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HOMOPHONES and words that sound like homophones but probably aren’t

9/27/2019

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IS IT AN INSULT OR A NEW SMART PHONE?
Neither. A Homophone is a word that is pronounced the same (in varying degree) as another word but differs in meaning and often in spelling.

Homophones run in family herds with other similar relatives, the heteronyms [words with the same spelling but different pronunciation and meanings] and heterographs [words with the same pronunciation but a different spelling and meaning]. Whew!

The grammatical relationships in this family is more than this writer wants to deal with, but they stalk me and once and while break into my novels and cause problems for me.
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Chart By Will Heltsley - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
Source: Wicki https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7146056
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ANN'S DUCK TEST 
The duck test is a form of abductive reasoning or inference, the sort of logic that employs a set of observations to find the most likely explanation of the observations. The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing that subject's habitual characteristics.
     “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”
I’ve applied that same test to some of my problem words. I can’t prove they are homophonic couples, but …. well, you’ll see.

Nauseous and Nauseated
I
’m not sure what to call this situation. The words sound similar to a homophone, it's not a duck.
    
●nauseous = causing nausea, sickness
     ●nauseated = feeling sick

Even though both the words nauseous and nauseated are often used to mean “feeling unwell” “or “sick to the stomach”, grammar purists insist nauseous means “to cause nausea” (presumably in another person) while nauseated means “to feel sick”. Casually, it is probably OK to use both words to mean feeling ill. However, in more formal situations, use each word correctly.   https://www.grammarly.com/blog/nauseated = vs = nauseous/

Radiate, Irradiate, Irradiated
This is a question of using the correct part of speech more than it is a homophone.
     ●irradiate = to throw rays of light upon; to illuminate; to brighten; to adorn with luster (Verb)
     ●radiate = to extend, send or spread out from a center like radii (Verb)

     ● irradiate = is illuminated; irradiated; made brilliant or splendid (Adjective)
     ● radiate= radiating from a center; having rays or parts diverging from a center; radiated (Adjective).
      https://wikidiff.com/irradiate/radiate
     ● irradiated = past tense of irradiate
    ● Food irradiation = the process of exposing food and food packaging to ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays or x-rays, that can be transmitted without direct contact to the source of the energy (radiation) to free electrons from their atomic bonds (ionization) in the targeted food. Harmless to people and animals, it extends life of foods by destroying organisms responsible for spoilage, foodborne illnesses, and sprouting,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation

Nucleus, Nuclear, Nucular
This one is my pet peeve and drives me nuts when I watch the TV news.

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● nucleus = 1) a central point, group, or mass about which gathering, concentration, or accretion takes place; the core. (noun) (Synonym: center, central part, most important part, heart nub, focus, kernel, etc.).

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​2) = in physics, the positively charged central core of an atom, consisting of protons and neutrons and containing nearly all its mass

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3) = in astronomy, the small bright body in the head of a comet.

​● nuclei = Plural of nucleus. More than one nucleus. (Noun)\

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​● nuclear = following definitions:
1) of, relating to, or constituting a nucleus or core of something, such as the nuclear family.
2) of, or relating to, a process by which the nucleus (central part) of an atom is divided or joined to another nucleus, resulting in the release of energy; i.e. relating to the power produced when the central part of an atom is divided or joined to another one.

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● nuclear = to become wildly excited or upset; to go berserk or crazy wild. (verb).
● nucular is not a word. Despite the commonly used pronunciation -- in particular, by every TV news commentator who has ever spoken on the tube since it was invented -- nucular is actually the colloquial
                      mispronunciation of the word nuclear.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary receives so many questions about this mispronunciation (nuclear vs. nucular) that the dictionary calls it out for special mention in their FAQ section. It reports "widespread use among educated speakers, including scientists, at least two United States presidents and one vice president."
 

TRICKY HOMOPHONES
Most people, and particularly writers, use homophones all the time and have no trouble with them. Most of us know the difference between ate and eight or bare and bear. Nonetheless, all of us blithely breeze by some of the more tricky ones and don’t even realize we’ve made a mistake.

Discreet and Discrete
Here is one from my first book. It is not even a tricky one, but I didn’t pick up on it and neither did my editors. Some of my readers did and kindly pointed it out to me. Yuck!
     ● discreet = on the down low, under the radar, careful, attempting to be unnoticed.
     ● discrete = individual or detached.
Both words come from the same ultimate source, the Latin “discrētus”, for separated or distinct, but discreet has taken its own advice and quietly gone its separate way.
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/discreet = discrete/

Carat, Karat, Caret, and Carrot
I see this misused, often in commercials and advertisements. I believe that the confusion has to do with the fact in the Queen's English (in the United Kingdom) Carat and Karat mean the same thing.

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​● carat = a unit of weight for precious stones and pearls, especially diamonds; now equivalent to 200 milligrams. Carat is measured on a scale of 1-24; a carat is one-fifth of a gram or 200 mg. and is divided into 100 points. Denoted by “Ct.” 

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​● karat = the measure of purity of a metal , especially gold, pure gold being 24 karats. Denoted by “K”
● caret =  a proofreader's mark placed below the line to indicate a proposed insertion in a text.
● carrot =  a vegetable

​Afterward, Afterwards, and Afterword
For shame if you are an author and are not familiar with this one.
     ● afterward = interchangeable with the words "after" and "later."
   ● afterwards = at a subsequent or later time and usually relates to events that occur relatively close together, typically one right after the other.
     ● Afterword = an epilogue or concluding section of a text, typically written by the author of a book, play, or other significant work. In the past, was referred to as the "author's notes." (Noun)
https://www.thoughtco.com/afterwards = and = afterword = 1689292
Note: the words forward and foreword are similar, being a verb (motion) and a noun (part of a book or written document).
 
Complacent and Complaisant
     ● complacent = satisfied with the status quo while unaware of a danger ahead; self-satisfied or unconcerned.
     ● complaisant = eager to please; marked by an inclination to please or oblige.
 
Roo, Roux, Rue, and Roué
Foreign words absorbed into common English create problems, one being that the letters are usually pronounced differently in the foreign language than they would be in English. Another of the other difficulties is that the meaning in the original language may be modified or completely changed once it becomes an English word.

My husband is Italian. I lived in Italy for a number of years, and we spoke Italian at home when we returned to live in the United States. I’m familiar firsthand with how foreign words lose their original meaning. In Rome in the 1960s, the Italian word scampi did not refer to a particular type of shrimp or  method of preparation. It meant shrimp. The Shrimp Scampi on the restaurant menu only means you are ordering shrimp shrimp fixed however the cook prepares it.

Similarly, gelato in Italian means ice cream, but Italian ice cream does taste differently. I haven’t been in Italy for six years, but based on Italian television, which we watch nightly, if you order gelato or ice cream, you will get the same thing.
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● roo = a kangaroo.(Australian)
● roux = a mixture of a fat, such as butter, and flour, that is used to make a sauce or a gravy. The term roux is derived from the French culinary term beurre roux, which means browned butter.

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● rue = (French) a street, road, avenue, boulevard.
● rue = to regret something, to wish one may undo something, carrying a connotation of bitterness; regret. (transitive verb, which is a verb that takes an object.)
● roué = a debauched man, usually an elderly debauched man.

Eminent, Imminent and Immanent
Most of the homophones that give me problems involve three words, and often one of them I am unfamiliar with.


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● eminent = famous and respected (usually a person within a particular sphere or profession.) Most often used to emphasize the presence of a positive quality; significant, influential, esteemed.
● immanent = dwelling within; inherent to something else; spiritual presence
The less common word, immanent, often sneaks in where it doesn't belong. Immanent comes from the Latin immanens for "to remain in." or “dwell within.” Often used in reference to spiritual or nonmaterial
                       things.

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​● imminent = about to happen (adjective) 

Meat, Meet, and Mete
     ● meat = edible flesh from an animal (noun).
   ● meet = an organized event at which a number of races or other sporting contests are held (noun).  
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    ● meet = come into the presence or company of someone; touch or join (verb).
    ● mete = dispense or allot justice, a punishment, or harsh treatment (verb).

MORE COMMON HOMOPHONES

Aural, Oral, and Verbal
● aural = related to hearing or the sense of hearing (adjective);


● oral = something spoken rather than written; something related to the mouth.
● verbal = verbal can be spoken or written.

Oral and verbal both relate to something expressed through words, but oral is spoken and verbal can be spoken or written. These words are often used interchangeably since both describe spoken words but, in fact, they are not always interchangeable. If your little sister sticks everything in her mouth, she has an oral fixation. If she can recite the Constitution by age two, she's quite verbal.
​

Capital and Capitol
    
● capital =
     1) of chief importance or influence, most serious (adjective);
     2) the seat of government of a particular jurisdiction(noun) Example: Sacramento is the capital of California.;
     3) letters conforming to the series A, B, C, D, etc. rather than a,b,c,d, etc.                                                     ▼ 
   

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4) punishable by death;
5) relating to or being assets that add to long-term net worth; value of accumulated goods (noun);
◄ 6) the uppermost member of a column or pilaster crowning the shaft and taking the weight of the entablature (noun).

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​● Capitol (noun)
◄ 1) a building in which a state legislative body meets or a group of buildings in which the functions of state government are carried out;
​
   2) capitalized, the building in which the U.S. Congress meets in Washington D.C. 
►

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 Principal and Principle
● principal

1) first in order of importance(adjective); Synonyms: main, primary, chief, foremost, most important, leading, dominant;
2) the person with the highest authority or most important position in an organization, institution, or group; such as the principal such as the principal of a school (noun); Synonyms: chief, chief executive officer, chairperson, president, director, etc.
                            3) in money, denoting an original sum invested or lent (noun) such as the principal sum of an
​                            investment;
● principle = generally refers to a natural, moral, legal rule or standard (always a noun).
The word principle is used in a number of popular sayings, such as “In principle, I agree,” “As a matter of principle, I must take a stand.”
​
One dictionary give this tip for remembering the difference: Someone who is a “princi-P-A-L” should be looked at as your “pal.” Only people can be “pals” and principal refers to people, whereas “princi-P-L-E” refers to truths, rules, or standards. A truth or standard cannot be your “pal.”
 

Prophesy and Prophecy
Here it’s a matter of which is the correct part of speech to use.
      ● prophesy = say that a specified thing will happen in the future (verb) (Synonyms: foretell, foresee, divine, etc.)
      ● prophecy = a prediction (noun) (Synonyms: second sight, clairvoyance, prognostication divination, foretelling.)


Eye, I, Aye, and Aye-aye
​
Following up on my thought to add a list of Homophones to my website references, I ran onto a variation on this one that I had never heard of or seen. I had to add it.
    
● eye = the part or organ of a boy used to see (noun).
     ● I = A first person singular subject pronoun. (Always capitalized)
     ● aye = an old fashioned and nautical term for “yes”
     And here is the one I learned. 
     ● Aye-aye = The Aye-aye is a rare species of lemur native to isolated regions of Madagascar and known as the world's largest nocturnal primate. They are also one of the most distinctive looking animals on the planet due to a number of unique adaptations, including coarse dark hair, long bushy tails, rodent-like teeth, piercing eyes and skeletal hands that feature extra-long middle fingers with hooked claws. Aye-ayes are born weighing just a few ounces and reach up to 5 lbs. as adults. They have been known to live up to about 20 years.

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A person is never too old to learn something new.

There are zillions more homophones, but most of them  we all know and love, and have mastered. It never hurts, though, to look up uses and pronunciations that sound a little off. English is constantly losing words and absorbing new ones, particularly foreign and technological words. I am planning to put a list of homophones on a reference page on my website … but it may take me a while.

□
Sources:
http://www.magickeys.com/books/riddles/words.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph#/media/File:Homograph_homophone_venn_diagram.png
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph
https://www.ragan.com/27 = tricky = homophones/
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/discreet = discrete/
https://www.thoughtco.com/afterwards = and = afterword = 1689292

 
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Elephant Appreciation Day and the Elephant Orphan Project

9/20/2019

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This coming Sunday, September 22, is Elephant Appreciation Day. I thought it fitting to post this blog about the elephant rescue and rehabilitation projects in Africa.
​
ELEPHANT FACTS
African Elephants, the noblest of pachyderms, are the largest land mammal on earth today. We've all seen them in zoos and perhaps at the circus, but up close and personal, they are really big. The drawing to the left shows the comparison between an elephant and a six foot man.

Their average life span in the wild is 70 years, their height at the shoulder is from 8.2 to 13 feet, and can weight from 2.5 to 7 tons. They are slightly larger than their Asian cousins and can be identified by the larger ears. Asian elephants have smaller, rounded ears.

​Elephant ears radiate heat to help keep these large animals cool, but sometimes the African heat is too much. Elephants are fond of water and enjoy showering by sucking water into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves. Afterwards, they often spray their skin with a protective coating of dust. An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles.

▼ Photo Credit: R. Ann Siracusa, 2008, Zimbabwe

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Elephants are social animals and travel in herds of 6 to 12 (but can expand to 20). The family consists of the matriarchal head, her daughters, and their calves. The matriarch dictates where the herd goes and helps to teach the younger elephants proper behavior. Female elephants, or cows, live in multigenerational family groups with other females, and they remain with their natal group for life, sharing responsibility for calves,. The females will assist each other with the birth and care of their young.

Males stay with the family until they reach 12 to 15 years of age, when they leave the herd and live alone or join up with other bulls. Male and female elephants live separately with bulls only visiting when some of the females are in their mating season, known as estrus.

Elephants are a keystone species and dramatically affect their landscape. They are seed dispersers and influence forest composition, creating clearings to boost tree regrowth and reducing cover to create suitable habitat for browsing and grazing animals.

AN ELEPHANT RIDE
In 2008, I traveled in Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Namibia. There, we not only observed and photographed elephants in the wild... but we rode them. To be truthful, we rode elephants that are part on an elephant rescue project and not in the wild.
​
Poaching is a major issue throughout Africa, as well as loss of habitat. The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust plays a role in the rescue of injured or trapped animals and their rehabilitation. This is one of the many elephant rescue/ rehabilitation projects in Africa

Donald, Shirley Wilder and Ann Siracusa riding Tatú                       Don't get on an elephant this way                                    Off we go into the bush
The elephants we rode are part of a program which rescues injured and "homeless" elephants. Usually, these are babies who have lost their mothers or sick elephants left behind by the herd. After they are brought back to health, and when they are old enough, some of them provide tourists with a half-hour to forty five minute thrill. This helps finance the rescue program.
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​This elephant's foot was damaged in a elephant snare set by poachers.►

The older elephants are not released back into the wild even though elephants are social animals and one of the few species that will take outsiders into the herd. However, they accept the outsides on a trial basis, but if the visitor misbehaves, it may be thrown out. Donald told us he had taken care of Tatú for fifteen years.

THE ELEPHANT ORPHAN PROJECT
The African elephant is endangered due to poaching (for ivory) and loss of range through deforestation. In the early 1900s, there were about 10 million elephants in Africa. By 1970 there were 1.3 million; by 2007, somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000; by 2016, an estimated 352,000 survived
.
▼Photo credit: Friedkin Conservation Fund
Photo Source: News  www.foxnews.com/science/queen-of-ivory


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Elephant Orphanages exist in several locations in Africa, but the most significant is in Kenya. It exists within the Nairobi National Park under the auspices of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and was overseen by Dr Daphne Sheldrick who had a life-time of experience with elephants. Dr. Daphne Sheldrink diesf in 2018 at the age of 83 and, happens in her beloved society, the mantle of matriarch has been passed to her daughter Angela, who has run the DSWT for 17 years, supported by her husband Robert Carr-Hartley, and sons Taru and Roan.
Daphne Sheldrick & daughter Angela 1968                                                                                                  Daphne Sheldrick, daughters Angela (lft) & Jill Woodley (rt)
▼Photo Source: www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries                                                                                  PhotoSource: www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries  Photo credit: The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust             ▼ David Sheldrick                             Photo Credit : The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/A.F.P. -Getty Images▼

At the heart of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's conservation activities is the Orphan’s Project, which has achieved world-wide acclaim through its hugely successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation program. Animals and humans are increasingly coming into conflict over space and food, especially on community-wildlife borders. The Trust works in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service and offers hope for any orphaned elephant fortunate enough to be found alive.

YOU TOO CAN ADOPT AN ELEPHANT
As with most mammals, the baby elephant's world is its mother, then the extended family. Elephants are particularly vulnerable to psychological despair if it loses its natural family. Even bulls, which separate from pod, never forget their female family.

In the orphanages, the orphaned elephants need a replacement human family i.e. enough keepers to represent a “family”. The orphan needs physical and mental care to grow up psychologically stable. If they are psychologically unstable and neurotic they will not be welcomed into the wild herds and risk rejection.
Photo credit: The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust    
The keepers are with the young elephants 24 hours a day, traveling with them as a group during the day, sleeping with them at night. Babies need contact at all times. Keepers rotate so that a different keeper sleeps with a different elephant each night, to avoid strong attachments to just one person.
​

As you can imagine, the orphanage costs a lot, in part because they are labor intensive, in part because elephants eat a lot. As part of the funding raising, you can adopt a particular elephant for fifty dollars and contribute to their upbringing, while receiving information about the rescue and ongoing progress report and photos. There are 18 pages of elephants waiting for adoption but I’ve shown here a few of the recent rescues.
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/orphans

                Name: Malima (F)                                           Name: Nabulu (F)                           Name: Mukkoka (M)                             Name: Larro (F)
                Current Age: 3 years                                     Current Age: 2 years                      Current Age: 23 months                      Current Age: 17 months
                Rescued: 30-10-2016                                    Rescued: 01-02-2019                       Rescued: 23-09-2018                           Rescued: 02-01-2019
                 Name: Kiasa (F)                                     Name: Kiombo (M)                                    Name: Ziwadi (F)                               Name: Karisa (M)
                 Current Age: 2 years                             Current Age: 2 years                                Current Age: 18 months                  Current age: 4 years
                 Rescued: 10-30-2017                             Rescued: 07-17-2019                                Rescued: 04-07- 2019                      Rescued: 10-24-2014

It took Daphne Sheldrick nearly three decades of trial and error to perfect the milk formula and complex husbandry necessary to rear an orphaned infant African elephant yet today, with support from many caring people world-wide, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is proud to have saved over 150 orphaned infant calves, which would otherwise have perished.

More importantly, every one of these orphans can look forward to a quality of life in wild terms, living free in Tsavo East National Park protected by their new extended orphaned family and friends amongst the wild herds.

Sources
http://vicfallswildlifetrust.org/VFWT%20Website/Wildlife%20Rescue.html
https://www.safarious.com/en/posts/4555-elephant-rescue-at-camp-hwange
http://www.rescue.org/program/programs-zimbabwe
http://www.amanzitravel.co.uk/rhino-and-elephant-sanctuary
http://www.afrizim.com/Activities/Victoria_Falls/Elephant_Rides.asp
http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/fostering.asp
http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/raiseorphan.htm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/a/african-elephant/
http://www.elephantsforever.co.za/family-structure.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/africa/great-elephant-census/index.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/82974/10-royal-facts-about-babar-elephant
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/elephant-appreciation-day-september-22/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/24/dame-daphne-sheldrick-obituary
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/obituaries/daphne-sheldrick-who-saved-orphaned-elephants-has-died-at-83.html
 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/424534702347703553/?lp=true
https://www.elephantand.co/blogs/blog/world-wide-elephant-charities
https://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/species-adoptions/african-elephant.aspx
https://www.foxnews.com/science/queen-of-ivory-africas-infamous-poaching-mastermind-nabbed
https://sciencing.com/elephants-mate-4574022.html

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BAD THINGS HAPPEN: Friday the Thirteenth

9/13/2019

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BEWARE!
This notice is for everyone, not only paraskavekedatriaphobians, triskaidekaphobians, and friggatriskaidekaphobians! Be careful and don’t go outside. Bad things happen to good people on Friday the 13th.

Although science assures us that bad things are just as likely to happen on any day of the week and any day of the month, as they are to happen on Friday the 13th, there are people who have a true physical condition which is an exaggerated, irrational fear of Friday the Thirteenth.

This fear even has a name. Several, in fact. The term
paraskavekedatriaphobians was first used in the 1990s by Dr. Donald E. Dossey, an American psychotherapist specializing in phobias and stress management. The term uses the Greek word paraskevi (Friday) and dekatria (thirteen). He is reputed as saying that if someone can pronounce the name of the phobia, he/she is cured.

Symptoms
The symptoms resemble any panic attack:
● Hyperventilation
● Rapid heart rate
● Trembling
● Lightheadedness or dizziness
● Refusing to leave home on this day
● Indulging in ritualistic behavior
● Talk of death or dying


Who Is Affected?

The bad news is that millions of people have this phobia, and even more people fear the unlucky number thirteen, a phobia with another long name. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimated that between $700 to $800 million dollars are lost every Friday the 13th because people are afraid to shop, travel, and conduct business.

IT’S JUST A SUPERSTITION … RIGHT?
The law of averages answers “yes,” but that doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen on Friday the 13th. They happen on other days, but believers don’t take the time to look at all bad luck. Here’s a look at some of the events of the past taken from a number of online articles regarding Friday 13.

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​​October 13, 1307
French King Philip IV arrested and tortured hundreds of  Knights Templar, of the Temple of Solomon, for accusations of blasphemy and homosexuality.

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August 13, 1521
Conquistador Hernán Cortés captured Cuauhtémoc, the ruler of Tenochtitlán, claiming the city for Spain, marking the end of the Aztec Empire, and renaming it Mexico City.

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November 13, 1789
Benjamin Franklin wrote "Everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes," according to U.S. government documents.

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​July 13, 1821
Nathan Bedford Forrest (born July 13, 1821) was the Confederate general in charge of the infamous Fort Pillow Massacre, where he and his men allegedly killed over 200 unarmed Union soldiers that had surrendered (many of whom were black).

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July 13, 1923
While hunting fossils for the American Museum of Natural History in Mongolia, an expedition team led by Roy Chapman Andrews discovered the first scientifically recognized dinosaur egg fossils.


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July 13, 1923
A group of letters was inaugurated in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, to signify a housing development owned by H.J. Whitley called Hollywoodland.

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March 13, 1925
Tennessee Senate voted to prohibit Evolutionary Theory from public universities and schools.


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October 13, 1933
British Interplanetary Society, the oldest space advocacy group in the world, was founded to boost public awareness of astronautics.

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September 13, 1935
Hughes h-1 racer sets a world airspeed record.

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January 13, 1939
The “Black Friday” bush fires in Australia killed 71 people in the Victoria province. Ash fell as far away as New Zealand.

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September 13, 1940
In World War II, the Nazis dropped five bombs on Buckingham Palace on Sept. 13, 1940, while the King and Queen were both at the residence.

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July 13, 1951
State of Kansas was hit with over 25 inches of rain, and over two million acres of land were damaged by the flood. The storm also affected oil tanks, some of which caught on fire and exploded.


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June 13, 1952
A Swedish military plane with a crew of eight was reported missing. Two planes were sent to search for the original plane and were later shot down by the Soviet air force.

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March 13, 1964
In New York City a woman was murdered in front of 30 witnesses, and not one person intervened.


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November 13, 1970
The Bhola cyclone hit Bangladesh, the deadliest storm in the Bay of Bengal, killed an estimated 150,000 to 550,000 people, 45% of its population.

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October 13, 1972
A plane carrying a rugby team crashed into an Andes mountaintop with only sixteen surviving. The rescue efforts were called off 10 days after the crash. 72 days later 2 of the 16 left and managed to alerted authorities there were 16 other survivors trapped in the mountains. 16 survived. 

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October 13, 1972
A plane in Moscow crashed into the ground trying to land in bad weather, killing all 174 on board.

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​December 13, 1974
Malta becomes an independent republic.

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January 13, 1989
A widespread computer crash infected hundreds of IBM computers in England, causing anxiety over lost files and the threat of then-new technology.

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October 13, 1989
The “minicrash” often referred to as "Black Friday" was, at the time, the second-worst stock-market crash in American history.

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September 13, 1996
Rapper Tupac Shakur died after being shot multiple times in a murder that remains unsolved.

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October 12-13. 2006
Western New York was hit with two feet of snow, leaving over 300,000 people without power and damaging thousands of trees.


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March 13, 2009
"SAW – The Ride" premiered at Thorpe Park amusement park in England, only to be temporarily shut down due to "minor teething problems."

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November 13, 2009
NASA announces evidence of water on the moon.


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August 13, 2010
A 13 year old boy was struck by lightning in England at an air show and received burns only on his shoulder. The hospital stated he was expected to make a full recovery. Wikipedia says about 240,000 people are injured by lightning strikes each year. One estimate is that the annual global death toll is 6,000.


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January 13, 2012
The Costa Concordia was wrecked off the Italian coast, killing more than 30 passengers.

HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND?
The Insider (https://www.insider.com/worst-things-friday-the-13th-2017-12) precedes its list of Friday the 13th events with this sentence: “Still think it's just a superstition? These events might be enough to convince even the most determined non-believer.”

I don’t think so. Supposedly, this superstition has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, yet we only list four events before the 20th century and less than thirty total. Sure, there are a zillion things that have happened on these cursed days, but I thought the list was rather paltry.

A Bad Luck Day of its reputation ought to be able to come up with more disasters than listed herein and in most articles you find on the subject. And some aren’t disasters at all.
 
A FEW INTERESTING FACTS
● President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

● Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

● Some believe that the 13th or Friday the 13th was the day Eve tasted the forbidden apple from the Tree of Knowledge. I'm not sure how that figures, since humankind at the time didn't have a calendar with either Fridays or Friday the 13th, but what do I know?

● In the New Testament, thirteen people attended Jesus' last supper on Maundy Thursday, the day before Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday. Judas was the thirteenth to be seated.

● Numerology first appears in written records in Egypt and Babylon, and in numerology, the number 13 is considered unlucky.

Note, however, that while 13 meant death to the ancient Egyptians, it was a joyous time when the person ascended into eternal life. Death was not considered bad luck to them.

Middle Ages
● This is a more likely time for such superstitions to be tied to Christian beliefs surrounding the last supper and crucifixion.

● In the 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in his Canterbury Tales a reference to Friday as being unlucky.

● While some historians point to evidence of both Friday and the number thirteen being considered unlucky, there are no references connecting the two before the 19th century.

Nineteenth Century
● Henry Sutherland Edward's 1869 biography of composer Giaochino Rossini, is credited with the first documented reference. According to Edwards, Rossini regarded Friday as an unlucky day, thirteen as an unlucky number, and died on Friday, November 13, 1868. While I have no way of knowing if Rossini himself believed 13 was unlucky, I do know that Italians consider 13 a lucky number. The Italian bad-luck-number is seventeen, and that superstition has been around since the early Romans. I lived in Rome and know there are many buildings that don't have a 17th floor or a room #17 and so on.

● Another early reference comes from a club [The Thirteen Club] formed by William Fowler, whose intention was to debunk the superstitions as baseless.
□
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/friday-13th-does-come-unlucky/
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/09/the-origin-of-friday-the-13th-as-an-unlucky-day/
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/13-things-friday-13.html
http://www.ibtimes.com/friday-13th-history-origins-myths-superstitions-unlucky-day-395108
http://www.snopes.com/luck/friday13.asp
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0212_040212_friday13.html
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/paraskevidekatriaphobia.html
http://www.cogwriter.com/hebrew-calendar-postponements.htm
http://aboutnumerology.com/history-of-numerology/
http://gizmodo.com/why-people-think-friday-the-13th-is-unlucky-1306401570
http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freya/
http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freya/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja
http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/goddess-freya.htm
http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/goddess-freya.htm
https://www.allaboutcounseling.com/library/triskaidekaphobia/
http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/p/paraskavedekatriaphobia/misdiag.htm



 




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Richard Lederer’s “World History According to Student Bloopers”

9/6/2019

1 Comment

 
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It’s become a real chore this summer to come up with something more interesting to write about than what my husband is cooking for dinner or my latest medical miseries. My apologies to you folks who enjoy recipes and where other people are taking their family vacations, but I just can’t make myself write about those.

While I was flailing around, looking at materials I’ve accumulated and toying with an idea for a blog I should have started working on two weeks ago, I can across this Richard Lederer piece. I’ve read it many times before, but I couldn’t help taking another look. Soon I was laughing so hard my cleaning lady came in to my office to find out if I was crying. It’s too funny not to share.

The World According to Student Bloopers
By Richard Lederer

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Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lederer#/media/File:Richard_Lederer_at_2006_Mensa_WG.jpg
Richard Lederer writes, “One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following “history of the world'' from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eighth grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.”
​

Read more about Richard Lederer at the end. He’s so much more than a teacher.
​______________________________________________________________________________________________
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● The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
 ▼Photo Source: encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn

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​● The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, once asked, ``Am I my brother's son?'' God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birth mark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.

● Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

● Without the Greeks we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns---Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth.

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● One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intollerable. Achilles appears in The Iliad, by Homer. Homer also wrote The Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.

​● Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

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●In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing.
​ When they fought with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.

● Eventually, the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlics in their hair.
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● Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
​
●Then came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames.


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● King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery. King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings. Joan of Arc was cannonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally the Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

● In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.


● The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great invention and discoveries.

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● Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood.
​
● Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper.


●The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. ​

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● ​Queen Elizabeth was the ``Virgin Queen.'' As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted, ``hurrah.'' Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.

●The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He lived at Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies, and errors.

●In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
​
●During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Ni
ña, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe.

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​● Later the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and this was known as Pilgrims Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by the Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their backs. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1680 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.

● One of the causes of the Revolutionary War was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War, the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.

● Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. 
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Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared, “A horse divided against itself cannot stand.'' Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.

● George Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the Father of Our Country. Then the Constitution the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.

● Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, “In onion there is strength.'' Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. Fourteenth Amendment gave ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. It claimed it represented law and odor. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.


● Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy.
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 Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.

​
● Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

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● France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napolenonic Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were tremoling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorillas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. 

Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear children.

●The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.

●The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code of telepathy. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.
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●The First World War, caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.
□


I would love to read a similar composite from WWI through 2019, but I would die of laughing long before I got to the end. Maybe that’s why there isn’t one. 
Or maybe there is more in one of Mr. Lederer’s books.
 
WILL THE REAL RICHARD LEDERER PLEASE STAND UP?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lederer
Quoted Directly From Wikipedia

“Richard Lederer (born May 26, 1938) is an American author, speaker, and teacher. He is best known for his books on the English language and on word play such as puns, oxymorons, and anagrams. He refers to himself as "the Wizard of Idiom," "Attila the Pun," and "Conan the Grammarian." His weekly column, "Looking at Language," is syndicated in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States.

"Lederer invented the words 'aptagram',an anagram which means the same as the other word, and 'antigram', an anagram which means the opposite.

"He has written more than fifty books, including Anguished English (1987), Get Thee to a Punnery (1988), Crazy English (1989), A Man of My Words (2003), The Word Circus (1998), The Miracle of Language (1992), The Cunning Linguist (2001), Word Wizard (2006), and Presidential Trivia (2007). Known as a "verbivore", a word he coined in the early 1980s, Lederer's interests include uncovering word origins, pointing out common grammatical errors and fallacies, and exploring palindromes, anagrams, and other forms of recreational wordplay. Lederer wrote the foreword to Words at Play: Quips, Quirks and Oddities, by O.V. Michaelsen (Sterling Publishing Company, New York, 1998), and to Weather Facts and Fun (2009), a children's book on weather, co-written by Josh Judge and Kathe Cussen and published by SciArt Media. He was elected International Punster of the Year in 1989[4] and was the 2002 recipient of the Golden Gavel of Toastmasters International.”
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    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

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