Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Auto-antonym has Greek roots meaning a word that is the opposite of itself. They have variously been called contranyms, contronyms, antilogies, Janus words (after the two-faced Greek mythical figure, from which "January" also derives), and enantiodromes. See a list of such words at: http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_autoantonyms.html

Answer to Who am I
Our eighth president, Martin Van Buren was the first bilingual president. He was raised in a community where Dutch was more common than English reflecting New York’s beginning as a colony of Holland. As a boy he spoke Dutch at home with his parents, siblings, and throughout the Village of Kinderhook. http://www.nps.gov/mava/historyculture/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Van_Buren_National_Historic_Site
Martin Van Buren was born in the village of Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782, approximately 25 miles south of Albany. His father, Abraham Van Buren (1737–1817) was a farmer, the owner of six slaves, and a tavern-keeper in Kinderhook. Abraham Van Buren supported the American Revolution and later the Jeffersonian Republicans. He died while Martin Van Buren was a New York state senator. Martin Van Buren's mother was Maria Van Alen (née Hoes) Van Buren (1747–1818). Van Buren was the first president born a citizen of the United States, as all previous presidents were born before the American Revolution. His great-great-great-grandfather Cornelis Maessen Van Buren had come to the New World in 1631 from the village of Buren, Gelderland, Dutch Republic, present day Netherlands. Van Buren was also the only President who spoke English as a second language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Van_Buren

Borders Group Inc. said it would liquidate after the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain failed to receive any offers to save it. Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for July 19 amid the dearth of bids. It said it would ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group. The company said liquidation of its remaining 399 stores could start as soon as Friday, and it is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September. Borders filed for bankruptcy-court protection in February. It has since continued to bleed cash and has had trouble persuading publishers to ship merchandise to it on normal terms that allowed the chain to pay bills later, instead of right away. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303661904576454353768550280.html

An exhibit, Jim Henson's Fantastic World, opened July 16 in New York. The master puppeteer and media innovator behind pop culture icons such as Kermit the Frog and Big Bird was a creative thinker who understood the opportunities that television and technology presented, said Karen Falk, archivist for The Jim Henson Co. and curator of "Jim Henson's Fantastic World." "Jim was the first one to recognize that you can use television and get these incredibly expressive and believable performances out of puppets," Falk said. "This was his innovation; he was the one who started this whole thing. This is why puppetry looks like this on television, because of this man." The touring exhibit is making its last stop of a multi-year trip at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, where it will be on display into January. The museum is near Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street is taped.
There are sketches that show Henson's original ideas for some of his puppets, like a drawing that shows how the Big Bird puppet would be operated (with a puppeteer's arm and hand stretched upright to function as the neck and head.) There are video clips showing early incarnations of Kermit, as well as samples of the work Henson did while in college, and the commercial work he did after that. His movie efforts like "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth" also are included. And of course, there are Muppets. The museum is hosting a range of programming to go along with the exhibit. It includes screenings of Henson's short and feature-length films, workshops for children on puppet-making and sound effects, and a talk by Jane Henson, his widow. http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/N-Y-exhibit-reveals-the-man-behind-the-Muppets-1468491.php

The Toledo History Museum (THM) was founded through a governing board in 2005, incorporated on July 1, 2006; and received federal tax-exempt status in September 2007. The volunteer Board consists of four officers and nine at-large trustees who meet monthly and are elected by vote of the general membership at the November business meeting. The museum, located in the Milmine-Stewart House at 2001 Collingwood Boulevard was built in 1874. It is open weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Public programs are offered in March, May; September and November, featuring guest speakers presenting talks regarding Toledo's history. http://toledohistorymuseum.org/

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