Q: Received this from a friend and wanted to know why it hasn't been in the paper. A: Your attachment is about actor Denzel Washington's visit "the other day" to the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. That day was Dec. 17, 2004. The e-mail, which occasionally surfaces as new, claims the media deliberately ignored Washington's spontaneous donation to build an entire Fisher House, a refuge near the hospital where wounded soldiers' families can stay. "He took his checkbook out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot," it says. "The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public..." The e-mail also contrasts other actors' "anti-everything-American trash" with "Washington's patriotism," which, it says, "doesn't even make Page 3 in the metro section of any newspaper except the local newspaper in San Antonio." David Coker, president of Fisher House, confirmed Washington made a "sizable donation" to the charity, but it was several months after his visit and "not enough to build a new Fisher House," according to Veterans Today. "The persistence of the legend suggests that some people want to believe it's true, so they can blame the news media and movie industry for short-changing 'the soldiers overseas,'" said Robert Rivard, editor of The Express-News of San Antonio. "...Instead of inciting anger, the myth and the true story behind it could be used to support the troops by promoting the Fisher House Foundation...," he said. Washington's visit probably did not make bigger news because celebrities often visit wounded servicemen. The Courier did not carry a story on it. -- Veterans Today, Fisher House, Peter Mattiace.
Q: Why is Ohio called a "state" and Pennsylvania is called a "commonwealth"? A: Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia and Massachusetts call themselves commonwealths, a term that dates from colonial times. It means nothing legally. The Constitution recognizes all as states. -- Various sources, Peter Mattiace. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2010/Jan/JU/ar_JU_010310.asp?d=010310,2010,Jan,03&c=c_13

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From: James Lee Subject: charivari This word will recall for some of your readers the great satirical magazine Punch or the London Charivari, first published in 1841. There was also a French satirical review Le Charivari, which was published between 1832 and 1937. It was a very sad day for many of us when Punch ceased publication in 2002.
From: Claudine Voelcker Subject: charivari Being French, I'm very familiar with the first meaning of charivari: hullabaloo. When I came to live in Bavaria I learnt about another, sometimes very impressive one. The Charivari is a chain provided with hunting charms and coins men and women wear with their traditional costume. Some of them are real gems! And of course, they are all to be earned or at the most inherited. You're not supposed to buy them. Oh, and there's a Munich-based radio station named Charivari.
From: Roy Reese Subject: charivari Where I grew up in northeast Pennsylvania the noisy "serenading" and tricking of newlyweds was referred to as a skimmelton and in upstate New York a horning. The latter may refer to its presumed other use for "cheating" spouses -- although this was never mentioned. From: Tandy Beal Subject: charivari Having directed circuses around the world, I can let you know there is another meaning: it is often the opening act of a circus when all the performers come out and do a whiz bang wild polyphonic acrobatic welcome to the audience. It's a visual pots and pans loudness! From: Art Wegweiser Subject: sinister As a paleontologist and professor I sometime take delight when I point out in class that the coiling direction of many organisms is either sinistral or dextral. Then I reveal that left handed people were once considered evil and that, not too long ago, all children were forced to write with their right hand. In some parts of the world (and still today) thieves had their left hands chopped off.
From: Meredith McQuoid Subject: sinister Students of organic chemistry encounter this word when learning about chirality i.e., orientation of atoms within asymmetric molecules. In one naming convention, orientation of the molecule can be denoted with the letter prefix R for recto or S for sinister, depending on the right- or left-handedness of the arrangement of atoms. This was important for chemists to discover because substances of identical constituents but differing chiralities can behave differently in how they bond with other substances. This can, for example, significantly affect how a drug performs.

From the Whole Grains Council
Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) was a staple of Aztec culture, until Cortez, in an effort to destroy that civilization, decreed that anyone growing the crop would be put to death. Seeds were smuggled out to Asia, where local dialects referred to Amaranth as "king seed" and "seed sent by God" as a tribute to its taste and sustenance.
Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the oldest cultivated grains. Egyptians buried mummies with necklaces of barley, and centuries later In 1324 Edward II of England standardized the inch as equal to “three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end lengthwise." It is a highly-adaptable crop, growing north of the Arctic circle and as far south as Ethiopia.
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) goes way beyond the pancake mixes we associate with it. Japan’s soba noodles, Brittany’s crêpes and Russia’s kasha are all made with buckwheat. Botanically, buckwheat is a cousin of rhubarb, not technically a grain at all – and certainly not a kind of wheat.
Farro/Emmer (Triticum turgidum dicoccum), an ancient strain of wheat, was one of the first cereals ever domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, and centuries later, it served as the standard daily ration of the Roman legions. But over the centuries, emmer was gradually abandoned in favor of durum wheat, which is easier to hull. Teff (Eragrostis tef), a type of millet, is the principal source of nutrition for over two-thirds of Ethiopians, who make it into the ubiquitous spongy injera flatbread. Teff grains are minute – just 1/150 the size of wheat kernels – giving rise to the grain’s name, which comes from teffa, meaning “lost” in Amharic. Read much more at: http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/whole-grains-a-to-z

The Declaration of Independence, part three After the signing ceremony on August 2, 1776, the Declaration was most likely filed in Philadelphia in the office of Charles Thomson, who served as the Secretary of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789. On December 12, threatened by the British, Congress adjourned and reconvened 8 days later in Baltimore, MD. A light wagon carried the Declaration to its new home, where it remained until its return to Philadelphia in March of 1777. Assuming that the Declaration moved with the Congress, it would have been back in Philadelphia from March to September 1777. On September 27, it would have moved to Lancaster, PA, for 1 day only. From September 30, 1777, through June 1778, the Declaration would have been kept in the courthouse at York, PA. From July 1778 to June 1783, it would have had a long stay back in Philadelphia. In 1783, it would have been at Princeton, NJ, from June to November, and then, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the Declaration would have been moved to Annapolis, MD, where it stayed until October 1784. For the months of November and December 1784, it would have been at Trenton, NJ. Then in 1785, when Congress met in New York, the Declaration was housed in the old New York City Hall, where it probably remained until 1790 (although when Pierre L'Enfant was remodeling the building for the convening of the First Federal Congress, it might have been temporarily removed). In July 1790 Congress provided for a permanent capital to be built among the woodlands and swamps bordering the Potomac River. Meanwhile, the temporary seat of government was to return to Philadelphia. Congress also provided that "prior to the first Monday in December next, all offices attached to the seat of the government of the United States" should be removed to Philadelphia. The Declaration was therefore back in Philadelphia by the close of 1790. It was housed in various buildings--on Market Street, at Arch and Sixth, and at Fifth and Chestnut. In 1800, by direction of President John Adams, the Declaration and other government records were moved from Philadelphia to the new federal capital now rising in the District of Columbia. To reach its new home, the Declaration traveled down the Delaware River and Bay, out into the ocean, into the Chesapeake Bay, and up the Potomac to Washington, completing its longest water journey. For about 2 months the Declaration was housed in buildings built for the use of the Treasury Department. For the next year it was housed in one of the "Seven Buildings" then standing at Nineteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Its third home before 1814 was in the old War Office Building on Seventeenth Street. In August 1814, the United States being again at war with Great Britain, a British fleet appeared in the Chesapeake Bay. Secretary of State James Monroe rode out to observe the landing of British forces along the Patuxent River in Maryland. A message from Monroe alerted State Department officials, in particular a clerk named Stephen Pleasonton, of the imminent threat to the capital city and, of course, the government's official records. Pleasonton "proceeded to purchase coarse linen, and cause it to be made into bags of convenient size, in which the gentlemen of the office" packed the precious books and records including the Declaration. A cartload of records was then taken up the Potomac River to an unused gristmill belonging to Edgar Patterson. The structure was located on the Virginia side of the Potomac, about 2 miles upstream from Georgetown. Here the Declaration and the other records remained, probably overnight. Pleasonton, meanwhile, asked neighboring farmers for the use of their wagons. On August 24, the day of the British attack on Washington, the Declaration was on its way to Leesburg, VA. That evening, while the White House and other government buildings were burning, the Declaration was stored 35 miles away at Leesburg. The Declaration remained safe at a private home in Leesburg for an interval of several weeks--in fact, until the British had withdrawn their troops from Washington and their fleet from the Chesapeake Bay. In September 1814 the Declaration was returned to the national capital. With the exception of a trip to Philadelphia for the Centennial and to Fort Knox during World War II, it has remained there ever since. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/print_friendly.html?page=declaration_history_content.html&title=Declaration%20of%20Independence%3A%20A%20Transcription

Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), shot on January 8, was among a group of Democratic House candidates featured on the Web site of Sarah Palin’s political action committee with cross hairs over their districts, a fact that disturbed Ms. Giffords at the time. “We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list,” Ms. Giffords said last March. “But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that.” The image is no longer on the Web site, and Ms. Palin posted a statement saying “my sincere condolences are offered to the family of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.” (Late on the day of the shooting, the map was still on Ms. Palin’s Facebook page.) The House was set to vote January 12 on the new Republican majority’s proposal to repeal the health care law that had energized their supporters and ignited opposition from the Tea Party movement. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new majority leader, said that the vote and other planned legislative activity would be postponed. The original health care legislation stirred strong feelings that flared at angry town hall meetings held by many Democratic lawmakers during the summer of 2009. And there has been broader anger and suspicion rising about the government, its finances and its goals, with the discourse partially fueled by talk shows and Web sites.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/politics/09capital.html