"Roundheads and Ramblings"

Five Useful Words that Don't Exist in English

05/26/2012 09:54:00

I'm borrowing this list from a blog post by Alex Wain. I've added my own comments in square brackets.

He wrote: "Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language, in fact it’s the 3rd most commonly spoken language in the world (after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish). Interestingly enough it’s the number 1 second language used worldwide – which is why the total number of people who speak English, outnumber those of any other.

But whilst it’s the most widely spoken language, there’s still a few areas it falls down on (strange and bizarre punctuation rules aside). We look at 25 words that simply don’t exist in the English language (and yet after reading this list, you’ll wish they did!)"

1 Age-otori (Japanese): To look worse after a haircut.

[Who hasn't needed that one?]

2 Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude.

[This one reminds me of the small-town practice of delivering a casserole to the house of anyone who has just died. No one's hungry; there's no more room in the refrigerator; and before you can return the casserole dish, you're going to have to dispose of the contents and scrub the dish. I remember being very rude to someone who woke us up a week after my son died to announce that she was bringing over a big vat of homemade soup and a loaf of bread. I really needed to know this word!]

3 Backpfeifengesicht (German): A face badly in need of a fist.

[On "Good Morning America" this morning, they showed a film clip of two little girls in little pink ballet tutus punching each other. It's never too early to introduce a word to be used in place of fisticuffs.]

4 Bakku-shan (Japanese): A beautiful girl… as long as she’s being viewed from behind.

[That description would apply to lots of people--and not just girls! I wonder if there's a masculine version.]

5 Desenrascanco (Portuguese): “to disentangle” yourself out of a bad situation (To MacGyver it)

[Do you remember that 1985-1992 TV show? MacGyver refused to carry a gun, but he could get himself out of any kind of trouble with the help of some duct tape or his handy Swiss Army knife. Not a bad lesson to teach those are surrounded by Backpfeifengesichten.]

If you can't wait for the rest of the list, you can find the original post at Source: http://sobadsogood.com/2012/04/29/25-words-that-simply-dont-exist-in-english/

Holiday Weekends Are Full of Temptations

05/25/2012 08:46:00

Just in time for the Memorial Day Weekend, Katzenhaus Books has reduced the price of our e-book editions of

Beyond All Price and The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese to $.99. These reductions will be available on the Amazon Kindle Store, as well as on Smashwords.com and all the various e-readers they service--Apple iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Sony, etc.

Why are we reducing the price? Well, besides just being generous in honor of the start of summer reading season, we want you to be prepared for what will be coming up in the next few weeks. First, you can look for a collection of five short stories, entitled Five Tales of the Low Country. I don't have a release date yet, but the Kindle-only collection should be available sometime in July. You'll recognize some of the characters in these stories. Parts of their tales have appeared here as take-outs from The Road to Frogmore, my next major historical novel, which should be out in all formats by late September.

Beyond All Price and The Road to Frogmore are related in several ways. They are both set on the coast of South Carolina during the Civil War. Each one focuses on a strong woman who is trying to make her own way in a world that does not yet accept her ability to do so. The characters are at the same time quite different. Nellie Chase is a military nurse. Laura Towne is a doctor and a teacher, who works with newly-freed slaves to help them become productive citizens. The two women certainly know of each other, their paths cross in unexpected ways, and they know many of the same people. They struggle with the same problems--lethal diseases, threats of confederate attacks, ferocious mosquitoes, and their own inability to control the changes that are taking place in the society around them. Each woman has a story to tell, and their individual experiences cast additional light on each other's lives.

Five Tales of the Low Country will form a bridge between the two books. The stories will wrap up some of the loose ends of Nellie's time in the Low Country and introduce the new characters who arrive in South Carolina just months before Nellie and her Union regiment receive orders to depart. If you haven't read Beyond All Price, this is the perfect time to do it, so that you are ready for what comes next. And if you haven't read The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese,

you've missed the explanations of how I have gone about researching and writing these books.

Adventures lie ahead. Start reading!

Marriott Shoals Weekend Getaway

05/23/2012 13:50:00

Here are a few pictures to illustrate last weekend's adventure in Florence, Alabama.

The hotel pool in daylight and at night:

Note: The teenagers were on the left side of the pool, where a twisty waterslide traveled through a tunnel in the rock and dumped them out into the deep part.

The bar for watching the Preakness and listening to live music, and the patio dining room. We had two breakfasts and one dinner out on the patio in perfect temperatures and soft breezes.

Inside the revolving restaurant and the tower, with the restaurant on top.

The food was wonderful, by the way. We had grilled scallops and sea bass with a lovely pinot gris.

We're guessing that the restaurant was about ten stories high, way above the six-floor hotel.

And our most interesting shot: our reflections on the wall as our revolving table faced the setting sun across the Tennessee River.

If the water glasses look tilted, it's because they were. They had slanted bottoms, which only increased the sensation of the moving floor as we completely circled the tower by the time we finished dessert.

We spent much of Saturday exploring Helen Keller's Birthplace in Tuscumbia. To see the whole photo album, visit the Germantown Lions Club Facebook Page at:

https://www.facebook.com/germantown.lions.club

Plagiarism, Draft-Dodging, Harlots, Cotton-Burning, and Diarrhea

05/22/2012 08:50:00

Civil War-Era Memories from The Memphis Daily Appeal: May 20, 2012. In recognition of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, "Civil War-Era Memories" features excerpts from The Memphis Daily Appeal of 150 years ago. Perspective from our staff is in italics

. May 14, 1862 Escaping -- Attempts to evade the unpopular conscription law are expected to be very outrageous; steps have been taken to prevent escape from the city. (The Confederate Conscription Act which went into effect May 16 drafted white men between 18 and 35 for three years' service. The law allowed for substitutions and exemptions, some of which are listed in the excerpt below:)

All engaged in carrying the mails; all ferrymen on post routes; all pilots and persons engaged in the marine service, and in actual service on river and railroad routes of transportation, telegraphic operatives and ministers of religion in the regular discharge of ministerial duties; all engaged in working iron mines, furnaces and foundries, all journeymen printers actually employed in printing newspapers, all presidents and professors of colleges and academies, and all teachers having as many as twenty scholars, superintendents of public hospitals, lunatic asylums and the regular nurses and attendants thererin . . . shall be and are hereby exempted from military service in the Confederate states.

May 15, 1862 But two days after receiving the news of the capture of New Orleans, the Yankees dispatched two large vessels from Boston for that port, loaded with ice.

A Day of Fasting and Prayer – We publish elsewhere, this morning, the proclamation of the President, appointing this day an occasion of fasting and prayer for the people of the Confederate states, whereupon our whole people are invited to unite at their several places of worship.

From the London Times / The great battle of the Tennessee seems to deserve the fame which has been claimed for it. There was a two days’ conflict between two very considerable armies. It was a drawn battle, and the first creditable encounter on either side which has taken place during the war. We have too much blood relationship with these men on both sides, although the South are more purely English than the other, not to wish that, if they will fight, they may fight well.

May 17, 1862 "BURN THE COTTON" by Estelle -- Burn the cotton! Burn the cotton! / Let the record boldly stand; / Not a bale for "filthy lucre."/ All for Freedom to our land./ Burn the cotton! Burn the cotton! / From its ashes there shall spring / Heralds of a new-born nation,/ Claiming still that "cotton's King!" (final verse of a six-stanza poem)

May 20, 1862 Morgan in Kentucky – Col. Morgan is in Central Kentucky, where he is obtaining large reinforcements. The public sentiment has been revolutionized, and the people are everywhere surrounding his standard. The Federals have sent three regiments against him. On his way Col. M. destroyed fifty three cars on the Louisville and Nashville railroad and seized fifty thousand dollars in cash.

Corinth / Gen. Butler’s public order, of the 15th, to the women of New Orleans, that here after when any female shall by word, gesture or movement insult, or show contempt, for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town, plying her avocation, has been published today to our army, by Gen. Beauregard, with an address to the men of the South, calling upon them to avenge the insult to our mothers, wives and daughters, who are treated by ruffian barbarians as common harlots

Enemy Before Corinth: Latest reports of Scouting Parties / Several of our most active and enterprising scouts . . . returned yesterday from an expedition beyond Farmington . . . They report unparalleled sickness, disaffection and despondency in the Federal army. One day last week three thousand sick were sent off from Pope’s command alone, which is supposed to number between fifteen and twenty thousand. Diarrhea, bloody flux and typhoid fever are the principal diseases. They are brought on by the use of bad water, exposure to the sun and other agencies, generated by the late extraordinary dry weather, operating upon great numbers huddled together in a country and climate to which they are strangers.

We are not at all surprised that our two city contemporaries -- the Avalanche and Argus -- should both discover editorials and correspondence in the APPEAL worthy of being inserted in their own choicely-selected columns. Our only surprise is, that their memory is of such brevity that they forget the source whence they make their selections.

Compiled by Rosemary Nelms and Jan Smith, The Commercial Appeal News Library

Five Ways to Describe Our Getaway Weekend

05/21/2012 15:32:00

11. Brannigan

Noun – “A drinking bout; a spree or ‘binge’” – Brannigan was originally a North American slang word, but it is now rarely used. “Shall we go for a brannigan on Friday?” can be a more sophisticated way to discuss such activities.

12. Perissology

Noun – “Use of more words than are necessary; redundancy or superfluity of expression” – A useful word for editors: “Thanks for your 4,000-word submission. Unfortunately there is too much perissology in this piece for us to publish it.”

13. Quagswagging

Noun – “The action of shaking to and fro” – This can also be used in verb form, to quagswag, and is pronounced like “kwag swag.” It could definitely work as the name for a new type of dance, or possibly serve as an alternate way to describe a seizure.

14. Hoddypeak

Noun – “A fool, simpleton, noodle, blockhead” – This one doesn’t need any explanation as to how you could use it; you may already have someone in mind who fits the description.

15. Bibesy

Noun – “A too earnest desire after drink.” – “Bibesy” may have been completely made up in the 18th century and it’s unclear whether it ever made it into common use, but it could easily be used today: “Wedding guests waited anxiously for the bar to open; bibesy should be expected after such a long, dull service.”

We arrived at a great Marriott resort hotel on Friday afternoon to find a lot of quagswagging going on in the swimming pool directly below our room's balcony. Fortunately the room was well-soundproofed, and it was amusing to watch the pre-teens trying to drown one another. We were also lucky to find no hoddypeaks out on the patio where we had dinner. No one jargogled the peaceful setting or the lovely sunset over the river.

To avoid undue perissology, I'll save our Saturday morning's touristy experiences for another post (with pictures, I hope, designed to fascinate all the Lions in the audience.) When the temperature hit the high eighties, we returned to the hotel for naps and some novel reading.

Then, as it approached the time for the running of the Preakness Stakes, we retired to the hotel bar, suffering from a bit of bibesy. Hopes that this year's racing season will produce a Triple Crown winner were running high, especially since the eligible horse was named "I'll Have Another." Sounds like a good excuse for a brannigan, doesn't it? It was!

We topped off the evening with a goumet dinner in a revolving restaurant, ten stories above the hotel and the beautiful Tennessee River. Once I rearranged the seating so that I could ride facing forward, it was a lovely experience. And a bit of fun, too, watching patrons head for the bathroom when that convenience appeared next to their table -- and then giggling when they came out to find that their table had moved on without them! We only kenched at them a little.

Sunday started with a buffet breakfast out on the patio again, and then we headed home -- taking a leisurely route in hopes of finding a Videlia onion stand open. Too late I remembered it was Sunday and, in Alabama, all the onion stands were closed. Ah, well, it was a relaxing weekend, a much needed deliciation before upcoming events.

Five More Great Old Words

05/18/2012 09:30:00

6. Sanguinolency

Noun – “Addiction to bloodshed” – Could be a useful word for history majors and gamers, as in “Genghis Khan was quite the sanguinolent fellow” or “Do you think spending six hours a day playing Postal 2 actually fosters sanguinolency?” I'm thinking it could also be used to describe the finale of Grey's Anatomy!

7. Jollux

Noun - Slang phrase used in the late 18th century to describe a “fat person” – Although I’m not sure whether this word was used crudely or in more of a lighthearted manner, to me it sounds like a nicer way to refer to someone who is overweight. “Fat” has such a negative connotation in English, but if you say “He’s a bit of a jollux” it doesn’t sound so bad! Or does it?

8. Malagrugrous

Adj. – “Dismal” – This adjective is from Scots and may be derived from an old Irish word that refers to the wrinkling of one’s brow. An 1826 example of its use is “He looketh malagrugorous and world-wearied.” I’m tempted to also make the word into a noun: “Stop being such a malagrug!”

9. Brabble

Verb – “To quarrel about trifles; esp. to quarrel noisily, brawl, squabble” – Brabble basically means to argue loudly about something that doesn’t really matter, as in “Why are we still brabbling about who left the dirty spoon on the kitchen table?” You can also use it as a noun: “Stop that ridiculous brabble and do something useful!”

10. Freck

Verb intr. – “To move swiftly or nimbly” – I can think of a lot of ways to use this one, like “I hate it when I’m frecking through the airport and other people are going so slow.”

So let's see . . I've been in a malagrugous mood all week--feeling a bit jollux and brabbling over trifles. So before my mood descends into sanguinolency, I plan to freck out of here and spend the weekend deliciating at a luxury hotel/spa . See y'all on Monday!

Beware the Lurking Homonym

05/17/2012 15:42:00

Yesterday I offered you some "big" words. Today, I have some "little" ones. Do you remember homonyms? Those pesky little words that sound exactly alike by are spelled in several different ways and had several different meanings? In grade school I had a teacher who loved them. During quite periods, she taught us to play a game in which we made up sentences containing homonyms but substituted the word "teakettle" for the words themselves. The challenge was for the other students to identify the missing homonym. The sentences sounded like this: "I teakettle would like teakettle eat teakettle pieces of cake."

The game was just childish silliness, but it's not funny when a writer gets wrapped up in her story and types one homonym for another without noticing. Maybe you are writing a sympathetic description of an admirable politician who suffered from great depravation -- or did you really mean to type deprivation? There's not a spell checker in the world who will catch an error like that. And there's no sure way to avoid making the occasional goof. About all you can do is take time to think about the words that cause you trouble. Here's a baker's dozen that may trip you up when you are busily touch-typing.

• Cite (to summon, to quote, to refer to), Site (place, situation), Sight (view)

• Council (administrative or advisory group), Counsel (to advise, advice)

• Desert (waterless region, to abandon), Dessert (last course of a meal)

• Dew (moisture), Do (perform), Due (owed)

• Gait (manner of walking, Gate (door)

• Grate (iron frame), Great (large, magnificent)

• Haul (pull, carry, transport), Hall (passageway, large room)

• Here (in this place), Hear (to perceive sound, to sit in judgment)

• Idol (image, object of adoration), Idle (not busy), Idyl (poem)

• Leak (hole, to drain out of), Leek (vegetable)

• Made (created), Maid (domestic servant, unmarried woman)

• Meat (animal flesh food), Meet (a gathering, to encounter, to convene)

• Morning (before noon), Mourning (grieving, to grieve)

Five Great Additions to Your Vocabulary.

05/16/2012 10:06:00

The following words were once a common part of the English language. Today, if they appear in a dictionary at all, they are marked as obsolete. But just think what opportunities they offer if you want to insult someone without being understood. I really wish I had known some of them when I was writing lots of letters of recommendation for problematic students.

1. Jargogle

Verb trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in its various forms. John Locke used the word in a 1692 publication, writing “I fear, that the jumbling of those good and plausible Words in your Head..might a little jargogle your Thoughts…” I’m planning to use it next time my husband attempts to explain complicated Physics concepts to me for fun: “Seriously, I don’t need you to further jargogle my brain.”

2. Deliciate

Verb intr. – “To take one’s pleasure, enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate” – Often I feel the word “enjoy” just isn’t enough to describe an experience, and “revel” tends to conjure up images of people dancing and spinning around in circles – at least in my head. “Deliciate” would be a welcome addition to the modern English vocabulary, as in “After dinner, we deliciated in chocolate cream pie.”

3. Corrade

Verb trans. – “To scrape together; to gather together from various sources” – I’m sure this wasn’t the original meaning of the word, but when I read the definition I immediately thought of copy-pasting. Any English teacher can picture what a corraded assignment looks like.

4. Kench

Verb intr. – “To laugh loudly” – This Middle English word sounds like it would do well in describing one of those times when you inadvertently laugh out loud while reading a text message in class and manage to thoroughly embarrass yourself.

5. Ludibrious

Adj. – “Apt to be a subject of jest or mockery” – This word describes a person, thing or situation that is likely to be the butt of jokes. Use it when you want to sound justified in poking fun at someone. “How could I resist? He’s just so ludibrious.”

These items in this list (and others to follow) appeared in a blog entry by Heather Carreiro on November 8, 2010. Words are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series:" Weird and Wonderful Words" and "Totally Weird and Wonderful Words." Definitions have been quoted from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Fort Pillow

05/15/2012 09:57:00

What fascinated me in Sunday's Civil War notes was the mention of a fight at Fort Pillow. The remains of the fort are just a few miles up the road from my house, but I was unaware of the actions that took place there in 1862. Here's a summary of what I learned.

At the start of 1862 the line that separated Union and Confederate territory ran along the Kentucky-Tennessee border, reaching the Mississippi at Columbus. However, after the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson by U. S. Grant in February 1862, the Confederates had to abandon that line in favor of one that that ran through Tennessee. The western end of that line was located at New Madrid and Island No. 10. However, even these new positions were dangerously exposed to Union attack. At the end of February a force of over 20,000 men under General John Pope marched overland to capture the two strongholds. On 3 March Pope began a siege of New Madrid, on the northern bank of the river. On 13 March the Confederate defenders of the town pulled back to Island No. 10, abandoning the town.

Pope, with 20,000 troops launched his attack on 7 April. Two gunboats bombarded the Confederate positions at Watson’s Landing, south of New Madrid, and west of Island No. 10. Pope’s troops landed soon after. Trapped by greatly superior forces, the Confederate defenders of Island No. 10 had no choice but to surrender.

The capture of Island No. 10 was a key moment in opening of the Mississippi. Only one more position, Fort Pillow, a Confederate fort on the Tennessee bank of the Mississippi River. remained between the Union fleets and Memphis. On the same day that Island No. 10 fell, U.S. Grant launched his counterattack at Shiloh, forcing General Beauregard to retreat to Corinth and destroying any chances that Fort Pillow might be held. After a Union army expedition against the fort was abandoned, the burden of capturing the position fell to the Western Flotilla, a collection of ironclads and gunboats.

The Confederate defenders of the Mississippi had constructed their own fleet of rams. On 10 May, those rams launched a surprise attack on the Union fleet attacking Fort Pillow. The Union fleet’s response was not well coordinated. Two of their ironclads were badly damaged by ramming attacks, before the Confederate fleet retreated into the shelter of Fort Pillow’s guns.

The Confederates soon evacuated Fort Pillow itself. The main Confederate army had been forced to retreat from Corinth. This left the fort exposed to an attack from the rear, and so Gen. Beauregard ordered the garrison to leave, after destroying the fort. During the night of 4 June they carried out that order, before withdrawing towards Memphis. The next morning the Union fleet occupied the site of the fort.

After the evacuation of Fort Pillow, the next Union target was Memphis. On 6 June, the Union’s Western Flotilla, reinforced by their own rams, fought and defeated the Confederate fleet at Memphis, and captured the city. Fort Pillow remained in use. It returned to prominence later in the war, when Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the fort, and massacred dozens of black soldiers (Fort Pillow Massacre, 12 April 1864).

This is a summary of two articles found at http://www.historyofwar.org/americancivilwar/index.html:

Rickard, J (14 August 2007), Battle of Island No. 10, 7 April 1862 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_island_10.html

Rickard, J (23 February 2007), Battle of Fort Pillow, 10 May 1862 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_fort_pillow_1862.html

Hired Soldiers – Substitutes During the Civil War

05/14/2012 11:43:00

In response to a reader's comment yesterday, here's a summary of how a gentleman could hire a substitute during the Civil War. It is borrowed with permission from "Articles Exploring the Civil War."

When the Civil War began, there was no shortage of able bodied men who volunteered for service in both the U.S. Army and the Confederate Army. Eager to show their patriotism, convinced that their cause would be victorious in a matter of months at the most, men gathered in cities and towns throughout America to form volunteer regiments, clamoring to assist in the war effort.

However, by late 1862 and early 1863, the patriotic fervor that had characterized the war effort early on was wearing thin in both the Confederacy and the United States, and finding men to replenish the armies of both nations was becoming difficult. Those who wanted to serve were already engaged; those who did not had either refused to serve, or, having volunteered and found the experience to be much more arduous than it seemed at first, had deserted or refused to re-enlist. This necessitated instituting a draft to choose men for service, and, in both the North and the South, the practice of hiring substitutes to serve in the place of those who were called and did not want to serve.

Long before the United States began the draft process, the Confederate Congress had allowed men to forgo service in the Confederate Army if they met certain occupational criteria – criteria that mostly exempted owners of large plantations or other enterprises, leading to the phrase “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” to describe the Confederate war effort. Southern men who did not meet exemption criteria but whom were otherwise able to fight often hired substitutes to serve for them. Yet by 1863, exemptions were outlawed in the Confederacy, where men willing to fight were becoming too scarce to exempt from service. This practice was just beginning, however, its travel north.

When the draft laws – known as the Enrollment Act – were first placed on the books in the United States in 1863, they allowed for two methods for avoiding the draft – substitution or commutation. A man who found his name called in the draft lotteries that chose men for mandatory service could either pay a commutation fee of $300, which exempted him from service during this draft lottery, but not necessarily for future draft lotteries, or he could provide a substitute, which would exempt him from service throughout the duration of the war.

With the Enrollment Act, the Civil War truly began to be known as a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight throughout the entire nation. The $300 commutation fee was an enormous sum of money for most city laborers or rural farmers, and the cost of hiring a substitute was even higher, often reaching $1000 or more.

In small towns where the potential loss of their entire population of able-bodied men became an imminent possibility, taxes and other means were raised in order to pay commutation fees, and, as commutation was outlawed, substitutes. These “bounties,” as the fees were called, would pay substitutes in lieu of townsmen.

The practice of hiring substitutes for military service took hold quickly in the North, becoming much more widespread than it had ever been in the South. For one thing, there was a much larger pool of men to draw from; immigrants that flowed into the ports of the North, even in a time of war, provided a large number of the substitutes hired by those who did not wish to serve. As the duration of the war lengthened, African-American soldiers, who’d thus far been only nominally accepted by the U.S. Army as viable soldiers, also became part of the pool of potential substitutes; many of the recruitment posters from the time explicitly solicit African-Americans for substitution.

Although the hiring of substitutes seems mercenary, and in many cases, resulted in the desertion of the substitute, many who went to war as hired men went because they were unable to enlist through the regular channels. This included the recent immigrants who were anxious to fight for their new country, and, importantly, the African-Americans who found going to war as substitutes the only way to fight for their freedom. For these men, the war was indeed a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” but from the perspective that poor men were more willing to fight for the possibilities they saw in their country.