Dec. 2, 2013  The Whigs, the 19th century political party that disbanded before the Civil War over the question of slavery, is trying making a comeback as the voice of reason between embittered modern day Republicans and Democrats.  In Philadelphia, the election of Heshy Bucholz, a software engineer and first candidate to run and win as a Whig in that city in 157 years, has brought national attention to the party and spurred hundreds of new members to sign up.  A historical comparison between the old and Modern Whig Party is difficult because the United States is dealing with a completely different set of issues, said William Anthony Hay, an associate professor of history at Mississippi State University, and author of a book on 19th century Whigs.  "It is a rebellion against gridlock in Washington," Hay said.  But that doesn't mean the party will resonate today.  While they date back to 17th century Scotland, the American Whig Party was originally formed in 1833 to oppose what opponents saw as President Andrew Jackson's imperialist presidency and government expansion.  The party split just before the Civil War over issues like state's rights and slavery. Lucy Westcott    http://www.governing.com/news/headlines/In-Philadelphia-the-Whig-Party-is-Back.html  Thanks, Julie. 

PRODUCT PLACEMENT

Monk - Season 8, Episode 3 - Mr. Monk and the UFO, 2009 

Sleep Inn signs are overlarge, frequently shown with extra time fixed on the name.  This was followed up with a Monk-Sleep Inn collaboration with 10 episodes of Little Monk. 

The first film to peddle products was the 1927 silent movie, "Wings."  See the "The 15 Most Shameless Movie Product Placements Of All Time" at http://www.businessinsider.com/15-worst-movie-product-placements-2013-5#the-first-film-to-unabashedly-to-peddle-products-was-the-1927-silent-movie-wings-a-hersheys-chocolate-bar-was-not-so-subtly-introduced-into-the-narrative-1

STEALTH MARKETING

A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception.  The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about, himself while pretending to be another person.  The term now includes other misleading uses of online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a person or organization, or to circumvent a suspension or ban from a website.  A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer.  The term "sockpuppet" was used as early as July 9, 1993, but did not become common in USENET groups until 1996.  The first Oxford English Dictionary example of the term, defined as "a person whose actions are controlled by another; a minion," is taken from U.S. News and World Report, March 27, 2000.  The history of reviewing one's own work under another name predates the internet. Walt Whitman and Anthony Burgess were both famous for having reviewed their books under pseudonyms.  Another famous example was Benjamin Franklin.  Read about ballot stuffing, strawman sockpuppets, meatpuppets, business promotion, book and film reviews, blog commentary and governmental sockpuppetry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet)

An Internet search on sockpuppetry fake reviews rings up about 57,200 results as of this writing.   

One of the most famous speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address, was only 9 sentences long, has fewer than 300 words and was delivered in less than 3 minutes.  Three quarters of the words are only one syllable and 92% of the words have no more than two syllables.  http://blog.americanhistory.si.edu/osaycanyousee/2011/04/exploring-the-gettysburg-address-with-kids.html   

Of the five known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address, the Library of Congress has two.  President Lincoln gave one of these to each of his two private secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay.  The other three copies of the Address were written by Lincoln for charitable purposes well after November 19.  The copy for Edward Everett, the orator who spoke at Gettysburg for two hours prior to Lincoln, is at the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield; the Bancroft copy, requested by historian George Bancroft, is at Cornell University in New York; the Bliss copy was made for Colonel Alexander Bliss, Bancroft's stepson, and is now in the Lincoln Room of the White House. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/?ex=1@d6db09e6-d424-4113-8bd2-c89bd42b1fad@1&asset=d6db09e6-d424-4113-8bd2-c89bd42b1fad:4ab8a6e6-eb9e-40f8-9144-6a417c034a17:13 

EPONYMS

mentor for Mentor, Odysseus's loyal friend in Homer's The Odyssey

stentorian for Stentor, herald in Greek mythology  http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/eponyms.htm  Today's use:  mentor (experienced and trusted adviser)  stentorian (extremely loud) 

Dec. 3, 2013  Stamp collectors and history fans will remember the faux pas the U.S. Postal Service committed in late 2010 when it issued a “Forever” stamp depicting the Statue of Liberty and claimed it was the original in New York Harbor.  The Postal Service conceded that it had used the wrong image and said it would “reexamine our processes” to prevent the error from happening again.  But a spokesman said the stamp design was so popular that the agency “would have selected this photograph anyway.”  He also said postal officials had wanted to issue a Liberty stamp that was distinctive and different from numerous previous versions bearing the image of the statue.  The statement could now come back to haunt the Postal Service.  The Las Vegas sculptor who built the Western Lady Liberty is now suing the agency in U.S. Federal Court for copyright infringement.  The Postal Service chose the image from an online photography service, Getty Images.  But it did not acquire the rights to duplicate it from the artist, Robert S. Davidson, probably because postal officials assumed they were issuing a stamp with a famous image [in New York] that already was in the public domain.  The lawsuit claims that the Postal Service knowingly committed copyright infringement:  Once officials admitted their error, they continued to print billions of stamps depicting the Las Vegas replica without seeking the rights to print it.  “Defendants, through the USPS, determined that it was in their financial best interest to continue to infringe upon Davidson’s rights, as the cost to discontinue the infringing activity exceeded the marginal cost of royalties that they knew or should have known were owing,” the lawsuit claimed.  Davidson does not specify the damages he is seeking.  His case could be strengthened by a federal court judgement in September, which awarded the sculptor responsible for the design of the Korean War Memorial $685,000 in damages after Postal Service used a photo of the memorial on a stamp without the sculptor’s permission.  The court found that the artist was entitled to royalties of 10 percent on sales of stamps to collectors and on sales of merchandise featuring the stamp design.  Lisa Rein  See image at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/12/03/sculptor-sues-u-s-postal-service-says-lady-liberty-stamp-of-his-statue-issued-without-his-permission/?hpid=z4