Coulee (or coulée) is applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley or drainage zone.  The word coulee comes from the Canadian French coulée, from French word couler meaning "to flow".  The term is often used interchangeably in the Great Plains for any number of water features, from ponds to creeks.  In southern Louisiana the word coulée (also spelled coolie) originally meant a gully or ravine usually dry or intermittent but becoming sizable during rainy weather.  As stream channels were dredged or canalized, the term was increasingly applied to perennial streams, generally smaller than bayous.  The term is also used for small ditches or canals in the swamp.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulee

Trivia

·         The term "passenger pigeon" in English derives from the French word "passager" meaning to pass by.

·         Since Oreo cookies debuted in 1912, over 362 billion have been sold, making them the best-selling cookie in the United States.

·         Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand, is considered the world's steepest residential street.

·         Ebenezer Place, in Wick, Caithness, Scotland, is credited by the Guinness Book of Records as being the world's shortest street at 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in).  The street originated in 1883, when 1 Ebenezer Place was constructed; the owner of the building, a hotel at the time, was instructed to paint a name on the shortest side of the hotel.  It was officially declared a street in 1887. 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

caboodle  (kuh-BOOD-uhl) noun  The lot, collection, or crowd.   The word is mostly seen in the expression "kit and caboodle" meaning "the whole lot".  Perhaps from boodle (money, goods, people), from Dutch boedel (property).  Earliest documented use:  1848.

petard  (pe-TAHRD, pi-)  noun

1.  A small bomb used to blast down a gate or wall.
2.  A loud firecracker.  From French péter (to break wind), from Latin peditum (a breaking wind), from pedere (to break wind).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root pezd- (to break wind) which also gave us feisty, fart, and French pet (fart).  Earliest documented use:  1566.

A petard was a bell-shaped bomb used to breach a door or a wall.  Now that we have advanced to ICBMs, this low-tech word survives in the phrase "to hoist by one's own petard" meaning "to have one's scheme backfire".  The idiom was popularized by Shakespeare in his play Hamlet. Hamlet, having turned the tables on those tasked with killing him, says:  For 'tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard.

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From:  Fred Kepler  Subject:  caboodle  There's a wonderful, locally-owned cooking and housewares store in Portland, Oregon, called Kitchen Kaboodle.

From:  Stan Sapire  Subject:  petard  From Johannesburg South Africa comes this true account.

Years ago the Johannesburg advocates comprising the local bar moved to new premises in a then recently constructed multi-storied building.  Shortly after moving a number of persons entered the lift (elevator) which served tenants who had their offices on the floors above ground level.  Among their number was an advocate known for his subtle wit.  Another was a well-known solicitor who was a part-owner of the building whose firm occupied premises in the building apart from those of the bar.  Soon after the lift commenced on its upward journey it came to an abrupt halt trapping those inside between floors where they had to remain, delayed from their business, pending rescue.  The atmosphere was lightened by the wit, observing to the solicitor, "Phillip, I see you are petard by your own hoist." 

Kohlrabi is a part of the cabbage family.  It was first grown in Europe around 1500 and was imported into America 300 years later.  It has a turnip like appearance, with leaves standing out like spokes from the edible portion, which is a rounded, enlarged stem section growing just above the soil line.  Kohlrabi is sometimes misclassified as a root vegetable.  http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/kohlrabi.cfm 

Kohlrabi is delicious raw.  Cut into wedges and crunch them for snacks, use with creamy dips, or give them a simple drip or two of soy sauce.  Kohlrabi also adds bite and crunch to salads and slaws—slice thinly or shred.  Kohlrabi can be chopped and added to soups or stews, or boiled and added to mashed potatoes or other mashed root vegetables.  Kohlrabi can also be roasted: cut them into wedges or chunks, toss with a bit of oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast in a hot oven until brown and tender. 

Link to recipes at:  http://localfoods.about.com/od/kohlrabi/a/All-About-Kohlrabi.htm 

Current-day newspapers aren’t the only ones going online.  Now you can read news of 1832 to 1879 online in one of Ohio’s leading newspapers of the era, the Ohio State Journal — a 19th-century predecessor of the 20th-century Columbus Citizen-Journal.  A $53,825 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the State Library of Ohio has enabled the Ohio Historical Society to microfilm and digitize the Ohio State Journal from 1832–1879 and make it available free online.  The Library Services and Technology Act program is funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered through the State Library of Ohio. 

http://www.ohiohistory.org/publications/ohio-histore-news/2013/september-27-2013/ohio-history-journal 

Heliograph

1.  Noun  An apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.

2.  Noun  A heliogram.

3.  Noun  An instrument for measuring the intensity of sunlight.

4.  Noun  A device for photographing the sun.
5.  Noun  (obsolete)  A photograph.
6.  Verb  (transitive)  To send a message by heliograph.
7.  Verb  (intransitive)  To send a heliograph.  Source: wiktionary.com  Find lexicographical neighbors of heliograph at:  http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/heliograph

"Lexicus is an online web dictionary and thesaurus.  We're different from other online dictionaries because we offer only pithy, precise definitions and sample word usage."  http://www.lexic.us/  

It's is a contraction for it is or it has.  Its is like hers, his, ours, theirs, and yours.  These are all possessive pronouns, and do not have apostrophes.  Flags is the plural of flag.  It does not need an apostrophe.  Find helpful information at  http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp

To me, it looks like Amazon is trying to monopolize the e-book market," said author Scott Turow, a practicing attorney, choosing his words carefully.  "They used what I thought of as unfair tactics."  It takes a bestselling author like Turow, whose "Presumed Innocent" sold millions of copies. to risk offending Amazon, which has more than a quarter of the entire e-book market.  "I'm not talking about me," Turow said Oct. 16, 2013.  "Bestselling authors are going to do fine.  I'm talking about shrinking the market so you have fewer writers and fewer voices."   As the president of the Authors Guild, Turow has been intimately acquainted with many of the business issues surrounding e-books.  The Writers Guild has filed suit against Google regarding its massive book-scanning project and joined in the legal maneuvering around the Department of Justice e-book case against publishers and Apple Inc.  But when it comes to Amazon, the guild has taken no official legal action.  However, Turow is a high-profile voice advocating for caution toward Amazon.  "If you price e-books well below the cost, which is what they did for years, that both destroys physical bookstores and drives the reading public into the e-book, which of course Amazon dominates," Turow said.  Carolyn Kellogg  http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-scott-turow-thriller-identical-amazon-evil-video-20131017,0,373935.story