of the health bill in the House of Representatives will unleash a storm of criticism by its opponents.”
He led a 2-man sniper team that claimed the lives of 10 people. To claim the life of someone means that something or someone causes the death of someone. For example, the H1N1 flu virus has claimed the lives of children in France and the United States. AIDS (SIDA) has claimed the lives of millions of people around the world and Hitler’s holocaust claimed the lives of millions of Jews during WWII.
Mr. Muhammad and his teenage partner in crime left a twisted trail of death behind them. To twist means to bend or turn into different shapes. If a road is twisted, there are a lot of turns and thus is not a straight road. However, another meaning of twisted means behaving in a strange and and/or cruel way. We could say that Muhammad had a twisted mind. You might recognize this word from the American heavy metal band, Twisted Sister.
To read more, go to : http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/EXEC08_20091107-222006/304396/
In The News : French Babies Cry With a French Accent !
Who would have thought that infant babies cry according to the melody and sounds of their parents native language !
For those of you interested, here’s a link to a November 6 article by Hannah Devlin in The Times (UK) newspaper entitled ‘Study shows unborn babies cry in their mother tongue.’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/biology_evolution/article6905544.ece
This time, it’s up to you to do the leg work and look up the vocabulary you don’t know!
07 November 2009
Interesting Internet Sites: America’s Prettiest Towns (Forbes Traveler)
From the natural setting to the architecture, see what makes these towns finalists in Forbes' civic-beauty pageant.
Read the article and view a slideshow of these pretty towns at :
http://www.forbestraveler.com/best-lists/americas-prettiest-towns-2009-story.html
Vocabulary In the News : 6 November 2009 – The Times (UK)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
Sex education in the United Kingdom will soon be made mandatory for all 15-year-olds. In other words, these teenagers will be legally obliged to take one-year of sex and relationship lessons. Another common synonym for this word is compulsory.
This decision has prompted fury from religious groups who believe this contravenes parental rights. This means that if enacted, they believe the decision would violate parents’ rights to educate children according to their beliefs.
If students opt out on religious grounds, it will be considered as truancy and the students may be punished by the school. If you opt out of something, you decide to not participate or not take part in something. Opting out on religious grounds means to not participate because of religious reasons. Here’s another example of the phrase: In France it is illegal to discriminate against someone on the grounds of religion, race, sex, age or sexual orientation.
Students who decide to not attend these lessons on the grounds of religious beliefs will be punished for truancy which means they are absent from class without permission. Any student skipping class is said to be truant. In the UK, Canada and the US, there are police officers or other designated officials who are authorized to arrest truant students and take the child to school. These officers or officials are called truant officers.
Read the original article at : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6905543.ece
Learn more about truancy at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truancy
06 November 2009
Cartoon : TGIF
TGIF is an initialism for the phrase ‘Thank (God/Goodness/Gosh) It’s Friday.’
Starting in the United States, it has become a common expression of relief at the end of the work week and anticipation of relaxing or partying over the weekend. The term was originated by the Akron, Ohio disk jockey Jerry Healy on radio station WAKR in the early 1970s. The phrase was further popularised by the 1978 movie starring Donna Summer, Thank God It’s Friday. The phrase has also become common for advertising and promotional materials. On college campuses beginning in the 1970s, the phrase (sometimes shortened to "TG") became associated with Friday afternoon beer parties, usually held outdoors. (Wikipedia)
Cartoon : Peanuts – A Tempest on Snoopy’s Sea
| a tempest | - | (literary) a severe storm with strong winds and heavy rain or snow |
| a gale | - | a very strong wind “It’s blowing a gale (=there is a strong wind).” |
| to lash | - | if the wind or rain lashes something or lashes against something, it blows or falls against it with a very strong force “The wind was still strong, and the rain lashed against the roof.” |
| a deck | - | the outside top part of a ship that you can walk on “A lot of passengers were sitting up on deck.” |
| a shower | - | a short period when it rains or snows “Tonight there’s a 50% chance of showers.” |
| a sigh | - | a slow breath out that makes a long soft sound, especially because you are disappointed, tired, annoyed, or relaxed “His only reaction to the news was a sigh of disappointment.” |
Culture Spot : On This Day . . . 6 November - Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America
On this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected President of the Confederate States of America. Here’s an extract taken from Wikipedia:
Jefferson Finis Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history, 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War.
A West Point graduate, Davis fought in the Mexican-American War as a colonel of a volunteer regiment, and was the United States Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce. Both before and after his time in the Pierce Administration, he served as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi. As a senator he argued against secession but believed each state was sovereign and had an unquestionable right to secede from the Union.
Davis resigned from the Senate in January 1861, after receiving word that Mississippi had seceded from the Union. The following month, he was provisionally appointed President of the Confederate States of America. He was elected to a six-year term that November. During his presidency, Davis was not able to find a strategy to defeat the more industrially developed Union.
After Davis was captured May 10, 1865, he was charged with treason, though not tried, and stripped of his eligibility to run for public office. This limitation was posthumously removed by order of Congress and President Jimmy Carter in 1978, 89 years after his death. While not disgraced, he was displaced in Southern affection after the war by its leading general, Robert E. Lee.
05 November 2009
Vocabulary In the News : 4 November 2009 – The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey)
Visit the newspapers homepage at: http://www.northjersey.com
The top headline of Wednesday’s front page from concerned Tuesday’s election results for the state of New Jersey. New Jerseyans went to the polls on Tuesday to elect a governor as well as other state positions. If you go to the polls, you go vote at polling station you are registered at.
The race between incumbent Governor Corzine and Republican candidate Chris Christie was very close but in the end, Christie managed to sway the majority of voters in his favor. To sway literally means to swing move gently from side to side but it can also mean, as in the front page headline, to influence or change someone’s opinion. You could also say that Christie’s campaign and program for New Jersey held sway (to hold sway – irregular verb) over the voters of New Jersey. Another way of saying this is that the voters fell under Christie’s sway and elected him governor.
Read more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/governorsrace2009.html
In an opinion article also found on the front page, the author states that the GOP (Grand Old Party – the other name for the Republican Party) is rudderless no more. A rudder is a flat piece of wood or other material in the back of a boat that is moved to change the direction the boat travels. Idiomatically, if we say a group or organization is rudderless, we say that they lack a clear aim, purpose or direction. The GOP in New Jersey now has the governorship in a state that is traditionally a Democratic bastion and is no longer rudderless.
Read more at : http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/political_stile/State_GOP_is_rudderless_no_more.html
04 November 2009
Cartoon : Romantic Moments with H1N1
| to waft | - | if a smell or a noise wafts, it floats through the air in a gentle way “The aroma of freshly made pancakes wafted through the air.” |
| to mess with someone's head/mind | - | (very informal) to seriously upset someone or make them confused “Don’t mess with my head; are you kidding or not?” |
| to be swept away/to get swept away | - | to become completely involved in a story, situation, your emotions, etc. “The full moon, the live piano music and the candlelight dinner caused the two lovers to be swept away in the spirit of romance.” |
03 November 2009
Vocabulary In the News : 2 November 2009 – The Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/
There is a some good vocabulary in this front page we can glean.
- US Marine Corps Commandant General James T. Conway is leading the fight against lifting the policy ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ put in place in the 1990’s by President Clinton. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ allows gays to serve in the US military but not openly. President Obama has promised to lift the ban and would permit gay men and women to serve openly. If Obama lifts the ban, he officially removes and ends a rule or law that stops someone from doing something. Read more at :
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/02/marine-leads-dont-ask-dont-tell-fight/
- The 3rd of November is seen as the first test of Obama’s presidency due to elections in 4 states where Republicans are expected to win. Virginians and New Jerseyites are voting for governor today. In Virginia, the Republican leads by double digits. In New Jersey, the race is close. President Obama is putting his clout to the test by campaigning for the incumbent Democratic governor running for re-election. Clout is the power of influence. Obama is hoping that his clout will help the incumbent Democrat in New Jersey. An incumbent is someone simply running for re-election hoping to keep his office. Obama’s agenda is seen to be at stake in these elections if Democrats lose their bid for re-electon. In other words, his policies are in danger because the elections are seen as a referendum on the Obama presidency and the Democrats in general. A bid is an attempt to do something. Read more at :
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/02/obama-puts-clout-to-test-in-nj/
Humor Spot : Women Drivers
I was getting into my car when I noticed a dent. On the windshield was a note and a phone number from the driver. "I feel terrible," the woman apologized when I called. "I hit your car as I was pulling into the next parking spot."
"Please, don't worry," I said to her. "I'm sure our insurance companies will take care of everything."
"Thank you for your understanding," she said. "You're so much nicer than the man I hit on the way out."
| to get into | - | to enter |
| a dent | - | a place where a surface has been pushed or knocked inward |
| windshield | - | the large glass window at the front of a vehicle. The British term is windscreen. |
| to apologize | - | to tell someone that you are sorry for doing something wrong or for causing a problem |
| to pull into | - | if a vehicle or driver pulls into a place, they stop there |
02 November 2009
Vocabulary In the News : 1 November 2009 – The Southtown Star (Tinley Park, Illinois)
http://www.southtownstar.com
This unfortunate lady was robbed while mourning at her father’s gravesite. When you mourn, you feel extremely sad because someone has died.
Mrs. Koenig was another victim in a string of robberies by thieves who have the gall to steal from mourners who are paying their respects to loved ones. When we say that someone has the gall to do something, we say they have an attitude towards other people that shows a lack of respect or care for their needs.
Speaking of respect, to pay your respects means you honor someone by going to their funeral or visiting their grave. On All Saints’ Day on the 1st of November, many French pay their respects to deceased family members by visiting their graves. Unfortunately while paying her respects, Mrs. Koenig’s purse was snatched out of her vehicle in which her elderly mother was waiting. To snatch means to quickly steal something from someone.
To read more, go to http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1856344,110109cemetery.article
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