It’s Element-ary, Number Four!

The next of the alkali metals: sodium.  While sodium is a highly volatile substance, it bonds well with just about everything.  However, it is also highly reactive so it is best to store this substance under oil (will chemically react with the air, and will burst into flames upon contact with water).  Sodium is used in many common products, most notably: salt (sodium chloride) and dishwashing soap (sodium carbonate).

Sodium – discovered in 1807

Symbol: Na
Atomic number: 11
Atomic weight: 22.990
Density: 0.968 g/cm³
Melting point: 97.72°C (207.9°F)
Boiling point: 883°C (1,621°F)
Color: gray/white
Standard state: solid at 25°C (77°F)
Classification: metallic

Source: The Complete Periodic Table: Elements with Style, by Adrian Dingle and Dan Green.

Fun Fact Friday, Number 142!

Today’s real facts (courtesy of http://www.snapple.com) are all about the Roosevelts (Franklin and Theodore).  Did you know that . . .

• Theodore Roosevelt was the only President who was blind in one eye?  (Real Fact #149)
• Theodore Roosevelt had a pet bear while in office?  (Real Fact #869)
• Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest President to be in office at the age of 42?  (Real Fact #876)
• Franklin Roosevelt was related to 5 U.S. Presidents by blood and 6 by marriage?  (Real Fact #867)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to office for 4 terms prior to the 22nd Amendment?  (Real Fact #1134)

Source: http://www.snapple.com/real-facts

Commonly Misspelled and Confused – Letter L!

Here is a list of some of the more commonly misspelled/misused words (courtesy of the Internet Accuracy Project) beginning with the letter “L.”  Enjoy!

Commonly misspelled words

L – laboratory, legitimate, leisure, length, lenient, liaison, license, lieutenant, lightning, likelihood, likely, liquefy, longitude, loneliness, losing, lovely, luxury.

Commonly Confused Words

LEAD – (noun) a type of metal He had lead poisoning from all the old paint he consumed. LEAD – (verb) guide; show the way The outdoorsman will lead the hikers from Lake Mary, up to Duck Lake. LED – (verb) past tense of the verb “to lead” The criminal led his victims into the woods, before forcing them at gunpoint to clean his cabin. LOSE – to misplace; be defeated; not win He was certain to lose the election because of the infamous video. LOOSE – not tight; baggy The lawyer’s pants were so loose that they actually fell to his ankles, causing him to trip and fall.

Source: Internet Accuracy Project’s commonly misspelled, confused and misused words is a helpful collection of some of the most commonly misspelled, confused and misused words.

Amazing Adjectives, Number Fifty-Six!

Here is a word from the English tenable; from teh Latin infinitive tenere, meaning “to  hold, keep, possess,” + un-, meaning “not.”

As exemplified in The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate.

“He was convinced women could not perform intellectual tasks that men master easily, a position that most intelligent people find untenable.”

untenable

\ uhn-ten–uh-buhl \, adjective;

1. incapable of being defended, as an argument, thesis, etc.; indefensible.
2. not fit to be occupied, as an apartment, house, etc.

Source: The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich and http://www.dictionary.com.

Oxymoronica From Long Ago!

Here is proof that the oxymoron has existed for centuries.   Enjoy!

“Religion is a disease, but it is a noble disease.”  (Heraclitus, 5th Century B.C.)

“Nothing is permanent but change.”  (Heraclitus, 5th Century B.C.)

“Too much rest itself becomes a pain.”  (Homer, 8th Century B.C.)

“To save a man’s life against his will is the same as killing him.”  (Horace, 1st Century B.C.)

“The further one pursues knowledge, the less one knows.”  (Lao-Tzu, 6th Century B.C.)

“The only certainty is that nothing is certain.”  (Pliny the Younger, 1st Century A.D.)

“To do two things at once is to do neither.”  (Publilius Syrus, 1st Century B.C.)

Source: oxymoronica by Dr. Mardy Grothe

Dodging Bullets!

Do you know which President was the first to face enemy gunfire while in office?  Well, on August 25, 1814, President James Madison actively used his authority as commander-in-chief to assume command of Commodore Joshua Barney’s battery, stationed a half-mile north of Bladensburg, Maryland.

Some other famous “firsts” that occurred today throughout history include:

• the first state labor party (Workingmen’s Party, Philadelphia, PA, 1828)
• the first race between a locomotive and a horse-drawn vehicle (1830)
• the first bedspring manufacturing patent (Josiah French, of Ware, MA, 1831)
• the first seeding maching (Joseph Gibbons, of Adrian, MI, 1840)
• the first international polo series (Newport, RI, England v. U.S., 1886)
• the first Arabic daily newspaper (Al-Hoda, Philadelphia, PA, 1898)
• the first U.S. woman Olympic gold medalist (Ethelda Bleibtrey, swimming, 1920)
• the first miniature television tube (1925)
• the first labor union of African-American workers (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids, 1925)
• the first health insurance clause in a labor contract (1941)
• the first pension for presidents and their widows (1958)
• the first authorized voting rights in space (Texas legislature, 1997)

Source: Famous First Facts, by Joseph Nathan Kane, Steven Anzovin, and Janet Podell.

Marriage Advice, Number Thirteen!

Here is the thirteenth installment of advice on How to be Happy Though Married.  Enjoy!

The Pains of Marriage
“There are only two days on which a woman can refresh thee, on the day of marriage and when she is buried.”  (Hipponax of Ephesus, c. 540 BC)

Hints for Husbands
“Should you chance, after dinner, to be affected by a slight drowsiness, never resist it because your wife wishes to chat with you; do not mind her, but go quietly to sleep.”  (“To Husbands,” Punch, 1844)

Hints for Wives
“I need not warn of too powerful smells, which sometimes health or kindly heat expels. Nor from your tender legs to pluck with care, the casual growth of all unseemly hair.”  (Ovid, The Art of Love, 1st Century AD)

The Marital Bed
“In summer take heed that there be no fleas in your chamber, nor in your bed.”  (Le Ménagier de Paris, 1393)

Source: How to Be Happy Though Married: Matrimonial Strife Through the Ages, compiled by Emily Brand.

Fun Fact Friday, Number 141!

The category for today’s trivial imponderable is “sports.”  Do you know . . . how the word “seed” came to be used in tennis rankings?

“Seed” as a ranking comes from the word “conceded” which referred to players who are conceded, or assumed, to be the best in ranking for a tournament.  More casual usage led to ceded, which eventually led to the current word, seed.

Source: Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong, by Dr. Rod L. Evans.

Artist Documentary: Alma Rankin!

“Stop and Paint the Roses.”  Here is the next installment of the artist documentaries that were produced by students from the Jenks High School Documentary Film Class under the tutelage of their instructor, Clifton Raphael, in partnership with artists from both the Tulsa Artists Guild and Tulsa’s Alpha Rho Tau (a civic art association).  This posts features the artist Alma Rankin.  Enjoy!

Source: https://youtu.be/9Tnvih79Uag

Homicide of a Word!

I am often amused by the people who try to impress you with their vocabulary only to commit verbicide in their attempt.  Then on the other hand, if they have no concept that they are wrong, is this a “willful” distortion?

verbicide

\ vur-buh-sahyd \, noun;

1. the willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word.
2. a person who willfully distorts the meaning of a word.

Source: The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich, and http://www.dictionary.com.