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AWADmail Issue 590A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Tidbits about Words and Language
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Unusable Words
How French Toast and Eight Other Site-Specific Foods Got Their Names [Revised] From: Michael Riisager (pmichaelriisager hotmail.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--measly "Measly pork" is the term applied to the blotchy appearance of swine flesh infested by certain parasitic worms or their larvae. Ingestion of poorly cooked meat so infected could result in serious illness in humans. This knowledge may have been the base reason for the prohibition of eating pork in many ancient religions. In rusty memory of my public health training in medical school in England... but what a cornucopia of etymology!
Michael Riisager, Yarmouth, Maine
From: Peter Smith (plunky topmail.co.uk) Please remember a significant minority of Anglophones -- including those from the mother country of which I am one -- spell words differently from those in the USA. It's not just colour and buses, it's anaemic as well. Who knows which is correct? We Brits like to think we are, but at least we deserve a mention!
Peter Smith, London, UK
From: Leslie Partridge (leslie.partridge arcadis-us.com)
If the rich could hire someone else to die for them, the poor would make a wonderful living. -Jewish proverb
Isn't this what wars are? Minus the "wonderful living".
Leslie Partridge, Columbus, Ohio
From: Maxine Beckner (mbeckner netins.net) My mother attended Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, from 1925-1929. I have all the letters written between her and my father, who were dating from afar at the time. Whenever students became ill with a contagious disease at the college, they were sent to the "pest house" to be treated. Sadly, some died of their illnesses. I found it very interesting how the vernacular had changed by the time I came along in 1949. I had never heard that term before I read her letters.
Maxine Beckner, Clear Lake, Iowa
From: Nirati Gupta (niratigupta gmail.com) Dear Team at AWAD: At first I opened my mailbox every day for that one special word that you gifted me daily. Then I started coming back for little thoughts that you appended. And now I eagerly look forward to the Sunday mail you send. People end up sharing small bits of their lives in their response to these characteristic words. I never thought sharing of tiny little words could shrink the globe so. Thanks AWAD!
Nirati Gupta, Delhi, India
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.
-Ronald Searle, artist (1920-2011)
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