Last Words: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 

“I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.”

-           Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) also known as FDR, was the 32^nd President of the United States (133-1935).  He was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the US out of the Great Depression and into WW2.  The only American president elected to more than two terms (the 22^nd Amendment limiting Presidents to two terms came into effect in 1951), his persistent optimism and activism contributed to a renewal of the national spirit.  Having contracted polio at age 39, he was  able to walk short distances with calipers by swinging his hips but nontheless  spent most of his time in a wheelchair, making sure that this was not reported and was not photographed.  Although he worked closely with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Germany and Japan in WW2, but died just as victory was in sight.

On 29 March, 1945 Roosevelt was resting prior to a proposed appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations.  Adter speaking the above quoted words he slumped forward, unconscious in his wheelchair as a result of a massive cerebral haemorrhage, aka as a stroke.  He died shortly afterwards.

At the time of his death, he had been sitting for a portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff.  The work is now imaginatively known as Unfinished Portrait of FDR (above).

Goats, Sins and Santa

 

6  “Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.

7  “He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

8  “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.

9  “Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell, and make it a sin offering.

10  “But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.

21  “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.

22  “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

As I watched the announcement of the verdict in the trial of Michael Jackson’s doc, Conrad Murray, quite a number of persons interviewed referred to him as a scapegoat.

That term has an interesting etymology.

Ignoring for the moment discussions as to whether the term was correctly translated from the Hebrew, the scapegoat was originally more correctly known as the “escape goat”, which over time became “scapegoat”.

A Round Tuit

 

Sometimes, in your mind, an association is set up between something and something else.  When you hear a particular song, it may remind you of a time or event; a perfume may remind you of a person, an expression may bring to mind a person who used to use it.

So it is with the following item.  It is corny, even cheesy as we used to say when I was younger, although I believe that young people these days no longer use that word.

But, whenever I hear someone say that they will “get around to it”, it comes to mind.

Round tuit:

Noun: A circular object giving its owner the ability to get done everything that would otherwise have been put off to a later date.  By giving one to someone, it is suggested that the recipient is a procrastinator.

-  Wiktionary, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_tuit

The idea of the round tuit is believed to date from the 1964 World’s Fair.  The term first appeared in print in the 1970’s.

Various websites offer round tuits for sale, including one site that purports to sell historical round tuits:  the gold Egyptian Round Tuit of Neffartuit, the bronze Roman round tuit presented to Procrastinatus; and the twelve gold medallions that were minted in Arthurian times for the twelve knights of the Round Tuit. The fourth medallion is a contemporary design for the 21st century:

http://www.quantumenterprises.co.uk/roundtuit/history.htm

There are hundreds of sites selling numerous versions of tuits, round and otherwise, here are some examples:

Quote: Charles Edward Montague

 

“Among the mind's powers is one that comes of itself to many children and artists. It need not be lost, to the end of his days, by anyone who has ever had it. This is the power of taking delight in a thing, or rather in anything, not as a means to some other end, but just because it is what it is. A child in the full health of his mind will put his hand flat on the summer lawn, feel it, and give a little shiver of private glee at the elastic firmness of the globe.”

-   Charles Edward Montague

Charles Edward Montague (1867 – 1928)  was an English journalist, novelist and essayist.

Born and raised in London,  the son of an Irish Roman Catholic priest, he became a journalist at the Manchester Guardian and later married the editor’s daughter.

Montague was against the First World War but, once it started, he supported it in the hope of a speedy end.  He was aged 47 wne the war started, well over the enlistment age, so he dyed his hair black to look younger and be accepted into the army.  H W Nevinson later wrote that "Montague is the only man I know whose white hair in a single night turned dark through courage."

Montague rose in the ranks from grenadier-sergeant to lieutenant and then captain of intelligence in 1915. Later in the war, he became an armed escort for VIPs visiting the battlefield, escorting such persons as H G Well and George Bernard Shaw.

His critical writings about the war set the tone for much of the subsequent war literature.

From 1925 he was a full time writer after retiring from journalism.  He died in 1928 aged 61.

Trivia:

Montagu was the father of Evelyn Aubrey Montague, the Christian Olympic athlete and journalist depicted in the 1981 film, Chariots of Fire.

In Case You Missed It . . .

 

“Vocally, his balls have dropped.”

Comment last week by the marvellously named Scooter Braun, manager of pop star Justin Bieber, referring to Bieber’s recent vocal performance on a new record.

Bieber was born on 1 March 1994 and is now aged 17.  He was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun who came across Bieber’s videos on YouTube.  Braun became Bieber’s manager and secured him a recording contract.

Bieber became so popular with teen and adolescent girls (his fans are collectively named “Beliebers”) that he was the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100.  He has had a number of No 1 singles and platinum albums, with his music video of “Baby” being the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video.

Bieber has recently been working on a new Christmas album, “Underneath the Mistletoe” (why not, even Bob Dylan made a Christmas album, a shocker, a couple of years ago).  One track consists of a cover with Mariah Carey of her hit “All I Want for Christmas is You”, which she agreed to do only if Bieber sang it in her original high key.  Scooter advised the media that “That was the hardest song to do.  A year ago that would have been no problem.  Vocally, his balls have dropped.”  Class will out every time.

See and hear Justin Bieber singing “All I Want For Christmas is You” (I am reminded of Love Actually every time I hear that song), a pre-ball drop performance, at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjrU8OvWa4k&feature=related

 Justin Bieber then . .

. . . and now

The Monster Study

 

Think of a scientific study that uses orphans to investigate stuttering.  The children are divided into 2 groups, with one group receiving positive therapy by means of encouragement and praise, the other group being told they were stutterers and belittled for stuttering.

Sounds like something that Dr Mengele would have done, right?

It was actually a study carried out in 1939 by American psychologist and speech therapist Wendell Johnson (1906 – 1965), pictured below.

The study was so horrific that Johnson’s peers referred to it as The Monster Study, the name by which it remains known to this day.

Funny Friday

 
In honour of Charles Darwin, who was featured a couple of days ago . . .

and some email humour . . .

Last Words: Leonardo da Vinci

 

"I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."

-  Leonardo da Vinci

According to Wikipedia:

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath:  painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination".  He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.  According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".

Trivia:

Leonardo had no family name in the modern sense.    Da Vinci means “from Vinci”, so that he was “Leonardo from Vinci”.  He was the out of wedlock son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary, and Caterina, a peasant.

Quote: Charles Darwin

 

"Whenever I have found that I have blundered, or that my work has been imperfect, and when I have been contemptuously criticised, and even when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that ‘I have worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than this.’ ”

-      Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) proposed the scientific theory that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. At a time when many believed that the world had been created in the Biblical seven days, Darwin’s 1859 book On the Origin of Species was met with considerable controversy.  In 1871 he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.  For Darwin, humans were just another form of animal in the process of natural selection.  In the public mind, Darwin maintained that humans had evolved from apes, contrary to the prevailing orthodox religious explanation of creation.  In time Darwin’s theories came to be accepted and became the new orthodoxy.

1871 newspaper caricature following publication of The Descent of Man, showing Darwin with an ape’s body

The Melbourne Cup and Mark Twain

 

"Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me."

-           Mark Twain

In 1895, at the age of 60, Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)  embarked on a world wide lecture tour to raise funds to pay creditors.  His tour took in Africa, India and Australia, where he lectured at the Athenaeum, visited the Victorian goldfields and attended the Melbourne Cup.  The latter event prompted him to make the above comment at a public lecture.

It should be remembered that the Melbourne Cup was first held in 1861, so that the exuberance he described had developed in a relatively brief period.

Unfortunately, whilst in Melbourne he also developed a painful carbuncle.

Twain described Melbourne and the Cup in a chapter in his 1897 book Following the Equator:

Some Halloween Trivia

 

·         Halloween has its origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain, a word meaning “summer’s end”.  The festival marked the end of the harvest, the end of the “lighter half” of the year and the beginning of the “darker half”.  Celebrated over several days, it had elements of the Festival of the Dead, a festival to honour or recognise deceased members of the community.  Bonfires were a large part of the festivities and people and their livestock often walked between two fires as a cleansing ritual. 

·         The word Halloween is a Scottish variant of All Hallows Even (“evening”), the night before All Hallows Day.  For those younger readers who think that the origin is associated with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the word “hallows” comes from the Gothic word “hailag” meaning holy. All Hallows Day, also known as All Saints Day, honours the saints, both known and unknown.

·         In 601AD Pope Gregory instructed his priests to incorporate local practices and celebrations into Christian practice and belief when seeking to convert pagans to Christianity, rather than seek to remove them entirely. Smart man.  Accordingly All Saints Day was listed for 1 November, the day following Samhain, as a means of countering the influence of that pagan festival.

Whereas Samhrain had recognised both good and evil spirits in its rituals, the missionaries preached that the spirits of Samhain were all evil and that those who worshipped tem were devil worshippers.  As a result Halloween became associated with evil spirits and the following day, the Christian celebratory day, was associated with the Saints.

Although the old beliefs continued, the nature of the celebrations changed.  The worshippers now used the day to ward off evil spirits. The day became associated with witches, demons and fairies.

Some personal moments . . .

 

 

Although I post reminiscences and personal observations about the past, I have tried to avoid this blog becoming the equivalent of a face book or twitter page setting out what I did each day.  Today I am departing from that policy and presenting a few anecdotes about some recent personal items.  Again there is a cuation that there is ome risque content.

Yesterday I was in conference with a client when my mobile telephone rang. Usually someone else in the office will take my mobile and answer the call but no one was available on this occasion.  I said to my client “I’ll just get rid of this call.”  Still looking at my client’s documents and turning over the pages, I answered.  The caller was my wife, Kate, who asked “Are you with someone?”  I intended to say “Yes, can I call you back?” My mind on the documents, it unfortunately came out as “Yes, can I get rid of you?”  “Yes, but you’re in deep excrement when you get home.”

Bogans

 

The newspapers reported this week that Sydney’s Liam Warriner, 22, had mooned the Queen in Brisbane by displaying his bare bottom with an Australian flag wedged between his cheeks. 

The comments sections of the various online newspapers were swamped, either by those who thought him wonderful and those who thought he needed public flogging.  I particularly liked the comment sympathising with Her Maj for having another Anus Horribilis. 

What was of interest in the comments section was the number of times Herr Warriner was described as a “bogan”.

The funny thing is that everyone knows what a bogan is, but no one knows how the term originated. 

A bogan is a rude and coarse person, uneducated, from a lower class background, typified by speech, clothing and attitude. 

Similar slang terms and concepts exist in other countries, including:

-       chav, scally and pikey in England;

-       ned in Scotland;

-       scanger, scobe, knacker and spide in Ireland;

-       zed in South Africa;

-       tokkie in the Netherlands;

-       proll in Germany;

-       white trash or redneck in North America;

-       ars in Israel;

-       lumpen or lumpenproletariat in Russia.

Funny Friday

At a revival meeting the preacher is promoting faith healing.  “If you believe, you will be healed. All it takes is faith.  Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will cure you and His love will make you whole. Is there anyone here who wants to be healed?”

A little old lady in the front row raises her hand and he calls her on stage. She makes her way slowly on her crutches.  He asks her name and she says “Mrs Smith.”  He asks whether she has faith and she replies “Yes”.  The preacher says “Then go behind the curtain, Mrs Smith, and you will be healed.”

He asks again if anyone else wants healing.  Bily Bloggs raises his hand and says “Neth.”  He too is called onstage and asked his name/  It is obvious that he has a speech defect resulting from a cleft palate when he says “Nilly Noggs.”  Again the preacher asks “Do you have faith?” and receives an answer from Billy Bloggs, “Neth.”  “Then go behind the curtain and you too will be healed.”

“Mrs Smith, throw out your left crutch.”

A crutch is thrown over the curtain.

“Mrs Smith, throw out your right crutch.”

As the congregation chants and praises the Lord, with many Hallelujahs, the other crutch came over the curtain.

“Now, Billy Bloggs, have faith, speak to me.”

From behind the curtain comes Billy Bloggs' voice, “Mithith Nith juth fallen on ner narth.”

Caution: the following item is risqué.

I was hesitant about including the following item as being possibly too risqué but was encouraged to do so by my older son, who said that I was too sensitive.  On reflecting about a risqué content warning, I realised that any such warnings had never caused me to avoid something, in fact it made me want to watch or read it even more.  I have a sneaking suspicion that some TV shows carry such a warning, especially on the promos, to attract viewers.  I once knew a newsagent who said that he had second rate adult magazines that weren’t selling.  He sealed them in plastic and they sold out quickly.

Here is the Friday Funny I was talking about . . .

A Confederate soldier was given the job of supplying his regiment with food. To help him, he hired an Indian scout. The two of them set off on their journey to find some buffalo.

After riding for hours, the Indian gets off his horse, puts his ear to the ground and says, "Buffalo come."

The soldier looks all around but sees nothing.  He says to the Indian, "I don’t see anything, how do you know buffalo come?”

The Indian replies “Ear sticky.”

Some images and drawings . . .

 

(I am partial to the above pic in that it is also a tattoo on the inside of my arm.)

Quote: Edward Everett

 

“The admission to Harvard College depends upon examinations; and if this boy passes the examinations, he will be admitted; and if the white students choose to withdraw, all the income of the college will be devoted to his education.”

-Edward Everett, on admission of the first black student to Harvard University,1847.

Edward Everett  (1794-1865) was an American politician and orator, who served as a US Congressman, US Senator, Governor of Massachusetts, US Secretary of State, and as President of Harvard University. On 19 November 1863 he was the main speaker at Gettysburg, whose two-hour oration has been eclipsed in history by President Abraham Lincoln’s's brief Gettysburg Address.  Everett wrote to Lincoln the following day “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I cam as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

The words spoken on the admission of the first black student to Harvard University were in respect of Beverly Williams, who had been in the same preparatory school as Everett’s son.  Williams died of tuberculosis before his 18^th birthday and never took his place at Harvard.  The first black pupil to study at Harvard was Richard Greener (1844-1922) in 1865.  Greener graduated in 1870.

Quote: Lady Caroline Lamb

 

“Mad, bad and dangerous to know.”

-       Lady Caroline Lamb’s description in her diary of Lord Byron.

Portrait of Lady Caroline Lamb above by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828) was a British aristocrat and novelist best known for her affair with Lord Byron in 1812.  She was the wife of the 2^nd Viscount Melbourne who was Prime Minister in 1834 and 1835-1841. 

Although the marriage was originally based on love, the stress of having an autistic child who was cared for at home, a premature daughter who did not survive, long recovery periods and the absences through work of Viscount Melbourne drove a wedge between them.

It was also a period when women having lovers after they had provided an heir was common.

Moskito and Marco

 

(Click on image to enlarge).

The current controversy about Japan’s resumption of whale hunting in the Southern oceans in the guise of scientific research brings to mind an incident which took place in December 2005 off the coast of san Francisco.

A female humpback whale, the type of whale commonly slaughtered in the Southern oceans, had become trapped in ropes securing crab pots.  The whale was about 18m in length, female, and so badly entangled that it was determined that only divers cutting the ropes would be able to free her, a risky proposal in dealing with a creature weighing an estimated 50 tons.  It was believed that the whale had become tangled while travelling her usual migration route.

One of the first divers on the scene was one James Moskito (true, that is his name).

The following is an account from the time, verified by snopes.com as a truthful account:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/whalethanks.asp

Reader Comment

 

Byter Maz writes:

In reading my Bytes this morning I find that the baseball is referred to as being “A World Series”, i.e. a world championship.

You could do a lot for baseball tragic such as I by explaining the end of year series is NOT a world championship.

It is the final series sponsored by “The World” newspaper.

Now I know the Yanks say they have the biggest of everything – biggest state (try Western Australia for size) – but in this instance it is ignorance by the rest of the world. Who knows one day “Harvey Norman State of Origin” might achieve the same status.

Back to game 2 today. Go the Rangers! Don’t care even if the Cardinals win!

Maureen

3D Printing

 

Remember those scenes in cartoons and in sci fi movies where some scientist makes perfect copies of things with a machine?  It was a bit like making copies of documents using a photocopier, only with three dimensional objects, even people.  Well, three dimensional copying is now a reality, although it is not yet possible to invest the objects with life.

The following links show the process and the results, be amazed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ-aWFYT_SU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlq5R84TlVw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Px6RSL9Ac&feature=related

Some comments:

·         The process is known as 3D printing.  Standard and high-res 3D printers produce intricate plastic models from 3D designs, with the moving parts visible on the surface moving similarly on the copy.  It therefore produce working mechanical devices with moving parts.  It obviously cannot produce internal components.  It will therefore produce a copy of a toy car with the wheels moving, for example, but cannot include the engine under the bonnet.