Get Smart: Known For Gadgets & Catchphrases

This was originally published April 24, 2012, and it was very slightly updated in January 2015 and again on December 6, 2017.

"Get Smart" was a television comedy of the 1960s created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, that spoofed the spy mentality of the Cold War era, as well as the spy movies and shows based upon that mentality; in particular, the "James Bond" series and "Mission Impossible." Its central character was one "Maxwell Smart," a secret agent with the code number "86," known for his shoe phone. Smart was a bungling agent who could mess up just about anything, but who, in the end, always brought matters to a successful conclusion. Max was played in an unforgettable way by actor Don Adams. Smart's partner in most cases was "Agent 99," a female secret agent, played by actress Barbara Feldon. Throughout much of the first couple of seasons of the show, "99" developed a love for Max, who almost always failed to take notice of that fact. These two characters were supported by a wide range of other secret agents, including two, during the course of the series, who were always stationed in some sort of odd, cramped location, like a locker, a mailbox, a sidewalk trash receptacle, or an ice machine. One old agent had been hiding so long in a wall behind a dartboard, he still had a message to warn General Custer about an Indian attack. The whole bunch belonged to a super secret government spy agency called "CONTROL," headed by "the Chief," played by veteran actor Edward Platt.

CONTROL's usual adversary was the evil outfit called "KAOS," which included a variety of notorious misfits who were communists, underworld figures, Nazis or other fascists. In one episode a KAOS boss talked about celebrating Mussolini's birth day. Some prominent KAOS agents included "Leadside," a character patterned after the then popular NBC show "Ironside,"* but with "Leadside" being a fiendish villain in a wheelchair; "Mr. Big," a dwarf leader of KAOS; the "Claw," an oriental KAOS man with a magnetic claw for one of his hands, who pronounced his name "Craw.;"** "Dr. Zharko," a mad scientist hiding on a remote island, who was able to bring dead KAOS agents back to life; and "Siegfried," played by Bernie Kopell, the most prominent of all, a former unrepentant Nazi in Hitler's service, who was CONTROL's most frequent nemesis. One of Siegfried's best lines had to do with him at times becoming disgusted with KAOS and saying something like, "20 years of working for KAOS. 20 years of stealing, lying, cheating, robbing, killing and murdering, and what did I get out of it? Nothing, just a lot of fun."       

The show started in the mid 1960s on NBC and some of Max's catchy phrases quickly caught on with the American public: "Sorry about that Chief;" when Max did something accidentally to the Chief; "Missed it by that much," with Max displaying fingers spread about an inch apart; "Would you believe," said by Max as he scaled back an overdone bluff;*** and "I asked you not to tell me that."****

"Get Smart" was also known for its secret gadgets developed for CONTROL to combat the evil of KAOS. Max's shoe phone was quite a sensation in the 1960s, and there was also an invisible bulletproof wall that could be lowered from the ceiling of Max's apartment, as well as a net that dropped from the ceiling. There were many others. The show moved from NBC to CBS for its fifth and last season. "Get Smart" might well be my favorite show of all time, but since I don't have to choose, I won't.

* "Ironside" was about police detective Robert T. Ironside, played by Raymond Burr, who had been partially paralyzed by a sniper-fired bullet to his spine. He was in a wheelchair and traveled around San Francisco in a specially equipped vehicle.

** When he introduced himself as "the Craw," the person would then repeat the incorrect pronunciation, but he couldn't correct them, saying, "Not Craw, Craw." It played on the fact that some Asian people who did not grow up speaking English having difficulty pronouncing English "L" and "R." Hey, political correctness had not taken hold back then, and besides, please don't let such little things stick in your claw ... no wait, that IS craw.  

*** When in a perilous situation, Max might say something to his adversaries like, "You'd better give up, would you believe there are 500 Marines surrounding this place?" When the person would say he didn't believe him, Max would say, "Well, would you believe 100 Marines?" This would bring similar skepticism from the guy, which would then have Max say something like, "Would you believe a troop of Boy Scouts?" 

**** This was an oft repeated phrase by Max, used like this: Max might say, "Don't tell me there's a guy with a gun standing behind me." Agent 99 would say, "There's a guy with a gun behind you," then bringing Max to say, "I asked you not to tell me that."  

Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series"

WORD HISTORY:
Smart-This word goes back to Indo European "smerd," the meaning of which is a bit sketchy, but something on the order of "harm, causing injury or pain (including "bite, rub, sting, grind)." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "smertanan," which meant "to hurt." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "smeortan," also meaning "to hurt," and we still say to this day, if we bump our toe or hit our finger with a hammer, "That smarts!" The Old English form later became "smerten," before the modern form. In the meantime, from the verb came the late Old English adjective "smeart," which meant "sharp, intense." Within a couple of hundred years, the notion of "sharpness and intensity" had moved the meaning to "clever, quick," and from that came the general idea of "bright, intelligent." English is the only Germanic language to use this meaning. So, English has two words "smart," although both are from the exact same Germanic source, and indeed, the more common form meaning "intelligent" was derived from the other, which means "hurt." The other Germanic languages have: German (verb) "schmerzen" (to hurt) and (noun) "Schmerz" (pain, ache); Low German Saxon (noun) "Smart" (pain) and (verb) "smarten" (to hurt); Dutch has (verb) "smarten" (to hurt) and (noun) "smart" (distress, trouble); Norwegian has (verb) "smerte" (to hurt) and (adjective) "smart" (clever); Danish (noun) smerte (pain), Swedish has (noun) "smärta" (pain). Apparently Icelandic and Frisian no longer use forms of the word, although Frisian once used "smert" (pain). Note: It "seems" the forms in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are borrowings from Low German.  

The Great Depression, Part Two

On the political front of the 1920s, Warren Harding died after only about two years in office and was replaced by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who came to be known to the public as “Silent Cal.” Coolidge was very pro-business, having uttered those famous words, “The chief business of the American people is business.” He was not a showman nor was he terribly photogenic; often appearing in photos looking as if he’d just swallowed a big dose of Castor oil. To a good number of historians, he is known, on the positive side, for not being too self obsessed, or thin-skinned. Once, when asked if he had read a particular news article on one of his policies, Coolidge said, “I started to read it, but it was against me, so I put it down.” In later news articles, this Coolidge philosophy came to be known as, “If you don’t like it, don’t read it!” Coolidge became known for his short answers to questions posed by the Press and his less than verbose personal nature, and in one oft repeated story, once at a dinner gathering, a woman guest told Coolidge that she had a bet with someone that she could get him to utter more than two words; Coolidge looked over and said, “You lose.” He was not an activist president, but as one biographer said, he was what the country wanted in those times, and he did clean up the scandals left from Harding’s watch, known to history as “The Teapot Dome.” He won election in his own right in 1924, winning with a substantial percentage of both the popular vote, as well as the Electoral College. He suffered a terrible tragedy while in office, as one of his sons died of blood poisoning. The country suffered along with it’s bereaved president. He could have undoubtedly run again in 1928 and won, but Coolidge was tired. Reporters were gathered and the president, in typical fashion, made a right to the point one line announcement that he would not run for president in 1928. He then walked away. His less than dynamic personality was always good for a laugh, and even a few years later when he died, the dour Yankee took a hit; one reporter, when told, “Calvin Coolidge is dead,” replied, “How can you tell?”

In 1920, Democrats, including casual friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, tried to persuade Herbert Hoover to run for president. Only then did Hoover acknowledge that he was a Republican. He joined the Republican nominating process late in the game, and lost out to the then popular Harding. In 1928, Hoover was one of the most admired men in the world and little stood in his way to receiving the Republican nomination. In the general election, Hoover easily defeated Democrat Al Smith and was sworn in as president in March 1929. (The swearing in ceremony wasn’t moved to the January 20th date, with which we’re familiar, until a few years later, in large part, due to The Depression, and the long period between the early November election and the March swearing in. It left a considerable time gap, where a president leaving office was truly a lame duck, as the country awaited the new administration and policies of the recently elected president. It was decided to narrow the time gap between the election and the assumption of office, and the January 20th date was selected.)

One of the other problems with the economic boom of the 1920s was that it was uneven. A large percentage of income went to wealthy people and Coolidge ensured that even more money would go to the wealthy by pushing tax cuts for people making more than a million dollars. About two-thirds of the Coolidge tax cuts went to wealthy people!!! (Again, just a reminder, while we still consider a million dollars a great deal of money, it was a HUGE sum in those times.) Productivity made tremendous gains during the 1920s, but workers saw only about a 7 or 8 percent gain in wages, while business profits soared by 60 to 65 percent!!! By around the time of the “Crash,” the top 1/10th of 1% of the population earned more than the entire bottom 42% of the population!!! A tremendous concentration of wealth!!! If such statistics sound familiar to you, they should, as the situation is similar in today's America, and it should scare the absolute hell out of you!

All Americans wanted the new appliances and automobiles, but eventually, modest income folks had spent themselves out, including with credit accounts. About the time that Hoover was taking the oath of office in March 1929, the economy was going into a stall. The stock market continued to soar, but underneath the economy was on shaky ground. Overextended consumers had to cut back on purchases just to be able to afford the payments on the items they had bought on credit. With fewer goods being sold, business inventories began to grow. At first, the stock market took virtually no notice of the general economic situation, as the frenzy to buy what were quickly becoming overvalued stocks continued, with the expectation that these stocks could be sold in the near future at a big profit. By September of 1929 the stock market began to see far less advances in prices, as some folks obviously felt that the surge in prices could not be maintained indefinitely into the future. By October, the stock market experienced a tremendous shift in sentiment, and the selling started. The problem was, with so many stocks bought “on margin;” that is, credit, once your stock’s price reached a certain level, a call came from your broker that you needed to put up more money, or the stock would have to be sold. Needless to say, not many people put up the money, thus more stocks were dumped onto the already reeling market. If they did put up more money, the plunge in prices meant that they didn’t put up enough money to cover the losses, and those stocks were also put up for sale. It was like an avalanche!!! The stock market ticker could NOT keep up with all of the selling, which only added to the confusion and panic. (There’s nothing like the lack of information to add to unease or panic. Just recall 9/11 for a moment. The country waited for another shoe to drop, which fortunately didn’t happen, but the unease of NOT having information and not knowing what might happen was terrifying to us.)

Okay, so what does all of this mean? Well, if you bought a thousand dollars worth of stock on margin, you needed only one hundred dollars down. (We’re not including any transaction fees, just to keep this all as simple as possible.) So, you now had stock worth a thousand bucks, but only a hundred dollars actually invested, which was your equity in the stock. Typically, your broker “loaned” you the other nine hundred dollars and held the stock certificate as collateral to secure the “loan.” Everything was fine as long as the price of your stock didn’t decline enough to threaten to wipe out your equity, but if that happened, your broker would call and tell you that you needed to pay him more money (to gain equity). Keep in mind, he’s on the hook for the other $900. If you did put up let’s say another $100, the plunge in stock prices ate up that equity in no time. The broker, in an effort to get his money back, then tried to sell the stock. Again, more problems; this just dumped more shares onto a market that was already overwhelmed by selling. I once asked some friends of mine a question to give them a little economics lesson. (Hey, I’m not called “Pontificating Randy” for nuthin’! Of course, I’ve also been called some other names, but I’ll leave those names to your imagination, or maybe you’ve already called me some of those names if you’ve read my articles!) My question was and is to you also: What do you have to have to sell anything? I’ll have the answer, right after a word from our sponsor. No wait! I mean I’ll have the answer in Part Three!!! See ya! I think I see some clouds of smoke rising from the tops of some noggins.

WORD HISTORY:
Lard-The ultimate origins of this word are uncertain. English borrowed the word in the 1300s from French "larde," which meant "pork, bacon. This came from Latin "lardum" (lard, bacon), and Latin may well have borrowed it from Greek "larinos" ("fat"). In English it means "the fat rendered and congealed from a swine."

The Great Depression Part One-B

The early 1920s saw a sharp economic downturn brought on by the economic adjustments of post World War One, then known as “The Great War” (Hey, if you called it World War I back then, that assumed that there would be at least a World War II, if not a whole series of world wars, and The Great War had also been given the “subtitle” of “The War to end wars,” an admirable but naïve notion). The President of the United States at the time, Warren G. Harding, not known as one of the stellar leaders of our history, took action, although minor action by today’s standards. You must bear in mind that in those times, “tampering” directly with the economy by government was a no-no, although today's Republicans seem bound and determined to stick to that rule, while not taking responsibility for the consequences. The government just didn’t intervene and this was not a Democratic or Republican idea, but just plain old economic orthodoxy. Harding, however, had appointed one of the best known men in the world as his Secretary of Commerce, one Herbert Hoover.

Hoover, born in Iowa, was orphaned at an early age and was then raised by his strict Quaker relatives. He attended Stanford University and became an engineer, not the “choo, choo” kind, but a mining engineer. While at Stanford, Hoover served as class treasurer (I believe that was the position, if I remember right), and this was his only “elective” office, if you can call it an office, that he held until he was elected President of the United States. He supported Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive third party candidacy in the election of 1912. He started out making two dollars a day in mines, as I recall reading, but he later was promoted, and later still owned a mining company himself. Eventually he became worth somewhere in the neighborhood of four million dollars, which would be nice to have even today, but it was a VERY considerable sum in those days, and also a considerable sum for a man only in his thirties to have earned. He was pretty much the epitome of the American "rags to riches" story.

Hoover was given a position in Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s administration, and although he didn’t disclose his political affiliation, most people thought him to be a Democrat. During “The Great War,” even before America became formally involved, Hoover was given a crucial role in providing food and essentials to people in Belgium, and then later elsewhere in Europe. It has been said that Hoover and his workers helped save the lives of millions of people. He became a worldwide hero, even having streets named for him in foreign countries. When Harding was elected president in 1920, he named Hoover to be his Secretary of Commerce. Hoover, a workaholic, made the Commerce Department one of the premier agencies of the Federal Government by gathering business statistics and information to follow economic trends. It is my understanding that many of his innovative ideas continued at the Commerce Department for many decades after he had left the office.

Hoover had been working on theories to combat economic downturns and one of his ideas was to provide temporary work, such as public works jobs, to provide employment to those who had lost jobs in the private economy; thus the workers kept much of their purchasing power, and they provided a service to the nation. When the economy turned down in Harding’s first year as president, Hoover persuaded him to provide public works employment, which he did. The program was VERY modest by any standards we’ve used since those times, but the significant thing was, it was a new idea, even a bold idea. The economy recovered in less than a year, although how much Hoover’s small public works program helped is debatable. Thereafter began what came to be called “The Roaring Twenties.”

Many new electrical appliances and devices, as well as Americans’ developing love affair with the automobile, helped send the economy soaring to new heights. The problem was, not everyone shared in the economic boom of those times. One of the big problems within the American economy during the 1920s was in agriculture. American farmers frequently produced more foodstuffs than was good for their own financial well-being. During, and for a while after the war, our farmers planted an abundance of crops, since they were helping to feed many people in Europe. Gradually, as Europe recovered, Europeans needed less and less American farm products, but our farmers kept planting too many crops, and consequently, agriculture prices plunged and remained low throughout the rest of the decade. As is frequently the case, this event didn’t happen in a vacuum, and as America’s farmers struggled to stay afloat, banks, especially those in agricultural areas, found themselves in trouble, too. Keep in mind, during our history, the percentage of Americans engaged in, or in a fairly major way connected to, agriculture, has been decreasing, but during the 1920s, the percentage was far, far greater than it is today; thus when farmers sneezed, many others caught cold.

There were literally hundreds of thousands of banks in America during that era. Many were small and served rural areas and small towns. These were NOT the banks we think of today, with a relatively few large bank holding companies controlling so much of the banking industry nationwide. If you remember the banks depicted in many of our Old West movies and television shows, like “Gunsmoke” or “Bonanza,” those banks were more typical of many small communities, and even of the neighborhoods of the larger communities of those times. With so many farmers in financial trouble, the banks in agricultural areas suffered, too, as farmers were a big part of their business. While many Americans were experiencing the “Roaring Twenties,” thousands of mainly small banks were failing. While most Americans paid little notice to the ongoing failures within the banking system, it was an ominous sign of things to come further down the road. Over time, some farmers gave up, or lost, their farms, and moved into towns and cities, where many took jobs in America’s growing manufacturing sector. While there were still many areas of the country without electricity, things like radios, washing machines, and refrigerators were some of the new products that captured the attention of so many Americans, and American industry had these products and many others rolling off the assembly lines. The wages of many Americans weren’t all that great, but another marketing technique was quickly catching on; “buy now, pay later,” “by on time,” “put it on tick;” that is, credit. Up until then, credit was NOT a common way to buy things; in fact, it went against the grain in many folks. Just compare that to today, where the average American owes thousands of dollars in credit bills, and that doesn’t count mortgages. With most appliances and automobiles costing more than average people could afford to pay cash for, businesses opened charge accounts to allow the purchase of products, with customers making regular payments over a period of time. The desire for many of the new goods of the day overcame the “pay cash” upbringing of many folks, and they opened charge accounts; products flew off of the shelves and out of the showrooms of businesses around the country. As factories bustled, this helped put the "roar" into the "Roaring Twenties."

All of this business activity and the accompanying profits had some people looking for a way to cash in on the booming economy. The stock market gradually caught the attention of many, and stocks in all of the major companies headed to the upside. With many folks raking in good profits on Wall Street, other Americans began to test the waters. What was working for people to buy refrigerators was now used for people to buy stocks, credit; it was called “margin,” or “buying on the margin.” The idea was, if you wanted a thousand dollars worth of stock, you put up one hundred dollars and the balance was “secured” by the value of the stock. As the stock market boomed, no one seemed to consider that stocks would ever go anywhere but up in price. More and more Americans joined the frenzy on Wall Street. But what if stocks actually came down in price?

WORD HISTORY:
Clean-This word goes back to Indo European "gel/glei," which had the notion of "gleam, shine brightly." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "klainiz," which meant "bright, clear;" thus also,
"pure." Gradually, in addition, the idea of "tender, delicate" developed; thus, "dainty." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "claene," which seems to have retained only the original Germanic sense of "pure, clean." This then became "clene," before the modern version. Common in most of the other Germanic languages, where the "clean, pure" idea died out, but the "dainty" idea came to the fore. English is the only Germanic language to keep the original idea of "clean, pure." In the other West Germanic languages (English is West Germanic) forms of the word mean "small," from the notion of "dainty." German has "klein," Low German has "kleen," Dutch has "klein," North Frisian (now approaching extinction) has "klien," all with the meaning "small." The word seems to have died out in still healthy West Frisian. North Germanic Icelandic has "klénn" and Swedish has "klen," both with the general meaning "weak, feeble," from the notion of "dainty." Apparently forms of the word have died out in Norwegian and Danish (also both North Germanic).

The Great Depression, Part One-A

This is a minimally revised article first published on August 24, 2007. It has been my intention for quite some time to republish articles that originally did not have a "Word History," and to add such to each. This series on the "Great Depression" was my first "hit" as a blogger, as it drew the largest number of readers to this site up to that time. I will be posting the other parts of the series, in sequence, over the next week or so, but it is possible I will intersperse non-related articles too. I generally try to keep articles relatively short, something I did not always do back at the time this series was published, so I will split previous longer articles into smaller parts to keep them more manageable for readers; thus, the original "Part One" will be divided into "One-A" and "One-B." In the case of the Great Depression, no one series of articles can do justice to such a subject; in fact, volumes have been written on the subject and they have not been adequate in explaining this complex subject and historical era. Anyway.....

Hopefully we won’t experience an event like the Great Depression ever again, but the subject is always appropriate, if for no other reason than to serve as a reminder that we need to be vigilant about economic matters and the excesses that can occur within our system. There are literally tons of books on the subject, as the Great Depression, traumatic event that it was, has been studied by many in the decades since it occurred. Economics is not an easily understood subject, and this article is NOT the “definitive” history or analysis of the Great Depression. For a good overview of the Great Depression, I highly recommend Robert S. McElvaine’s “The Great Depression, America, 1929-1941.” His book doesn’t use a lot of the economic jargon and all of the technical talk that few understand. It is more of a history, than an economics book, but with easily understood economic information. I also highly recommend the chapters on Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt in “The American Political Tradition,” by Richard Hofstadter.

Many years ago I did a term paper on the Great Depression for a class in economics in college (ah, that was well after the Great Depression, so no wisecracks). That doesn’t make me an expert, but it was and is a topic that has always held an interest for me; then too, when I was younger, most adults of the time had lived through that era, and the scars were still evident. In those times, you seldom heard the term “The Great Depression” used by average folks; it was simply “The Depression,” and everyone understood exactly what that meant. When the stock market was mentioned, some folks still cringed, even though they never owned a share of stock in their lives, nor did they even really understand about stocks in general, but the memory of “The Crash” was still vivid to them. When I was in high school our class pitched in and bought ONE share of stock which we followed during the school year. I don't recall the company, but I then bought four shares of a company myself (actually my dad had to sign and act on my behalf, as I was not a legal adult) out of money I saved from my after school and weekend job. My mother knew absolutely nothing about stocks, but she was totally terrified, believing that those four shares and the one owned by our high school class could bring destitution to all of us. That was the terrifying impact the stock market crash and "the Depression" had on the psyche of many people.

WORD HISTORY:
In-This common word is often a preposition, but it can also be an adverb, adjective and even rarely a noun. It goes back to Indo European "en," which indeed meant "in." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "in," which in turn gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "in," although its meaning was much broader in those times, with the additional meanings of "on, at, amidst," but the meaning began to narrow after about 1000. Interestingly the spelling has remained intact for many, many centuries in English, as is has too in its closest other Germanic relatives: German, Low German, Frisian, and Dutch all have "in," and the somewhat more distant North Germanic relatives (Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian) all have "i," having lost the "n" sound.

We Can't Compare Now to 2007

Just a little spiel about the economy: the economic crisis and virtual collapse that occurred in the early fall of 2008 actually started out as a downturn in late 2007.^ Escalating housing prices, called a "bubble," as well as escalating stock prices, ah... called a "bubble," escalating oil prices, ah... called a "bubble," escalating personal debt of all types, and escalating government debt at all levels, which helped "cover up" the true weakness in the American economy, all contributed to an economy ripe for a major collapse. While unemployment was relatively low, many workers were struggling to meet obligations, as debt and low or stagnant wages put a crimp in the pocketbooks of many Americans, although not the wealthiest among us, who continued to reap the rewards of all of the above named problems, as they continued to "rape" the rest of us.

With the collapse of a couple of big banks and the teetering on the brink of collapse by others, the "bubbles" burst, and the economy and the stock market took a downward plunge, as unemployment went in the opposite direction, an upward spiral. The administration of President George W. Bush, previously devoted to "free markets," suddenly, but CORRECTLY, saw the need for GOVERNMENT ACTION. Thus began a period, which continued and escalated in the Obama administration, of action by the federal government to halt and stabilize the economy.^^

Now in the spring of 2012, we are better off, but problems remain, as we are tied more than ever to outside influences. History shows us that the effects of such dramatic downturns linger for years, and this downturn has been no exception. The reasons are really common sense. People defaulted on all sorts of loans, including millions of mortgages, and the use of credit actually shrank, sometimes by consumer choice, sometimes because terrified credit providers would not grant credit. Unemployment has declined, but it is still relatively high, and it may well remain that way for a while, even if economic matters continue to improve. One of the key problems worldwide will be how to reduce government debt and wean the world economy off of deficit spending by governments. The wheels could come off again, if some nations are unable to deal with their debts in a responsible way. American deficits have been declining, but they are still high. No one person or group of people have the answer to these problems, and don't believe anyone who says they can snap their fingers and all will be well. There are many irresponsible people who want to do away with the minimum wage, cut wages and benefits for workers, pretty much outlaw unions, etc, etc. If you notice, these are things about non-wealthy people. As soon as someone mentions tax hikes on wealthy people, these same people go ballistic, claiming the economy can't take any tax hikes. Folks, many of the wealthiest Americans have been doing better in the last couple of years than EVER, and this has been in a slow to moderate economic recovery. The idea that the rest of us can give up things, and that doesn't hurt the economy, but that a few hundred thousand dollars in taxes on people making millions will somehow bring the economy to a standstill is NONSENSE. We heard all of this before, and not all that long ago, in the early part of the Clinton administration, which proposed higher taxes on the well off. The doomsayers and protectors of great wealth told us the end was near, but the economy did the exact opposite, it BOOMED! Don't be fooled.

And another thing, we can't compare the economy of 2007/2008 with the economy in 2012, unless we're all ready to go on another credit binge. HOPEFULLY, many people have learned some lessons, so don't be fooled by those who say, "but in 2007," or "in 2008." Do you want to revisit that perilous time? Further, the devastating earthquake in Japan and the Gulf oil spill hurt the American economy at a time it was seemingly on the mend. Debt problems in certain European countries have made world financial markets jittery, as has a slowdown in China's economy, so continued progress for the American economy is far from certain.

^ The Great Depression started as a downturn in the early summer of 1929, but it didn't begin to turn into a rout until October of that year. For more on the Great Depression, see my series on the subject beginning with: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2007/08/great-depression-part-one.html

^^ There were similar actions taken in other countries, as the economic collapse was not just in America, but worldwide.

WORD HISTORY:
But-This little and very common word is actually from a compound, "be," not the modern word, rather what became modern "by," and "utana," a Germanic relative of "out," which meant "out, outside." I covered "by" elsewhere, http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/10/german-military-leadersnazi-erajodl.html . "Utana" traces back to the Indo European root "ud/ut." West Germanic* had the compound word "bitana," which meant "by the outside, at the outside." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "butan," which meant "outside of;" thus also, "besides, except." It wasn't until the 1200s that the word gained more popular usage as a conjunction, as it previously was purely adverbial. Later the word became "boute(n)/buten," before the modern version. Low German Saxon and Frisian have "buten," which still means "outside;" Dutch has "buiten," with the basic meaning "outside," although also with the meaning "but," in certain circumstances. High German once had a form, BUT it died out before the modern era.

* Germanic has three branches: North, East and West. English is West Germanic, and therefore its closest Germanic relatives are German, Low German, Frisian, Dutch, and Afrikaans.

Field Marshal Mannerheim of Finland/Final

"Gustaf Mannerheim"
Gustaf Mannerheim was born into a noble family in southwestern Finland. He was of German-Swedish descent. He attended military (cavalry) school in St. Petersburg, Russia,* and then served in an Imperial Guard unit. Later he served with honor in the war between Russia and Japan (1904-05),** a war which ended with the mediation of American President Theodor Roosevelt.*** He served in the Russian cavalry during World War One and was decorated for his services. Mannerheim, a supporter of the Tsar, was later relegated to the reserves in the aftermath of the Tsar's abdication in March 1917, and he returned to Finland at the end of that year, by which time the Bolsheviks had overthrown the so called "Provisional Government."****

Revolutionary turmoil in Russia gave Finland the opportunity to declare its independence and Mannerheim was made commander-in-chief of the Finnish Army. The major effort of the army was to defend the government during a civil war with socialist and communist opponents. In 1919, Mannerheim was defeated in his attempt to become the first president of Finland.***** In the 1930s, Mannerheim was chairman of the National Defense Committee, which attempted to build up Finland's armed forces. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in the late fall of 1939, Mannerheim was named Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish armed forces. After inflicting severe losses on the Soviet invaders, the Finns were forced to sign an armistice and cede territory to the Soviet Union in 1940. This brought Finland closer to Germany, as the Finns needed a strong ally against any further Soviet aggression. When Hitler's armies invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Finnish forces participated in the invasion, but with the limited objective of regaining lost Finnish territory. In a secret visit to Finland in 1942, Hitler tried to get Mannerheim, then in his early 70s, and the Finnish government to provide more military forces against the Soviets, a commitment they, at Mannerheim's urging, would not give. The old marshal always tried to keep himself at a comfortable distance from Hitler and the Nazis.

When the tide of war turned in favor of the Soviet Union, Mannerheim became President of Finland in the aftermath of the resignation of Risto Ryti. His appointment was made by special order of the Finnish parliament, as the critical wartime situation could not allow an election. Mannerheim proceeded to negotiate Finland's exit from the war, although the Soviets forced the Finns to wage war on German forces withdrawing from Finland. With the war over and Mannerheim's health in decline, he resigned the presidency in 1946. He died at age 83 in January 1951, highly respected even by former adversaries.

* Finland was part of the Russian Empire, but with a strong degree of regional independence.

** Essentially Russia and Japan both wanted Korea and Manchuria and they fought a war over it. Russia was heavily favored, but the distance from Russian supply, manpower, and naval bases, which were in European Russia, helped give the better led and motivated Japanese forces an advantage. After stunning defeats with heavy casualties, many Russians turned against the war, as they saw little worth fighting for in the Far East. A large part of the Russian population was illiterate or semi-literate, and they knew little if anything about Korea or Manchuria. Revolution broke out, but it was eventually contained.

*** Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The treaty ending the war was signed in Maine.

**** There were TWO revolutions in Russia in 1917. The first revolution in the late winter of 1917 caused the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, and brought an end to Romanov rule in Russia. The new government was left-leaning, but still supported the war effort against Germany and Austria-Hungary, which proved to be a fatal mistake. The terrible casualties and the economic distress caused by the war helped the Bolsheviks to launch another revolution in the fall of 1917, bringing them to power, although it took them several years of civil war to really consolidate their rule over the entire country.

***** Mannerheim's service in the Russian army made him suspect to some Finns, as did his conservatism.

 Photo is a public domain photo of Gustaf Mannerheim, 1940 (from Wikimedia)

WORD HISTORY:
Whelp-I'll bet many of you have heard or seen this word, but you didn't know what it meant. This word means "pup" or "young animal, cub, usually from the canine family," and is now more of a rarity today, as "pup, puppy and cub" have all overtaken it. Its ultimate origins are uncertain, but Old Germanic had "hwelpaz," which then gave Old English "hwelp," which then became "whelp" by the Middle English period and it has remained such ever since. German has "Welf(e), but it is archaic, replaced more commonly by "Welpe"^ (puppy, pup), Dutch has "welp" (lion cub), Danish has "hvalp" (pup, cub), Norwegian has "valp" (pup, puppy), Swedish has "valp" (puppy), Icelandic has "Hvolpur" (puppy). I did not find a form in modern Frisian, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

^ Standard German is heavily based upon "high" dialects, and "Welf(e)" is from the high dialects (thus the "f" in place of "p"), but in this case, "Welpe," from the low dialects, overtook it, and is now considered standard.

Field Marshal Mannerheim of Finland

"Finland & Gustaf Mannerheim" 

First some background on Finland: Finland is known as "Suomi" in Finnish. The Finnish language is non-Indo European,* being from the "Uralic" family of languages, which includes two other prominent national languages, Hungarian and Estonian, besides several other smaller languages, most spoken in Finland and Estonia. "Uralic" refers to the Ural Mountains, a mountain range in Russia considered by many to be the dividing point between Europe and Asia, and the region is generally believed to be the ancestral homeland of "Uralic." Finnish vocabulary has been influenced by the Indo European languages around it, but it gave English one well known word, "sauna" (close Finnish relative Estonian has "saun"). Finland was part of the Tsarist Russian Empire during the 1800s until the end of 1917. While the Tsar was the head of state of Finland, the area enjoyed a degree of independence within the Russian Empire. When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in November 1917, the (broad) political right and the (broad) political left in Finland clashed in a relatively brief civil war, with the right winning. Finland became a republic and elected a president in 1919. 

Tensions with the successor to the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, exploded in the fall of 1939,** as Soviet dictator Josef Stalin wanted Finland to cede territory to the Soviet Union to protect the major Soviet city of Leningrad*** by moving the border further from the city. The Soviet proposal for territorial adjustments were rejected by Finland and the Soviet Union invaded Finland. The Finns fought back in a gallant effort to defend their country, and in doing so, they gained the admiration of many people around the world. In the end, the Soviets, though staggered by heavy casualties, poured in more troops and equipment and the Finns had to come to terms with the Soviets.**** This moved Finland diplomatically closer to potential powerful ally Germany. When German dictator Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Finland participated as a German ally.***** After initial success and the encirclement of Leningrad, the war in northern Russia essentially stalemated. By the summer of 1944 war weary Finland wavered and came to an armistice agreement with the Soviet Union. Finland remains a democratic country to this day. The second part will give some info about Mannerheim. 

* About a 5% minority of the population of Finland speaks Swedish, which is a Germanic language akin to English, Norwegian, Danish, German and others. Swedish is recognized as one of Finland's national languages.

** There were a number of territorial issues pressed by the Soviet Union against Finland, but the main one involved the border area near Leningrad. 

*** Leningrad was the former Tsarist city of St. Petersburg. When the Soviet Union broke up, Leningrad was again named St. Petersburg. 

**** Historians refer to the war between Finland and the Soviet Union, fought in 1939-1940, as "the Winter War."

 ***** Britain declared war on Finland in late 1941, largely to show symbolic support for the Soviet Union. The actual conflict between Britain and Finland was minimal.

Photo of the flag of Finland (photo in the public domain from Wikimedia granted by author Jan Leineberg)

WORD HISTORY:

Nail-This word traces back to Indo European "nogh," which meant "claw, hoof, toenail." This gave Old Germanic "naglaz," with the same meanings, but also the sense of "metal spike/metal peg." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "naegel," which meant "finger or toe nail," and a variant "naegl," which meant "claw, toe nail, or metal spike." These later became "naile," as the "g" sound died out, and then the modern version "nail." The verb form came from Old Germanic "(ga)naglijan(an)," which gave Old English "næglan," which then became "nailen," before the modern version. Common throughout the other Germanic languages: German and Low German "Nagel," West Frisian "neil," Dutch "nagel," Icelandic "nögl," Norwegian "negl/nagl" (depending upon dialect), Swedish "nagel," and Danish "negl."

Archie Bunker Lives On

This was first published in April 2012

I suppose some people might not know who Archie Bunker was, although unfortunately, they probably know someone very much like him. Well, Archie was a character, played by Carroll O'Connor, on the highly popular CBS television comedy "All In The Family," which originally aired during the 1970s. At the end of the decade, the show, which had lost important cast members, was renamed "Archie Bunker's Place," and continued its run into the early 1980s. Reruns of the show have been on ever since. The show was set in the Queens section of New York City with Archie as a working class, socially and politically conservative guy who felt besieged by the changes taking place around him. He was a bigot who saw race, ethnicity or religion in all matters. He was Protestant and thought of himself as a religious man, although he rarely attended church, and his actions and statements towards others were usually anything but Christian. I suppose he could be called, "THE angry white man."

Other important characters in the show were Archie's wife, Edith, who was a bit scatterbrained, but always understanding, with a perception into other people's psychology, including that of her difficult husband, who called her a "dingbat." Then there was Gloria, their liberal daughter, who was married to Mike, a hippie-type liberal, whose Polish heritage was a waiting target for the bigoted Archie.

The show stunned many people back then by its treatment of long taboo subjects, like sex* and gay issues, and by its treatment of race, ethnicity and religion. Middle-aged and older people I was around back in those times seemed to view the show as too pro-liberal, but I think they often missed some of the digs at liberals. While the show's creator, Norman Lear, had the writers poke fun at Archie's bigotry and beliefs, he also had a sort of "soft spot" for Archie, which showed viewers why Archie was so angry at the world. In what was one of the best episodes, in my opinion, Archie is little seen (he goes to the neighborhood bar), but his presence is there, and the episode also took some shots at liberal Mike, and by extension, at many liberals. Edith, Gloria, Mike, plus black neighbor, Lionel, and a Catholic neighbor couple, the Lorenzos, get together at the Bunker home to play a game where a drawn card tells the player to give their true feelings about a certain other person. Mike and Lionel are paired back to back, and they are supposed to push against one another while telling each other their real feelings. Mike, always concerned about race relations in America, was always telling Lionel about race issue stories he had read or seen on television. Lionel tells Mike he doesn't always want to hear this kind of thing, and Mike says something like, "What do you want me talk about with you, the weather?" Lionel replies, "Yes, black people have weather too!" Thus the game begins and others take their shots at Mike, too. Edith tells him that he acts too stuck up at times (a shot at what conservatives see as "elitism"), and that she doesn't think it is right for him to make fun of Archie. Mike explodes and says everyone is picking on him. In just a great scene, Edith takes Mike into the kitchen to smooth over his hurt feelings. The usually happy Edith turns serious, and when Mike says something to the effect that he doesn't want to hear what she has to say, Edith gets firm and says, "You will listen!" She tells him that Archie is jealous of him because Archie had to quit school early on in his life to help support his family, and that "he's never going to be anymore than he is right now. But you're going to college and you can be anything you want to be; that's why Archie is jealous of you." A chastened Mike now gets it. All of these years later, and after seeing the episode in reruns, that one scene sticks in my mind above all others.

Archie Bunker lives on in some, if not many, of the views of untold Americans; I suppose in all of us to varying degrees, but I hear some very disturbing comments coming from zealots in one political party, especially.** We're jealous and afraid, real human feelings. We see people who look or sound different from us doing well, and it scares us or makes us resentful. The question is, will we let these feelings inside of us hold us back, or indeed, take us back in time, or will we try to overcome our fears and live together as a true nation.

* For those too young to have lived through those times, you can't even imagine how groundbreaking "All In The Family" really was on many topics, and watching reruns or DVDs can't convey the attitudes that had prevailed up to that time. Sex topics were so restricted on television back then, that married couples were shown sleeping in separate beds and women had to cover their navels. All In The Family's creator, Norman Lear, also had other hit shows after All In The Family's initial success: "Sanford and Son," "Maude" (from a character first introduced to the public on All In The Family and played by the great Bea Arthur), "Good Times," and "The Jeffersons."

** A Michele Bachmann comment about doing away with the minimum wage to reduce unemployment is very troubling to me, and it should be to you, too. I think such talk would even shake Archie's conservative beliefs, and he might even have called her a "dingbat," a term far too kind for a person of her nasty ilk.

Photo is from the 2002 Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Earnest-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, but Old Germanic had "ernustiz," which indicated "vigorous, intense feeling, seriousness, zealous in battle." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "eornoste," with essentially the same meanings, but the meaning began to be altered and confined through time to the present "serious." This later became "ernest," before the modern version. While I am not totally certain of this, apparently forms of the word have died out in North Germanic (Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Danish), but the West Germanic part of Germanic still has forms, all with the meaning "serious": German has "ernst," some Low German has "eanst," (no "r"), some Low German has "eernst," West Frisian "earnstich," and Dutch "ernstig."

Marshal Antonescu of Rumania, Final

NOTE: I failed to mention in the previous article that the Rumanian language is a Latin-based language, which are often called "Romance languages;" meaning, "languages derived from the language of Rome." These languages are part of the Indo European family of languages, and this means Rumanian is related to English, although further down the family tree. Besides its Latin base, Rumanian has borrowed a fair percentage of words from Slavic and also from German, as German settlers inhabited part of Rumania, especially Transylvania (Siebenbürgen in German), and part of Rumania was under German administration through the Habsburg family.

"Ion Antonescu" Part Two/Final

Antonescu was born in a town somewhat to the northwest of Bucharest, the capitol of Rumania. He attended military school and then entered the military in the cavalry, earning commendations from the monarchy for his role in squelching socialists. So early on, Antonescu showed himself as a man of the political right. During World War One, Rumania fought on the Allied side, but the war was pretty much a disastrous affair for the Rumanians, although Antonescu served his nation well and was promoted. After the war, Antonescu set down his views in writing on the unification of Rumanians and about Rumanian expansionism.* He was appointed chief of staff of the army in the early 1930s. Disputes with King Carol II brought a (forced?) resignation by Antonescu, but it also brought him more prominence throughout the nation. He began close contacts with the fascist and right wing organizations that were growing in Rumania, organizations which tended toward anti-Jewish sentiments.

Antonescu was appointed Defense Minister and the failure of Rumania's two main allies, Britain and France, to stand up to Adolf Hitler's territorial acquisitions brought Antonescu and the political right to question the actual value of these allies against the Soviet Union, which they saw as more of a threat to Rumania. They began to look to Hitler as much more of a reliable ally to oppose the Soviets. The German-Soviet Pact of 1939 put Rumania into a serious situation, as Germany and the Soviet Union essentially became allies. One of the secret provisions of the pact gave the Soviets leeway to move into the former territories of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia and Bukovina. This led Hungary to propose and enter into negotiations with Rumania over Transylvania, but the negotiations got nowhere and Germany and Italy were asked to arbitrate, which resulted in Hungary acquiring the northern portion of Transylvania. King Carol, growing more unpopular by the day and threatened by protests, appointed Antonescu as Prime Minister, but with additional powers taken from the King, who finally abdicated in favor of his son, Michael, who was left more or less as a figurehead. Antonescu joined with the Iron Guard (Rumanian: "Garda de fier"), a fascist, pro-Rumanian Orthodox, anti-Jewish political party to rule the country, but just months later, an Iron Guard uprising against Jews and government officials was crushed when Antonescu, with support from Hitler, used the army to restore order.

Antonescu's fervent anti-communism and his developing closeness to Hitler led Rumania into war against the Soviet Union in June 1941.** In August 1944 Antonescu was arrested on the orders of the king. He was taken into custody by the Soviets who sent him to Moscow, but then returned him to Rumania for trial in 1946. He was found guilty and executed by firing squad that year.***

* The Kingdom of Rumania prior to the end of World War One did not include substantial portions of ethnic Rumanians, who lived in parts of Hungary (Transylvania), the emerging state of Yugoslavia (an area known as the Banat), and the former Russian Empire (Bessarabia and Bukovina), which was developing into the Soviet Union at that time. At the end of the war, with the defeat of Austria-Hungary and the turmoil in the Soviet Union, the territories of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina joined Rumania, and these changes were then confirmed by various postwar treaties, although Hungary and the Soviet Union did not forget, and these lands became a matter of tensions between Rumania and these two neighbors.

** There is a brief summary of the war in "Part One" of this article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/04/marshal-antonescu-of-rumania.html

*** One of the charges against Antonescu was his complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Rumanian and Soviet Jews. Under Antonescu, Rumania adopted many anti-Jewish measures similar to those of the Nazis , including requiring Jews to wear a yellow Star of David patch.

WORD HISTORY:
Loose/-less-"Loose" and the suffix "-less," as in "homeless," are closely related to "lose, loss, and the "lorn" of "forlorn." They go back to Indo European "leu/lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "lausaz," which meant "loose, free of." This gave Old Norse, a North Germanic language,^ "lauss," with the same basic meanings. This was then borrowed into English, circa 1200, as "lous(e)/los," and this later became "loose." The verb form "loosen" developed in the second half of the 1300s and later became "lousen," before the modern version. The same Old Germanic word "lausaz" gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leas," which meant "false, lying," from the notion of "free of validity or truth." This word is now obsolete, but it spawned the suffix "-less," from the original meaning "free of," which gave it the meaning "lacking, not having, without." The suffix form is NOT related to the word "less" which means "fewer." The other Germanic languages have close relatives to the above English words: German has "los" (loose, free, released) and the suffix "-los" ("heimatlos"="homeless," for example); Dutch has "los" (loose), "loos" (false, invalid, empty [from notion "lacking"]) and suffix "-loos;" West Frisian has the suffix "-leas;" Danish has "løs" (loose) and suffix "-løs;" Swedish has "lös" (loose); Icelandic has "laus" (loose); Norwegian has løs/laus (loose), depending upon dialect, and suffix"-løs;" Swedish has lös (loose) and suffix "-lös."

^ Germanic is divided into West Germanic, which includes English, German, Dutch, Frisian, Yiddish, and Afrikaans; North Germanic, which includes Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Faroese; and the now "deceased" (bow your heads) East Germanic, which had Gothic, Vandalic and Burgundian.

Marshal Antonescu of Rumania

"Ion Antonescu" Part One

Background on Rumania: First, I prefer the spelling "Rumania," but "Romania" has become more popular in English in recent decades. Next, Rumanian history is highly complex and thus beyond the scope of this article, although I may do another article giving a bit of this southeastern European country's earlier history. Rumania (a "kingdom") fought on the side of the Allies in World War One. The resulting post-war treaties gave Rumania more territory, much of it with Rumanian majorities, but with non Rumanian minorities, but the ceding countries, Hungary and the Soviet Union (successor to the Russian Empire), were unhappy with the territorial adjustments, and tensions remained. During the 1920s and 1930s right wing and fascist movements arose in many European nations, and Rumania was no exception, with the political right growing in power by the latter 1930s, encouraged by the success of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and his expansion of German territory in eastern Europe. There was also a rise in Rumanian feelings against Jews and Gypsies (Roma/Romani).

Hitler's successes brought about a simultaneous decline in the influence on Rumanian foreign policy by Rumania's traditional allies, Britain and France. Highly anti-Soviet, Rumania's political right saw Hitler as the best bet to keep Rumania from Soviet influence or domination. Hitler's agreement with Soviet leader Josef Stalin just prior to the beginning of what became World War Two gave the Soviet dictator leeway to take over former Russian territories from Rumania in 1940. King Carol II brought many pro-German/anti Soviet rightists into the government, but it could not save him, and he abdicated in favor of his son, Michael. Military strongman Ion Antonescu became dictator and in November 1940, Rumania joined the pact directed against communism (the Anti-Comintern),* but especially directed against the Soviet Union, the major source of communist influence in those times. So Rumania joined other pact members Germany, Italy, and Japan. Germany supplied military advisers to help modernize the Rumanian military, and the presence of actual German military units in Rumania continued to increase. Rumania had substantial oil and refining facilities, extremely important to oil-dependent Germany.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Rumanian forces joined in the attack, as Rumania sought to recover the lost territories, and to even gain additional lands. In mid November 1942 the Soviets launched a massive offensive directed at Rumanian troops, bolstered to some degree by German troops, on either side of the German Sixth Army in the Soviet city of Stalingrad. The Soviet forces broke through the Rumanian lines and proceeded to encircle German and Rumanian forces in Stalingrad. The resulting surrender of these troops brought a pronounced increase to the prospects of an Axis defeat in the war. With Allied bombings of the Rumanian oil fields, of Bucharest (the capitol), and the with the approach of Soviet forces, Rumanians, led by King Michael, overthrew Antonescu in August 1944. Rumania then changed sides. Soviet occupation brought a decidedly pro-Communist government to power and King Michael abdicated in 1947. Rumania remained under Communist rule until December 1989 when revolution brought down the government of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who was tried an immediately executed (along with is wife). Since those times Rumania has joined the ranks of democratic nations. About a half million Americans claim at least some Rumanian ancestry, per the 2000 Census, and Greater Cleveland is home to a fair number of those people.

* The Comintern was a shortened form of "Communist International," dating from 1919, an organization advocating the spread of communism.

"Part Two" will contain some basic information on Antonescu.

WORD HISTORY:
Note: I will return to words related to "lose" in the next article, but since I mentioned "solve" in the last article, I decided to do it first.
Solve-The Latin ancestor of this word was a compound (se-leu/se-lu) of Indo European "s(w)e," a pronoun essentially meaning "we, ourselves," and Indo European "leu/lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate," the same ancient ancestor of English "lose, loose, loss, (for)lorn, and the suffix -less." This gave its Latin offspring "solvo," meaning "undo, loosen," and this then produced Latin "solvere," with the same basic meaning, but with the additional "become free of a problem," which seems to have had emphasis on "becoming free of debts;" thus the derived word "solvent," one of the meanings of which is "able to pay debts," but also "a liquid that loosens (usually) solid materials." English borrowed "solve" in the 1400s as "solven," by which time the word was also taking on more of the meaning "undo or dissipate a problem," its more common meaning ever since.

Poison Gas & The War On Innocents

Having done a couple of articles on poison gas, I can't finish with the subject without covering the Nazi use of poison gas against innocent, defenseless people, namely Jews and Gypsies (also known to some as the "Romani" or "Roma").* The Nazis murdered many other people, and this article is not meant to diminish their loss, but Jews and Gypsies were specifically targeted for eradication by the insane Nazi racial nonsense, just because of their heritage. Many Gypsies and many Jews lived in communities together in various countries, although they learned the language and customs of their respective country.** Most of these people came to view themselves as being true citizens of the country in which they lived, in spite of periods of persecution, including some outbreaks of intense violence. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, persecution of minorities, especially German Jews, intensified, coming into full view for the world to see in November 1938 with the "Kristallnacht," "the night of broken glass," when Nazi thugs broke into Jewish businesses and religious facilities throughout Germany (which then included Austria, and Vienna had a substantial Jewish population). Many Jewish properties were burned or otherwise severely damaged, many Jews were hauled off to concentration camps, and others were killed.

The Nazis were murderers long before they started using poison gas, but the conquest of much of Europe, and especially of eastern European, where millions of Europe's Jews lived, brought them the desire to come up with a more "efficient" way to kill other human beings. They had tried mobile vans, pumping in carbon monoxide to kill their victims, but for the Nazi nutcases, led by nutcase-in-chief Adolf Hitler and his henchman, assistant nutcase, Heinrich Himmler, the process was much too slow. By 1941-42, the Nazis had discovered that using a cyanide-based pesticide gas, they could kill people faster than ever, an important point to these murderous bastards. The gas was called "Zyklon B," and it was kept in canisters. Usually pellets of the gas were dropped into fake shower rooms filled with victims. The most notorious of the sites where Zyklon B was used was "Auschwitz," a combination labor-extermination camp complex in a part of southeastern Poland annexed to Germany after Poland's defeat in 1939. The Nazis "sorted" people into those who could work, putting them into the labor camp areas, and into those they wanted to eliminate immediately. Once "workers" became too exhausted, sick or weak from malnutrition to work anymore, they too became expendable. The whole thing so boggles the mind, it is no wonder that many survivors and liberators feared the world would not believe such things had taken place. The Nazis used the poison gas in other camps too, but it was in Auschwitz where it has been figured that somewhere between about one and a half million to two and a half million people were gassed, with Jews being the overwhelming percentage of those killed. Records on how many Gypsies were gassed is not known, but it is estimated that about a quarter million Gypsies perished at the hands of the Nazi butchers, with quite a few of these victims having been gassed at Auschwitz.

* Gypsies or the Romani are a people who trace their roots back to India, and indeed, their language is from the Indo-Aryan part of the Indo European language family. English is part of the Germanic sub-branch of the Indo European languages, so Romani and English are related, although much further down the family tree. The Romani people migrated from India and many reached Europe at some point between 1000 and 1100.

** Jews were often forced by European "Christians" (I only use the term because that's what they called themselves) to live in particular areas of cities and towns, usually less appealing areas. Eventually these Jewish areas came to be called "ghettos." I plan to do an article, or a series of articles, on the history of ghettos very soon.

WORD HISTORY:
Lose-This word goes back to Indo European "leu" or "lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "lausam," with the same basic meanings. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "los," a noun which meant "loss," in the sense "total loss, destruction." From this came the verb "losian," which meant "to lose, to perish." Gradually "losian" overtook the then common word for "lose;" that is, its close relative, "leosan." "Losian" later became "losen" before the modern version. German has "lösen," which means "to solve or resolve (a problem)," from the original notion of 'undo,' and some Low German has "leese," also meaning "solve," Dutch has "oplossen" (also solve, resolve), West Frisian has "ferlieze" (lose), Norwegian and Danish have "løse" (solve), Icelandic has "leysa" (solve, also "untie") and Swedish has "lösa" (solve). Old English also had "liesan," from the same Germanic source. It meant, "to loosen, to free from something," but also had the the secondary meaning, "to redeem," perhaps from the notion of "loosening, or freeing something by giving up something." The related German word, "lösen," also has a secondary meaning of "buy a ticket" (usually for travel), and this is just purely speculation on my part, but tickets are often torn off or dispensed by machines, which ties in with the meanings of the Old English form "liesan."  Interestingly I could not find the Old English word for "solve" (English borrowed "solve"), but I've got to believe it was similar to its other Germanic relatives and thus would be related to "lose." I will keep checking. I will also do the history for "solve" very soon, and it may surprise you to learn that "solve" is distantly related to "lose."

Poison Gas Incident, World War Two

As a follow-up to the "Chemical Warfare 1919-1945" article,* I want to add this important information about an incident in late 1943.

The Allies invaded Italy in September 1943. By a pre-arranged agreement with the Allies, the Italian government surrendered.** After a bitter struggle, the Allies were able to advance inland as the Germans withdrew. Bari is a port city in southeastern Italy that was captured and then used by the Allies to bring in supplies. In early December 1943 the German Luftwaffe (airforce) launched a surprise raid on the port, destroying several ships, including one American ship carrying poison mustard gas. The information about the ship's poison cargo was a strict military secret, and within days of the raid hundreds of Italian civilians and Allied servicemen were treated for various conditions by doctors unaware their patients were suffering the effects of poison gas. How many people died as result of the poison gas is in dispute, as the German air raid was so successful, there were many other casualties from the bombing attack itself, and, as mentioned above, doctors were unaware they were treating people exposed to poison gas, which undoubtedly caused more deaths due to improper treatment, but the number of deaths range from a low of about 70 to a high in the many hundreds.

Allied leaders, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, had all information about the poison gas part of the incident suppressed, as it was feared Germany would assume the Allies had the poison gas brought in to launch a gas attack against German forces, or against Germany itself, thus prompting a German retaliatory attack. Near the end of the war the American military did admit to the presence of poison gas during the incident, but they also made clear the gas had been brought into only to give the Allies access to it in case of the need to retaliate against a German gas attack. To my knowledge, Winston Churchill never made such an admission, and it was only in the mid 1980s that the British government admitted to the poison gas being present. Documents about the matter were kept classified and it wasn't until nearly a couple of decades later that the records were declassified and then information was reported by historians.

* The link to that article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/03/chemical-warfare-1919-1945.html

** This Italian government had replaced the former Fascist government of dictator Benito Mussolini in late July 1943, and while it insisted Italy would continue as an ally of Germany, the government immediately entered into secret negotiations with the Allies for an armistice.

WORD HISTORY:
Lorn/Forlorn-"Lorn" goes back to Indo European "leu/lu," with the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave Old Germanic the verb "leusanan," with the meaning "to lose." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leosan," with the same meaning. Its participle form was "loren" (no Sophia or Ralph jokes, please!), and the notion of "lost" then began to convey the idea of "abandoned, left alone; thus lonely." The verb "leosan" (to lose) began to be overtaken in usage by its close relative, the ancestor of "lose," which I will cover soon. "Loren," which then became just "lorn," continued on, with the idea of "abandonment, being lonely." "Lorn" is now archaic, if not obsolete. The closely related compound "forlorn" and its Germanic relatives trace back to Old Germanic "fraleusanan," which also meant "to lose." This gave Old English "forleosan," which meant "to lose, to ruin, to abandon," and its participle was "forloren," which later became "forlorn." By the 1500s, the idea of "abandonment, loss" transferred the meaning to the result of these things; thus developed the meaning, "extreme sadness, miserable," a meaning exclusive to English, as its Germanic relatives all still retain the meaning(s) "loss, lost." West Frisian has "ferlies" ("loss"), German has "Verloren" (lost), some Low German dialect has "Feluss" (no "r," and note the second part's closeness to English "loss," which is its meaning), Dutch has "verloren" (lost) and "verlies" (loss), Swedish has "förlust" (loss) and "förlorad" (lost), Danish has "forlis" (loss; often used in compounds to specify "loss of a particular thing") and "forlise" (lost, wrecked), Icelandic has "villast" (lost), and Norwegian has "forlis" (loss).