In back-to-back wars fought between A.D. 101 and 106, the emperor Trajan mustered tens of thousands of Roman troops, crossed the Danube River on two of the longest bridges the ancient world had ever seen, defeated a mighty barbarian empire on its mountainous home turf twice, then systematically wiped it from the face of Europe. Trajan’s war on the Dacians, a civilization in what is now Romania, was the defining event of his 19-year rule. The loot he brought back was staggering. One contemporary chronicler boasted that the conquest yielded a half million pounds of gold and a million pounds of silver, not to mention a fertile new province. The booty changed the landscape of Rome. To commemorate the victory, Trajan commissioned a forum that included a spacious plaza surrounded by colonnades, two libraries, a grand civic space known as the Basilica Ulpia, and possibly even a temple. Towering over it was a stone column 126 feet high, crowned with a bronze statue of the conqueror. Spiraling around the column like a modern-day comic strip is a narrative of the Dacian campaigns: Thousands of intricately carved Romans and Dacians march, build, fight, sail, sneak, negotiate, plead, and perish in 155 scenes. Completed in 113, the column has stood for more than 1,900 years. Andrew Curry Read much more and see graphics at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/article.html
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Canterbury tale (KAN-tuhr-ber-ee tayl) noun A story that is long, tedious, or absurdly implausible. After The Canterbury Tales c. 1400 by Geoffrey Chaucer. It’s a collection of 24 stories told in verse by a group of pilgrims as they travel from London to Canterbury. Earliest documented use: 1575.
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From: Lawrence Crumb Subject: Heathrow Tales Heathrow Tales: A parody of the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, from Punch, Apr 2, 1975. AWADmail Issue 977
From: David Auerbach Subject: plotz Early film credit: 1966 Woody Allen movie What’s Up, Tiger Lily? He dubbed a Japanese spy film with a completely different story about a secret egg salad recipe that was so good you could plotz. That word has stuck itself inside my head ever since I first saw that movie.
From: Eileen Saks Subject: plotz This word always reminds me of the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins, and the song “How I Saved Roosevelt”. Bystanders at the attempted assassination of FDR in Miami are recounting how their actions saved him. One couple sings: The crowd’s breaking up and I hear these shots and I mean lots I thought I’d plotz my stomach was tied in knots. (more)
From: Alex McCrae Subject: plotz and gelt The word plotz took me back to my Warner Bros. Animation Studios days, early 1990s, and in particular, my small contribution to the great success of Animaniacs. The skit-formatted animated series was driven by the frenetic and wacky antics of siblings Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, celebrated 1930s animated cartoon characters, who’d been cooped up in the iconic Warner Bros. Burbank water tower for decades. They broke out of sequester in the early ‘90s. The CEO in this fictional version of Warner Studios at the time was the portly Thaddeus Plotz. Here, the mischievous Warner sibs smash through a studio backdrop, sparking his ire. Disney’s insatiably avaricious Scrooge McDuck is the quintessential money-grubbing businessman. His Scottish thrift has become legendary. Here, wearing a vintage ’20s-era bathing suit and signature top hat, he’s literally swimming in his amassed riches, inside his storied vault, gleefully reveling in his ubiquitous wealth . . . “gelty” as charged! AWADmailissue978
While serving in World War II, Joseph Heller concluded that war was a farce in which anyone crazy enough to shirk combat was considered sane enough to fight. That became the theme of a novel he wrote several years later. Heller titled his novel Catch-18. Just as this book was about to be published in 1961, its editor discovered that an upcoming novel by Leon Uris was called Mila-18. “He had stolen our number,” the editor, Robert Gottlieb, later recalled. So Gottlieb and Heller began to kick around alternative figures. Eleven was out, due to the recent movie Ocean’s 11. Fourteen wasn’t funny. Twenty-six lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. The challenge of finding a new number began to disturb Gottlieb’s sleep. One night it came to him: 22. In the morning he called Heller and said, “I’ve got it. It’s Catch-22. It’s funnier than 18.” Heller agreed. What made 22 funnier than 18? “Who knows,” Gottlieb told TV host Charles Osgood. “It just sounds funnier.” Although there are other ways to describe paradoxical experiences—a no-win situation; a double bind; damned if you do, damned if you don’t—“Catch-22” is the idiom we use most often. Whom should we credit with coining that concept? Heller? Gottlieb? Both? Call it a co-coinage. Ralph Keyes Excerpted from The Hidden History of Coined Words. Used with the permission of the publisher, Oxford University Press. Copyright © 2021 Read extensive article at https://lithub.com/when-in-need-of-the-right-word-great-writers-simply-make-them-up/
nexus noun A form or state of connection. (Canada, US, finance, law) The relationship between a vendor and a jurisdiction for the purpose of taxation, established for example by the vendor operating a physical store in that jurisdiction. A connected group; a network, a web. A centre or focus of something. (grammar) In the work of the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen (1860–1943): a group of words expressing two concepts in one unit (such as a clause or sentence). (Ancient Rome, law, historical) A person who had contracted a nexum or obligation of such a kind that, if they failed to pay, their creditor could compel them to work as a servant until the debt was paid; an indentured servant. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nexus#English
“Yeah, it’s weird seeing what an inefficient science their ancient rules of science are, but his neighbor being the proficient person she is outweighs either of us lightweights disagreeing.” Comment on an unhelpful spelling rule in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine March 10, 2021.
Gnocchi are a variety of pasta consisting of various thick, small, and soft dough that may be made from semolina, ordinary wheat flour, egg, cheese, potato, breadcrumbs, cornmeal or similar ingredients, and possibly including flavourings of herbs, vegetables, cocoa or prunes. The dough for gnocchi is most often rolled out before it is cut into small pieces about the size of a wine cork. The little dumplings are then pressed with a fork or a cheese grater to make ridges that can hold sauce. Alternatively, they are simply cut into little lumps. Gnocchi are usually eaten as a replacement for pasta in the first course, but they can also be served as a contorno (side dish) to some main courses. The word gnocchi may be derived from the Italian word nocchio, meaning a knot in wood, or from nocca, meaning knuckle. It has been a traditional type of Italian pasta since Roman times. It was introduced by the Roman legions during the expansion of the empire into the countries of the European continent. In Roman times, gnocchi were made from a semolina porridge-like dough mixed with eggs, and are still found in similar forms today, particularly the oven-baked gnocchi alla romana and Sardinia's malloreddus which do not contain eggs. The use of potato is a relatively recent innovation, occurring after the introduction of the potato to Europe in the 16th century. Potato gnocchi are particularly popular in Abruzzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, and Lazio. As with other mashed potato dishes they are best prepared with starchy potatoes to keep a light texture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnocchi
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2361 May 7, 2021
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