A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg--words from George Orwell's
novel 1984
newspeak (NOO-speek, NYOO-) noun
Deliberately ambiguous or euphemistic language used for propaganda. Newspeak was the official language of
Oceania.
doublethink (DUB-uhl-thingk) noun
An acceptance of two contradictory ideas at the same time.
Big Brother (big BRUTH-uhr) noun An
authoritarian person, organization, government, etc., that monitors or controls
people. After Big Brother, a character
in George Orwell’s 1949 novel 1984.
The term big brother for an elder brother has been documented from 1809.
unperson (UHN-puhr-suhn) noun A
person regarded as nonexistent. Coined
as a noun in George Orwell’s 1949 novel 1984. Earliest documented use: 1646, as a verb meaning to depersonalize or
to deprive of personhood. A synonym is
nonperson.
oldspeak (OLD-speek)
noun Normal English usage, as
opposed to propagandist, euphemistic, or obfuscatory language.
Have you ever heard of the proverb, "May you live
in interesting times"? Were you told it was a Chinese proverb? You may be surprised when you read Dr. Ho
Yong's answer to this question in response to a question from the PBS
show, "Newshour with Jim Lehrer." Torrey
Whitman (President of the China
Institute in New York City) is versed in classical Chinese and is especially
knowledgeable in the area of proverbs and sayings. Interestingly enough, he
told me he was familiar with this saying.
The following is what he wrote about his response to the Jim Lehrer
show: "I explained to the news show
staff that the usual expression was, "The ancient Chinese curse, May you
live in interesting times." There is nothing proverbial about it,
and no harm or danger is intended to the recipient of the curse. The point of the phrase has long been meant
to be ironic: on first glance, "interesting times" should be
good times to live in, so stating it as a curse adds the sense of irony. We live in very interesting times, but after
reading in the newspaper about tragedies, politics, war-mongering, and so on,
have you longed for simpler, less turbulent times? Think how difficult and frustrating it is to
choose among the twenty varieties of coffee now offered at the corner coffee
stand, or the 138 channels on cable TV.
Hence, the "curse" that you live in "interesting"
times. There is no such expression, "May you
live in interesting times," in Chinese.
It is a non-Chinese creation, most probably American, that has been
around for at least 30 or 40 years. It appears in book prefaces,
newspapers (frequently in the New York Times) and speeches, as an eye- or
ear-catcher, although I have not found it in Bartlett's Quotations or other
quotation sourcebooks. I speculate that whoever it was who first coined
it attempted to give the expression a mystique, and so decided to attribute it
to the Chinese. https://www.chinasprout.com/community/guestcolumns/21
Golden raisins and regular raisins are not made
from different types of grapes. According
to Sunmaid's website, almost all of their raisins—golden
and brown alike—are made from green Thompson Seedless grapes, which is the
dominant grape variety grown in California.
The difference in color in golden raisins and regular raisins comes from
the way they are dried. According to
Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, raisins made in the
U.S. are usually laid on paper and sun-dried for about three weeks, which
causes browning. The
browning reaction, McGee explains, is accelerated by higher temperatures. Unlike regular
brown raisins, golden raisins are not dried in the sun but in large dehydrators at controlled temperatures, with controlled
humidity levels. Golden raisins are also
treated with antioxidant sulfur dioxide, which is commonly used for both its health properties and
as a preservative in dried fruit
and white wine. And, here's where Harold
McGee appears to agree with us: "The result is a much fruitier, lighter
flavor." The extra plumpness and
juiciness of golden raisins likely comes from this temperature and humidity
control as well. Golden raisins
have more flavonoids—phytonutrients found in plants that give
them their color and have antioxidant properties—than regular raisins. Otherwise, however, golden and regular
raisins are almost exactly identical in their health properties—and both make a
healthy snack. But, when it comes to
cooking with raisins—as opposed to baking or snacking—there is no choice. No competition. You should only use golden raisins, as far as
we're concerned. (And, to really make
sure they're plump and flavorful, soak them in a nice vinegar before adding
them to a recipe.) Their plump texture
and fruity, sweet-tart flavor makes them a great addition to salads, grain dishes, dips, salmon, cauliflower, and more.
Link to recipes for Tempura Kale Salad With Shiitake Mushrooms, Raisins,
and Almonds and Chicken Escabèche, each using golden raisins at
August 23, 2018 “The
Big Bang Theory,” one of the most popular and lucrative TV shows of
the last decade, is set to air its final episode in May 2019. In a joint statement,
broadcaster CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Television, the studio behind the
sitcom, announced that the 12th season will be the comedy’s last, making it the
longest-running multi-camera series in television history with 279
episodes. The huge success of “The Big Bang Theory” has led the sitcom,
based on a group of sci-fi-loving intellectuals, to become potentially one of
the industry's most costly series to produce, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The show's five lead actors are now
believed to earn about $1 million per episode, reported the Los Angeles Times.
Broadcaster CBS has attempted to manage
escalating costs by taking advantage of the comedy’s popularity. “The Big Bang Theory” attracted roughly
18 million viewers per week since its sixth season aired in 2012 and reportedly
averaged 18.6 million viewers per episode in its 11th season, making it the
most watched show on U.S. television, according to the BBC. Daniel Liberto https://www.investopedia.com/news/big-bang-theorys-lucrative-run-cbs-ending/
Insta Novels:
Bringing Classic Literature to Instagram Stories August 22, 2018 Insta Novels launched today on
the Library's Instagram account (@nypl)
with Part 1 of a newly digitized version of Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The
novel is illustrated by well-known designer Magoz (@magoz). In the coming months, look for two other
literary works that will be released on the Library's Instagram account: "The Yellow Wallpaper," a short
story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrated by Buck (@buck_design) and The
Metamorphosis, a novella by Franz Kafka illustrated by César Pelizer (@cesarpelizer). The New York Public Library joined forces
with the independent advertising and creative agency, Mother in New York, to create Insta
Novels. See tutorial at https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/08/22/instanovels?utm_campaign=instanovels
"It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission." Dilbert comic
strip August 24, 2018 http://dilbert.com/strip/2018-08-24
Organist Beverley Palin bought the instrument for £45
in a second-hand shop and now regularly performs on this piece of history. Trench
organs like Beverley’s were provided to soldiers during the First World War to
provide entertainment and boost morale in the trenches.
Beverley Palin, who is a
church organist and historical re-enactor, spent over 13 years restoring the
organ back to playing condition. “I
picked up the trench organ from a second-hand shop, but didn’t know too much
about it, I just loved the fact that it was a working instrument. “When I got it home, it was riddled with
woodworm, so I began to restore it, and it was only later that I realised how
historically significant it is.” The
instrument is believed to be one of just three working trench organs left in
England. Beverley
told the Northumberland Gazette “To me, it is
priceless. People have said that I should put it in a museum, but to me, if I
put it in a glass case in a museum, it dies, but if I take it out with me and
play it, then it lives, as does the memory of all those lads whose last music
whose last music they heard was on a trench organ.” Read more and see pictures at https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/trench-organ-wwi/ Thank you, Muse reader!
"Nearer, my God, to Thee" played on an original WWI-era
folding harmonium ("trench organ") restored by myself. Beverley A Palin
24 August 2018 This summer, the world is paying tribute to a singular
artistic genius: Leonard Bernstein,
who was born 100 years ago on 25 August. There are thousands of events taking place
across the globe to mark the centenary of the man who created such iconic works
as West Side Story, Candide and On the Town---not to mention dizzying amounts
of symphonies, choral and instrumental works, ballet, opera, chamber music,
pioneering television programmes, books, lecture series and even a film score
(Elia Kazan’s 1954 On the Waterfront, starring Marlon Brando). At Bernstein’s beloved Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts,
the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a place that played a
formative role in his musical and personal development, the centenary
celebration is host to a glittering gala featuring everyone from Broadway
legend Audra McDonald to composer John Williams and superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Meanwhile other birthday celebrations are taking place in New York, San
Francisco, Washington DC, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest,
Japan, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Israel--and beyond. Truly, the musical world has never seen his
equal and likely never will again.
In 2018, as the world heads in
ever more divisive directions, the tragic central premise of West Side Story--a
work based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which was itself based on a 1562
translation of an epic Italian poem called The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and
Juliet and is itself part of a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to
antiquity--has never seemed more prescient. Clemency Burton-Hill Read more and
see pictures at http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180824-why-west-side-story-is-so-timely-today
Thank you, Muse reader!
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1940
August 24, 2018
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