A name: The Turkey’s Turkey Connection

 

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From the New York Times, November 27, 2013

 

By MARK FORSYTH

Thanksgiving is the all-American holiday. Turkey is the all-American bird. It was here long before Columbus or the Pilgrims. Early explorers reported vast flocks of turkeys nesting in the magnolia forest. Turkeys are a lot more American than apple pie. But they’re named after a country 4,429 miles away.

It’s not a coincidence. It’s not that the two words just sound alike. Turkeys are named after Turkey. But there is a connection. You just have to go to Madagascar to find it. Let me explain.

Once upon a time, English mealtimes were miserable things. There were no potatoes, no cigars and definitely no turkey. Then people began to import a strange, exotic bird. Its scientific name was Numida meleagris; its normal name now is the helmeted guinea fowl, because it’s got this weird bony protuberance on its forehead that looks a bit like a helmet. It came all the way from Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa, but the English didn’t know that. All the English knew was that it was delicious, and that it was imported to Europe by merchants from Turkey. They were the Turkey merchants, and so, soon enough, the bird just got called the turkey.

But that’s not the turkey you’ll be serving with cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. As I said, that’s an American bird. When the Spanish arrived in the New World they found a bird whose scientific name is Meleagris gallopavo. But the Spaniards didn’t care about science. All they cared about was that this bird was really, really delicious. It tasted well, it tasted just like turkey, only better.

They started exporting the birds to Europe, and soon enough they arrived on English dinner tables at just about the same time that the English were setting up their first colonies in America. The Pilgrims didn’t care about any subtle distinctions. They just tasted this great bird and thought, turkey. That’s the way the English language goes.

That’s why the bird you’re going to eat is named for a country on the Black Sea. Other languages don’t make the same mistake. They make different ones. In France it’s called dinde, because they thought it was from India, or, in French, d’Inde. And in Turkey a lot of people thought that, too, so it’s called Hindi.

There was a 19th-century American joke about two hunters — an American and a Native American — who go hunting all day but only get an owl and a turkey. So the American turns to his companion and says: “Let’s divide up. You get the owl and I get the turkey.” The Native American says: “No. Let’s do it the other way round.” So the American says, “O.K., I’ll get the turkey and you get the owl.” And the Native American replies, “You don’t talk turkey at all.”

That’s where the phrase let’s talk turkey comes from. Let’s do real business. Then, in the early 20th century, people got even tougher and started saying “Let’s talk cold turkey.” And then when people tried the toughest way of giving up drugs they went cold turkey.

It’s got nothing to do with the leftovers you’ll be eating for weeks and weeks and weeks. Happy Thanksgiving.

Good design-10 things

by DIETER RAMS   

1.   Good design is innovative
2.   Good design makes a product useful
3.   Good design is aesthetic
4.   Good design makes a product understandable
5.   Good design is unobtrusive
6.   Good design is honest
7.   Good design is long-lasting
8.   Good design is thorough, down to the last detail
9.   Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible

Recipe for success

From Bernard Mannes Baruch (19 August 1870 – 20 June 1965), American financier, stock market speculator, statesman, and presidential advisor.

Recipe for success: Be polite, prepare yourself for whatever you are asked to do, keep yourself tidy, be cheerful, don’t be envious, be honest with yourself so you will be honest with others, be helpful, interest yourself in your job, don’t pity yourself, be quick to praise, be loyal to your friends, avoid prejudices, be independent, interest yourself in politics, and read the newspapers.

Life is like Camera

Greek Castles (gif)

23 Signs You’re Secretly a Narcissist Masquerading as a Sensitive Introvert

source: Scientific American/  Scott Barry Kaufman | August 26, 2013

♦  I can become entirely absorbed in thinking about my personal affairs, my health, my cares or my relations to others.
♦  My feelings are easily hurt by ridicule or the slighting remarks of others.
♦  When I enter a room I often become self-conscious and feel that the eyes of others are upon me.
♦  I dislike sharing the credit of an achievement with others.
♦  I feel that I have enough on my hand without worrying about other people’s troubles.
♦  I feel that I am temperamentally different from most people.
♦  I often interpret the remarks of others in a personal way.
♦  I easily become wrapped up in my own interests and forget the existence of others.
♦  I dislike being with a group unless I know that I am appreciated by at least one of those present.
♦  I am secretly “put out” or annoyed when other people come to me with their troubles, asking me for their time and sympathy.
♦  I am jealous of good-looking people.
♦  I tend to feel humiliated when criticized.
♦  I wonder why other people aren’t more appreciative of my good qualities.
♦  I tend to see other people as being either great or terrible.♦
♦  I sometimes have fantasies about being violent without knowing why.
♦  I am especially sensitive to success and failure.
♦  I have problems that nobody else seems to understand.
♦  I try to avoid rejection at all costs.
♦  My secret thoughts, feelings, and actions would horrify some of my friends.
♦  I tend to become involved in relationships in which I alternately adore and despise the other person.
♦  Even when I am in a group of friends, I often feel very alone and uneasy.
♦  I resent others who have what I lack.
♦  Defeat or disappointment usually shame or anger me, but I try not to

Some personal objections:
- These 23 items are completely independent of whether one is extroverted or introverted.
- You can be an introvert and a narcissist. You can be an extrovert and be a narcissist too.
- These signs apply, more or less, to all human beings

But it is a smart list

THe Presidents of the USA

A widget (to add in a web page or blog) from the website The Presidents of the USA:

The Presidents of the USA

get this widget!

300- Greek Castles

A video from the site Greek Castles:

Syria is not Iraq

From the article "Syria is not Iraq" from the "Opinion Pages" of the NYT

Main points:

IN the search for an American response to the civil war in Syria, the favorite guidebook seems to be our ill-fated adventure in Iraq. We have another brutal Middle East autocrat holding power on behalf of a sectarian minority. We have another dubious cast of opposition factions competing for foreign patronage. We hear some of the same hawks — John McCain, Paul Wolfowitz — exhorting us to intervene, countered by familiar warnings of “quagmire.” We even have murky intelligence claims that the regime has used weapons of mass destruction. 

 ....

Of course, there are important lessons to be drawn from our sad experience in Iraq: Be clear about America’s national interest. Be skeptical of the intelligence. Be careful whom you trust. Consider the limits of military power. Never go into a crisis, especially one in the Middle East, expecting a cakewalk. 

 ....

The United States has supplied humanitarian aid and diplomatic pressure. But our reluctance to arm the rebels or defend the civilians being slaughtered in their homes has convinced the Assad regime (and the world) that we are not serious. Our fear that arms supplied to the rebels would fall into the hands of jihadis has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because instead of dealing directly with the rebels we left the arming to fundamentalist monarchies, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they are predictably using lethal aid to appease the more radical Islamists. 

.....

What you hear from the Obama team is that we know way too little about the internal dynamics of Syria, so we can’t predict how an intervention will play out, except that there is no happy ending; that while the deaths of 70,000 Syrians are tragic, that’s what happens in a civil war; that no one in the opposition can be trusted; and, most important, that we have no vital national interest there. 

....

Good points, I think. But then the article continues -and ends- with some lame arguments in favor of the American intervention in Syria.

I think the Anericans are ready to complicate their foreign policy again without good reason.
Or they just want to spend some money.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/opinion/keller-syria-is-not-iraq.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130506&_r=0

Persistence

A quote by Calvin Coolidge:

 "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
 Talent will not; nothing is more common that unsuccessful individuals with talent.
 Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
 Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
 Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

It is often attributed also to Ray Croc, CEO of McDonald's,
but it is from Coolidge.

USA Presidents

A great site for a fast look in US Presidents and American History:

www.presidenstory.com

If you are interested in the Medieval History and especially in the Byzantine History, this is a good  site:

Byzantine Chronicle  (http://www.byzantium.xronikon.com) The emphasis is on the Byzantine Emperors which are presented in a unique way. A lot of info also about the Byzantine Battles. Again, in a very good presentation. A strong element of the site,  the various maps shown with every emperor and every battle. Don't miss it.