Maybe Business People Are Not Anti-Communist

For all of my years, I always thought the wealthiest Americans and those involved in big business were fervent anti-communists. Lots of people in the labor movement, as well as politicians who supported help for those less than wealthy Americans in some form, have been called "communists" and "socialists," at times accompanied by the warning that any more help to such Americans would result in the end of the country. That's why I was so surprised, after all the hand wringing and name calling, that the wealthy and big business people at first began importing goods from .... CHINA, then they even moved plants, equipment and jobs there, getting around American laws and forcing down American wages. I'm not saying they carry little red flags with them, but maybe they wear red underwear, because the only symbol they really pay allegiance to is .... $$$.  

WORD HISTORY:
Clip (#1)-There are two words "clip" in English, and this is the one meaning "to grasp firmly, hold in place by applying a strong grasp." Its origin is unclear, but "seems" to go back to an Indo European form that also produced English "globe;" that is, a word or root with the meaning "to form into a ball, to put parts together into a whole." This then produced an unknown Old Germanic offspring (or perhaps a more specific West Germanic offspring), something on the order of "klepjanan" or "klupjanan." The meanings in the Germanic dialects "suggest a meaning" in Old Germanic of "to enclose, to surround." The derived noun forms in the Germanic languages seem to imply "distance between surrounding points." Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had "clyppan," which meant "to embrace;" that is, "to surround with the arms," which also led to a further meaning of "to cherish," from the idea of "embracing being an expression of affection." It also meant "to grip, to surround" (much like "embrace"). Old English had noun forms like "clypnes" and "clypping" (this being used in some compounds) meaning an "embrace." The verb form seems to have progressed to "clyppen/clippen," then to the modern form. The noun form meaning, while still obviously associated with "embracing," became more specific to "clasping something with a device," and also "the device used for securing something," as in the compound word "paperclip," but "clip" is also used as a stand alone word. German has "Klafter," which means "fathom," from the notion of "the distance between outstretched arms."^ Low German has "Klachter," with the same meaning as standard German, but I'm not sure why the change in to "ch." Old Frisian had "kleppa," which meant "embrace," Swiss German dialect has "Chlupfel/Klupfel," meaning "armful of hay."^^  
^ Modern standard German is heavily based upon Old High German, where some of the more "typical" Germanic sounds experienced a change or shift. In this case, the "p(p)" sound became "ft." As you can likely tell from the similarity between German and English, the German noun "Klafter" really equates to English "clipper," but English doesn't use that word for this form of "clip," but rather for the other form, meaning "to cut." I'll do that word soon.

^^ Swiss German dialect is also based on High German.

Cleveland Zoo Attendance Record

Reports on all of the local news programs say a new one day attendance record was set at the Cleveland Zoo, as about 35,700 attended the April 26 event, free to the public, but paid for and sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation. The previous one day record was about 24,700. For those who would like to visit the zoo at some time, but who have physical limitations, there is free tram service available. For more information about the Cleveland Zoo, the link is below. For info about the tram service, go to the website (link provided below), along the selections listed across the top, hover the cursor on "Visit," which will produce a drop down menu, click on "Guest Services," this will bring up a page with various choices, including "ADA Accessibility," click there.

http://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/Zoo/Zoo.aspx

The Struggles For Change Are Timeless

This was first published in April 2014.


I suppose way, way back in time, one group of early humans yelled over to another group of early humans in the next tree and said something like, "You know, if we go live in that opening over there in the side of that big clump of soil and rock, we could have protection from the weather, we won't have to worry as much about lightening and forest fires (after all, there was no "Smoky the Bear, as yet), we'd be safer from predators and we could go out to get our food right from there. Being on the ground, maybe could actually put some of the seeds in the soil and grow some of our own food." The other group likely gasped and replied, "Oh my, we've been swinging through the trees for years, if we were meant to live in such a place, we'd be there. We've survived all this time, we don't need to go changing anything. Don't go rocking the tree" (I guess they said that, because boats hadn't been invented yet), and besides, there are bats in that place. And you want us to go live in there? Why they'd come flying in, scaring the Neanderthal right out of us. No wonder our neighbor three trees down* told us you are dangerous with all your newfangled ideas. Yep, Rushes Limbbough warned us about you. He said no one's going to get him off his ass in a tree to climb down and go putting seeds in the soil. He only charged us a handful of nuts and a handful of berries to tell us that, too."

Change is tough, the bigger the change, the tougher it becomes. The struggle of women to even begin to fully integrate into American jobs didn't happen because a bunch of old, white businessmen suddenly woke up one day and said, "Gee, we've had a revelation, and we're going to hire more women, and we're even going to give some a chance at leadership positions." It took work and, yes, some confrontation, although World War Two provided women with the opportunity to enter jobs long seen as the preserve of men. While much of the prewar mentality returned when the war ended, things have never been the same, and women have made a long, slow climb into many jobs, including top corporate jobs, although they still lag behind men in many areas, as well as in pay in many jobs. In 2008 Democrats had an epic presidential nomination battle, pitting former First Lady Hillary Clinton against then Senator Barack Obama, a man of mixed black and white race. With Republicans in deep trouble at that time, the Democratic nominee was likely to be the next president, bringing either our first woman or first person of (known) black heritage to the presidency. While this thought was tantalizingly positive to some, it scared the absolute Neanderthal, ah, I mean, hell out of others. A guy I knew back then, a life long Democrat, was terribly upset over the choice in the Democratic primary, saying, "Some choice, a b----, or a n-----." His racism trumped his disdain for women, and he voted for Hillary in the primary, only to switch to McCain in the general election. I'm pretty certain he officially became a Republican after the election. Obama's election mobilized the racists and bigots who became determined to bring him down, even if it brought the country down in the process. Had Hillary Clinton been elected, it would have mobilized the Clinton haters, and those terrified of women in high places, to seek her demise.** We already had a prelude to a Hillary presidency, as Republicans relentlessly pursued both of the Clintons in the 1990s. Change scares some people because of its uncertainty, but it scares others, because they're afraid it will succeed.

* Compare that to the modern music group, "Three Doors Down."

** Not all opponents of Obama are racists or bigots, nor are all opponents of Hillary Clinton anti-women, but it speaks volumes that many of those who are such have gravitated to one political party.

WORD HISTORY:
Limb-This word is of uncertain heritage, although an Indo European root form, "elei/lei," with the notion ''bend, flexible," is a possibility. The Germanic forms seem, however, to be exclusive to Germanic, as there appear to be no known relatives in other languages, including those of Indo European derivation. Old Germanic had "lithuh," with the meaning of "extremity, appendage, body part." This gave Old English "lith," which meant "appendage, tree branch, joint, body part." A variant of the Old Germanic word, "limuh," emerged, but why the change to "m" from "th" is unknown, but it too meant "body part, extremity, tree branch." This gave Old English "lim," a form which lasted for hundreds of years, before the ending "b" began to be used circa 1600, but with no apparent reason, although the same happened to "thumb" prior to "limb." Could it have been, in both cases, a dialect where the ending came out with a "b" sound pronounced? Or, in the case of "limb," it could have been a spelling influenced by Latin "limbus," and the derived "limbo," neither of which is related to English "limb." In most cases, the other Germanic languages have words resembling Old English "lith," a word no longer used in English, as "lim(b)" became the prevailing word, but Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "lem," for "limb,' and Icelandic has the compound "útlimum," for "limb."

Check Out Global Cleveland

For those looking for jobs, whether you live in Cleveland or in some other part of the world, or for those looking to relocate, this site will give you just about any information you'll need.

http://www.globalcleveland.org/

WORD HISTORY:
Globe-The ultimate origins of this word are unclear, but it "seems" to go back to some form that likely meant "form or shape into a ball," or "to put parts together into a whole." Latin had "glaeba," meaning "clump or clod of soil/earth." This then produced Latin "globus," meaning "ball, sphere." French, a Latin-based language, inherited a form of the word as "globe," with the same general meaning. English borrowed the word in the 1500s, likely form the French form, but reinforced by the overall Latin word, by which time the term was coming to be used for "Earth," the planet.

Stalingrad Movie Depicts Horror Of War, Part Two, The Movie

There have been a number of movies over the years about the titanic struggle at Stalingrad from late summer 1942 until early February 1943. The movie I'm referring to here is the German produced film of 1992, released in early 1993. The film is in German, but is available with English subtitles. It is available on DVD, released by Fox Lorber Home Video, it was directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. I want to be sure to say that the movie graphically depicts war, and if you are the least bit squeamish, you probably should not see it. Also, this is NOT a total scene by scene presentation of the movie, but rather some select scenes and a more general presentation, and there is much more to the movie than what I'll cover here. Remember, this is a movie based on the real battle of Stalingrad, but it is not a documentary; however, you can refer to "Part One" of this article for the general historical info.

This anti-war movie follows a platoon of German specialist combat engineers, known as "Sturmpioniere" ("storm" or "assault engineers"), who were trained for close combat and for the use of explosives, and who were equipped with a high proportion of automatic weapons (remember, this was World War Two, when such weapons were not as common as today). The movie opens with the men enjoying leave in Italy, after serving in North Africa, where their platoon commander was wounded. Their new commander is from the German nobility, as his name is "von" Witzland (played by Thomas Kretschmann); the "von" indicating the tie to the nobility. He has not seen combat, and one of the experienced men, known as "Rollo" (played by Jochen Nickel) makes a bet with him, that he will outlive the new lieutenant. As one of the other men points out, if one lives and one dies, how will the survivor collect from a dead man? Anyway, the lieutenant is idealistic, but even many of the more experienced men think they will be able to deal with the Russians handily. The brutality of the Eastern Front is seen immediately upon their arrival in Stalingrad, when they witness Russian POWs being beaten, kicked and bludgeoned, as they are marched off.* When the lieutenant protests the brutal treatment of the POWs to a nearby captain, the captain laughs at him.

The platoon is put into a special battalion with other assault engineers, and before going into battle, they attend a religious service, where the chaplain tells them what a duty it is to defend western civilization and Christian values against the "eastern" Bolsheviks, "who have no time for God." Of course the men of this platoon have just seen the Russian POWs beaten, with one being beaten to death and left lying in a mud puddle.

Off the battalion goes to take a large factory complex, which they do with heavy casualties. During the fighting inside the factory, one soldier (played by Sebastian Rudolph) is told to shoot anything that moves, but when he does so, it turns out to be his friend, who dies. The young man is distraught for killing his own friend, but when the fighting calms down, one of the more experienced guys (played by Dominique Horwitz) befriends him and cheers him up. In this calmer phase, we also learn that the battalion started the attack to take the factory with 400 men, but more than 300 became casualties. The radio man for the platoon (played by Heinz Emigholz) puts a speaker up so the men can hear a speech by Hitler in Munich; a speech in which Hitler mentions the Stalingrad fighting.** The disconnect of the speech and the cheering Nazis with the actual soldiers doing the fighting is evident by the looks on the faces of the men, and a comment or two. Fighting erupts again, as Soviet troops are right across the street in another building. The radioman is seriously wounded and the men carry him to a temporary hospital full of bloody, wounded troops, but staffed by only a few medical personnel. When one of the men points a gun at a medical attendant in an effort to get the radioman treatment, a captain (the same captain who laughed at the lieutenant's complaint about the treatment of POWs) has all the men arrested. We learn during this same time that the Soviets have launched a major offensive which is about to cut off the entire force in Stalingrad. As punishment for the hospital incident, the men are put into a "penal battalion" ("German: "Strafbataillon"), with the dangerous task of clearing minefields from the snow and ice. They are given a chance to "redeem" themselves by defending a sector where a Soviet attack is expected very soon. The men dig into the snow, and sure enough, here come Russian tanks, covered with Red Army infantry riding along. The battle scene is absolutely gory, as men are blown apart by shells and bullets from both sides. In the end the Germans halt the Soviets, but there are only a handful of the men left. They return to their camp believing they will get leave (it's the Christmas season ), only to be told that all leaves have been canceled. A German force trying to break through the Soviet lines to free the entrapped army is halted, and the men and the entire army await the inevitable end.

Survival now becomes paramount to some of the men, and three of them, including the now totally disillusioned lieutenant, try to board a plane leaving from the last operating airfield in Stalingrad. To do so, they find dead German soldiers (frozen to death) and remove their "wound tags" (German: Wundzettel), which have the authorized signature of a doctor. The rush of soldiers toward the plane (which turns out to be the last plane to take off from Stalingrad) leaves the men unable to get aboard and the plane departs. The men return to the camp, where their fellow platoon survivors are sheltering from the bitter cold. They hear a plane flying over and several of the men run outside, only to see the plane drop some supplies by parachute. They find some food, as well as useless things like medals. As they enjoy some of the food, who shows up but their nemesis, the captain from previous scenes. He pulls his pistol out and tells them he can have them shot for stealing army supplies. There is an exchange of gunfire and the captain is killed, but so is one of the men; the young man who had earlier accidentally shot his friend inside the factory. Before the captain is shot, he tries to bribe the men by telling them he can give them food and shelter in exchange for his life, but by telling them where this food is, they go there after killing him. They find a well stocked building, complete with heat. So the ruthless captain had been stealing and hoarding food and other supplies all along. Each man now contemplates what he should do. One veteran (played by Sylvester Groth), who had earlier told how his wife and children had reacted to his changed personality when he had gotten leave a year before, puts a gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger (the scene is graphic, so keep that in mind, if you watch the movie). When relating the leave story, the man had told the other men that he was only happy when he returned to his unit on the Eastern Front, and that only then was he "really home."

"Rollo," mentioned earlier, takes the badly wounded and sick battalion commander, also a captain ("Hauptmann," in German), outside to continue the fighting, only to see a long line of German troops, led by a general, throwing down their weapons and raising their hands in surrender. In the freezing weather, the captain dies, and "seemingly" so does "Rollo." The only two men left, which includes the lieutenant, go with a Russian woman, who the "nasty" captain had kept chained to a bed for his private enjoyment, if you get my drift. Just when she thinks she has gotten them through to safety, shots ring out from Soviet troops, killing her. The lieutenant can go no further, and the two men freeze to death amidst the blowing snow.***

* Up to this point, these men had fought the French and British and Commonwealth forces. While all war is awful, there was not the ideological and racial hatred in their prior combat; in fact, Erwin Rommel, the famous German commander in North Africa, wrote a book about the North African war called, "Krieg Ohne Hass" ("War Without Hate").

** As mentioned in "Part One," the movie uses an actual recorded excerpt from the speech Hitler gave that day.

*** There are all kinds of books, articles and documentaries (some of which may cover the entire war or the war in Russia, but have segments on the battle) available about the "Battle of Stalingrad." Check your local library. I did almost all of the historical background part of the article from memory, but that comes from many years of study (literally decades), but I did check a couple of details directly from the movie, as it has some historical info as text in the film, and online at Wikipedia. Naturally, having watched the movie several times over the years, including just about two weeks ago, this provided the info for the synopsis of the movie.

Photo is from the 1998 Fox Lorber DVD

 WORD HISTORY:

Frost-This word, closely related to "freeze," and meaning "coating of ice crystals on something," also, "the process of temperatures causing ice crystals to form," goes back to Indo European "preus," which meant "to freeze, to frost over." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "frustaz," which meant "frost." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "forst/frost," which then just became the latter from the Middle Ages until today. The other Germanic languages have: Standard German and Low German "Frost" (all German nouns are capitalized),  Dutch "vorst," ^ West Frisian "froast," Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish "frost."

^ Note the similarity to one of the two previous English forms, "forst." 

Stalingrad Movie Depicts Horror Of War, Part One, Historical Background

A little historical background: Stalingrad was a massive and famous World War Two battle, which came to symbolize, along with El Alamein in North Africa, the turning point in the war against Hitler and Mussolini. In the summer of 1942, a year after ordering his forces to invade the Soviet Union, Hitler concentrated his forces in the southern part of the Soviet Union in a strategic move to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus region, and to breach the Volga River, thus halting Soviet river traffic northwards. As the summer proceeded, Hitler divided his forces, sending one branch southward to take the oil fields, and keeping the other branch focused on the Volga at the city of Stalingrad.* The Soviets were determined to fight for the city, and German efforts to completely capture it were thwarted in August through October of 1942, bringing a street to street and building to building struggle for the remaining part of the devastated city still in Soviet hands.** In an effort to capture the last part of the city, the Germans sent in combat engineer battalions to try to gain control (the movie deals with a group of these combat engineers).*** As the slow, but brutal fighting took place, the Soviets mustered substantial forces outside the city for an offensive of their own.

With the bulk of his forces in the area tied down in and around Stalingrad, Hitler relied on his allies for forces to protect the flanks of his forces in the immediate Stalingrad area. These Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian troops were largely ill equipped to face the Soviet forces, especially to face Soviet tanks, but Hitler entrusted them with this important mission anyhow, believing the Soviets to be too weak to launch any major offensive operations, although German intelligence had reported Soviet troop concentrations on either side of German forces in the Stalingrad area, an area defended by Rumanian troops. In mid November the Soviets struck. While some Rumanian forces fought hard, the presence of large numbers of Soviet tanks eventually spread panic among their ranks and the front line collapsed. The Soviets raced to the rear of the German forces in the Stalingrad area (their 6th Army), trapping about a quarter of a million German troops, along with some Rumanian and Croatian forces.**** Hitler refused to allow a breakout attempt by the 6th Army, and a relief attack from the south was halted by Soviet resistance and winter weather. Attempts to supply the surrounded forces by air failed to adequately deliver enough supplies to keep the army going and repeated Soviet attacks gradually whittled down the size of the 6th Army. Although forbidden by Hitler to surrender, Colonel General (Generaloberst) Friedrich Paulus, then promoted to Field Marshal by Hitler as the end neared on January 30,***** decided to surrender his remaining 91,000 men to the Soviets in early February 1943. Only about 6000 of these men ever returned to Germany after the war. Prior to that time, the Soviets had attacked the Italians and the Hungarians, inflicting devastating casualties on these German allies, including many thousands killed. After the war, Italian-Soviet diplomatic relations were poor for decades, as the Italians said the Soviets had never given a full accounting for the Italian prisoners they had taken during the Stalingrad battle. "As I recall," the Soviets said the Italian prisoners, unfamiliar with the harsh winter conditions in Russia, had consequently suffered a high death rate in captivity, but the Italians felt the Soviets had mistreated their Italian prisoners, causing their deaths, or had executed many of them. The Rumanians and Hungarians, both under Soviet domination in the postwar era, could not offer any protest about their Soviet held prisoners of war until their communist governments were ousted and they were able to ask questions decades later.

This overall gigantic "Battle of Stalingrad" brought staggering casualties of at least three quarters of a million Axis troops killed, wounded or missing, and at least a million Soviet killed, wounded or missing. In addition, perhaps as many as fifty thousand Soviet civilians died.

* Stalingrad had been known as "Tsaritsyn" under the Tsars and into the early years of Soviet rule, when it was then renamed in honor of Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin. It was renamed "Volgograd," circa 1961, as Soviet leaders tried to distance themselves from Stalin's rule. Stalin had died in 1953.

** German air and artillery bombardment had left many structures in partial to total ruin, but these ruins then provided the remaining Soviet troops with excellent hiding places to ambush German units, slowly bleeding the German forces and leaving their units in a weakened state. The fighting was often confusing for the opposing forces, as later reports indicated examples where German forces would control certain floors of a building, while Soviet forces controlled other floors of the same building.

*** The movie has a scene using an actual preserved recording of Hitler giving a speech to long time Nazi Party members in Munich in November 1942. The movie has the exhausted men, who had just fought to capture a Soviet factory, sitting around and listening to the speech, which had been broadcast on radio all over Germany, and to the troops on the Eastern Front. In the speech, Hitler says he wants to take the remaining part of Soviet held Stalingrad "mit ganz kleinen Stoßtrupps" ( "with very small assault detachments"), in reference to the combat engineers. Some of the men look at each other in astonishment, as they have already suffered high casualties just taking this one factory.

**** Croatia had been established as an independent state, although with foreign policy tied to Italy and Germany, after the defeat of Yugoslavia in 1941. It was a fascist ruled nation which provided some military forces to Germany, although these forces were technically part of the "German" armed forces (Wehrmacht). Another small unit was part of the Italian military. Their other forces remained as part of their own Croatian military to combat insurrection forces in the Croatia-Serbia region, often, but not always, organized by communist leaders, most prominent of whom was Josef Tito, who later became the head of postwar Yugoslavia.

***** Essentially, German general ranks had been copied from the French long ago. Typically the Germanic languages (which includes English) place adjectives before the noun they describe, as in, "the blue car." The Latin based languages, which includes French, typically place adjectives after the noun. In the British and American armies of World War Two, there was the rank of Major General, for instance, but the Germans use the French form, "General Major" (Generalmajor, in German). Neither the British nor American armies had the specific German rank of "Colonel General" (Generaloberst) in World War Two, but it was equivalent to a four-star general in the U.S. Army. Hitler had promoted Paulus to field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) just a couple of days before the end, with the thought that Paulus would commit suicide, rather than surrender.   

Word History:
Freeze-This word goes back to Indo European "preus," which meant "to freeze, to frost over." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "freusan," as the Indo European "p" often became "f" in Old Germanic. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "freosan," which then became "fresen," before the modern version. The figurative sense, "to remain motionless, to stop in one tracks and remain motionless," may well have developed in Old Germanic and was passed on to a number of its offspring, including English. The noun form meaning, "a period of cold temperatures in which crops freeze," came from the verb. The other Germanic languages have: German "frieren," ^ Low German "fresen," ^^ Dutch "vriezen" West Frisian "frieze," Danish and Norwegian "fryse," Swedish "frysa" and Icelandic "frysta" and "frjósa."

^ Note the change of "s" or "z" to "r," a common change (sound shift) which developed in High German centuries ago, although the "s" sound continued in this case, as Old High German had "friosan;" and it wasn't until later that that sound shift took place. Another example is, English has "I was," but German has "Ich war" (not pronounced like English "war," but rather it rhymes with "far").

^^ Low German, under influence from German (standard German is heavily based on High German), also has "freren," a borrowing with the "r" from standard German. Low German was once the general dialect of northern Germany, but the teaching of standard German in schools has brought a serious decline to Low German, although it still is used, but less than in times past. Low German is very closely related to English, as northern Germany is the ancestral homeland of Anglo-Saxon.

"Draft Day"

Let's see ... "Draft Day," I'll have a brown ale. Oh, not that kind of draft day. Actually this movie, like "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," had many scenes filmed here in Cleveland and the Cleveland Browns are central to the story. It opens April 11, although there was a special preview Tuesday evening, April 8 in Cleveland, and likely some other locations. It was filmed last summer and stars Kevin Costner. For more info:

 http://draftdaythemovie.com/story

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" ("Captain America 2") is scheduled to be open Friday, April 4 in the U.S. (and, I believe, Canada). Much of the filming of the movie was done here in Cleveland, although the movie story line has it set in Washington, D.C. Native Clevelanders and those familiar with our city will likely recognize several of the buildings and streets, even though street signs and locations were given different names for the filming. The Marvel Studio's movie was directed by two Clevelanders, Anthony and Joe Russo. There was a special premier here the last couple of days for those Clevelanders who took part in the film. For more information:

http://marvel.com/captainamerica#/story

WORD HISTORY:
Captain-This word goes back to Indo European "kauput," which meant "head." This gave its Italic/Latin offspring "caput," with the same meaning. This then spawned an adjectival form, "capitaneus, which meant "prominent, large, main," then also used as a noun to mean "leader." This gave Old French, a Latin based language, "capitaine," with the same meaning. This was then borrowed into English from French in the 1300s. By the 1500s, it had developed the meaning of a military rank, often associated with navy rank for an officer who commanded a ship, but later also an officer rank in the army; that is, land forces. From the "commander of a ship" idea came the verb form, meaning "to command and lead a ship;" also the figurative use, as in, "The guide captained us through some rough terrain."