The Way THESE Waltons Say, 'Good Night'

First published in October 2014

During the 1970s, there was a popular television series on CBS called "The Waltons," about a family in rural Virginia set during the 1930s and early 1940s. The show became sort of famous for its ending, when the family members said "good night" to one another; a rather involved process, which drew the attention of some comedians for their own acts. The other famous Waltons are those who own about half of the stock of the discount retail store chain, "Walmart," and who control the corporation headquartered in Arkansas. Walmart is the largest employer in the United States with 1.3 million employees and the Walton family, just six members of one family, controls wealth equal to the combined wealth of the bottom 41% to 42% of Americans.* Walmart has been heavily criticized for paying generally low wages and for the outsourcing of production to very low wage countries, where labor laws are scant, if in existence at all, including the use of child labor. So with all of this in mind, I thought I'd do a little satire on "How THESE Waltons Say, 'Good night.' "

Walton Jim:: "Good night Walton Rob. You be sure to keep those unions from organizing any of the workers and stirrin' up any trouble, like askin' for more money. I mean, is it our fault these people can't get by on 9 bucks and hour? Gee, most of 'em get food stamps from the government, the moochers. Here we are payin' these folks 9 dollars an hour, and we can't even get another tax cut. I'm tellin' ya, life's just not fair."

Walton Rob: "Good night Walton Alice! You keep pluggin' to get us some tax cuts like Jim just mentioned. These tightwads take all the fun out everything."

Walton Alice: "Okay, will do. Good night Walton Ann! You keep in touch with Jim and Rob about fightin' any increase in the minimum wage. These people act like they deserve more money. And we're not going that more medical benefits route either. What do these people want from us, anyway? Hey, you get sick, take care of yourself and get to work anyhow. If you don't want to work, there are others out there who'll take our 9 bucks an hour. Ah, maybe we could just offer $8.50?"

Walton Ann: "You guys are just great! Good night Walton Nancy! You keep your eyes on Jim and Rob so that they keep getting the cheapest products regardless of the country or the exploitation of people. It's always the bottom line that counts. Just what are sweatshops, anyhow? Good night Jim, Rob, Alice and Ann! Sweet dreams! Just remember, everybody do your jobs like we just talked about and when we wake up, we'll be worth a bundle more than when we went to sleep."

* See: Politifact Wisconsin, December 8, 2013 for employment and wealth figures, as well as for Walton family stock holdings in the retail store chain. See also: "Inequality, Exhibit A; Walmart and the Wealth of American Families," by Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute, July 17, 2012.

WORD HISTORY:
Cheap-This word's ultimate origin is unknown, but it goes back to the Latin noun "caupo," which meant "innkeeper, tradesman," and Latin verb form, "perhaps," "cauponare," meaning to "engage in commerce or trade." These seem to have been borrowed by the Germanic tribes which came into contact (and conflict) with the Romans along the Rhine River more than 2000 years ago. They then spread to other Germanic tribes. This gave Old Germanic the noun "kaupa," with the same borrowed Latin meaning, but also a verb form, "kaupan," generally meaning "to buy."  This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the noun "ceap," which meant "a purchase, a business deal, commerce;" as well as, the verb "ceapian," meaning "to engage in business or trade," and by extension, "to bargain." The noun gave English the profession "chapman;" that is, "a merchant, a tradesman," which later became a family name, "Chapman" (close relative German has the closely related "Kauf(f)mann," meaning "merchant, salesman," a name sometimes rendered as "Coffman," in English). The noun form died out in English, as "purchase" was borrowed from French, and English already had its own Germanic word, the word which became modern "buy" (usually a verb, but also a noun, as in, "That's a good buy," but exactly when the noun use developed is unclear to me). The verb form "ceapian" later became "cheapen," meaning "to lower the price," and the figurative "to make something less in value," a form still used today, although the "en" ending on most English verbs was gradually done away with a few hundred years ago, requiring English speakers to express the infinitive form with a preceding "to," plus the shortened verb form. The adjective, which is the most commonly used form today, developed from the notion "to bargain;" thus, the adjective meaning, "the best price or deal," but also the less flattering, "not of high quality, skimpy." The other Germanic languages have: German "kaufen" (to buy) and "Kauf" (a purchase), Low German Saxon "kopen" (to buy), West Frisian "keap" ^ (a purchase, something acquired) and "keapje" (to buy, to acquire), Dutch "koop" (a purchase) and "kopen" (to buy), Danish "køb" (a purchase) and "købe" (to buy), Norwegian "kjøp" (a purchase) and "kjøpe" (to buy), Icelandic "kaup" (a purchase) and "kaupa" (to buy), Swedish "köp(et)" (a purchase) and "köpa" (to buy).

^ Notice the closeness to the Old English form "ceap." The Frisians are closely related to the English, as some Frisians joined with the closely related Angles and Saxons in the invasion of Britain and in the establishment of England.

The Lady On The Bus

First published October 2014

The other day I was on the bus when a highly inquisitive guy sitting across the aisle asked a lady a bunch of questions about her life. I mean who did this guy think he was, Google or Facebook? He appeared to have some "issues" and she was very patient with him. I mean he asked some personal questions, including if she was married, and she answered that she was divorced, only to have him ask why she got divorced! "Issues" or not, I think I would have told him that such questions are inappropriate. He asked her why she was on the bus and she told him she was coming from school. And if you guessed that he next asked her what she was taking in school, you are correct. She told him she was studying to become a social worker, to work with people with drug and alcohol problems. He said, "I hope you make a lot of money," to which she replied, "That won't happen, it doesn't pay that much, but I'm not doing it for the money, I just want to help people." Wow! All I could think of was, if Donald Trump and the Koch brothers had heard this lady, they would all have suffered cerebral hemorrhages. NOT be about money? Break out the "socialist' and "commie" monikers Rush Limbaugh.

This took me back to Mr. Milburn Drysdale, of "The Beverly Hillbillies" fame. For those unaware, "The Beverly Hillbillies" was a 1960s comedy about the Clampetts, a family from back in the hills ... I mean way, way back in the hills, who came into a bundle of money because oil was discovered on their property. They were so far back in the hills and so detached from modern life, they thought the oil company president was trying to trick them by paying them for the rights to the oil in a "new kind of dollars," because he offered them an amount in "million dollars," a term they had never heard before. And what was more, they didn't really know why oil was valuable to start with. Obviously the series was on before Dick Cheney became well known. The family wound up with many of "the new dollars," and they ended up moving to Beverly Hills, one of the wealthiest places in the country. There they met a banker, Milburn Drysdale, in whose bank their money had been deposited. During the series, which lasted for nine years, Drysdale got into all sorts of problems, because he was afraid the Clampetts would withdraw their money from his bank. Drysdale was an out and out moneygrubber. No other way to say it. When the Clampetts would try to help people by giving them some money, Drysdale would almost have one of those cerebral hemorrhages I mentioned above. He couldn't relate to people wanting to help others and then not receiving something more valuable in return. Of course the Hillbillies were looking to receive something more valuable in return, but it didn't have the kind of value Drysdale could understand.

Every day millions of people go to their jobs, some to two or three jobs. Most, and unfortunately a growing number, will not make enough in a year to be able to have much, if anything, left over, or to tide them over in case of an emergency. I was going to name some of the jobs, but that really would serve no purpose, because I would be bound to leave out too many jobs that involve the work of too many people. Some literally risk their lives to help others. Others risk their lives, not even because that's their job, but because that's what they are, people who care. Contrast that with some, a small percentage, who will make more money in ONE YEAR, than most of those I've mentioned will make in their ENTIRE LIVES, including when they took out the neighbors' trash or shoveled snow from sidewalks, or sold lemonade in front of their house as kids to earn a few bucks. The Drysdales, the Trumps, the Kochs, and others like them, can give themselves all the accolades about "job creators," "the investment class," "I built this," but in reality, they aren't the ones who make the country run, and while some thankfully give money to charities, often for tax deductions, they can never understand people like the lady on the bus.  

WORD HISTORY:
Tail-This word goes back to Indo European "dek," which had the notion of "long thin strips/strands, strips." This produced "dokls," which meant "hair of a a rear appendage." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "tagla," also meaning "hair of a tail." This meaning then broadened into "rear appendage, with or without hair," giving the meaning which we still use as the primary meaning today. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "taegel/taegl," with the same meaning, and this later became "tayl/tail," as the "g" sound died out,^ and the "tail" spelling eventually won out. The verb was derived from the noun during the 1500s, with the meaning, "attach to or hang on to the tail," which later produced the American English meaning, "follow behind secretly," in the early 20th Century. The word has many associated slang meanings, including "rear end/behind," "male organ," "the end or back end of something." The other Germanic languages have: German "Zagel" (meaning "tail," but now a bit dated, although it still is used by some for "male organ"), Low German Saxon "Tagel," meaning "end piece of a rope," Swedish "tagel," meaning "horsehair," Icelandic "tagl," meaning "horsehair, horsetail, rope, ponytail (for human hair)," and Norwegian "tagl," meaning "horsehair" (also "horsetail?"). Dutch had a form of the word, but no longer uses it. I could not find a form in West Frisian, and Danish no longer uses a form, although there may be forms in dialect still in use.

^ The loss of the "g" sound has not been uncommon in English words over time, as for instance, both "day" and "may" (the verb as in, "May I help you?") were once spelled "daeg" and "maeg."

Welsh Rarebit (or Is It Rabbit?), A Great Comfort Food

From what I've read over the years, and don't ask me where at the moment, the real name of this dish is "Welsh Rabbit," with "rarebit" simply being a variation. Why it was/is called "rabbit," is unknown, as it has nothing to do with that animal, nor does it have ANY meat in it. Furthermore, it seems to have nothing to do with the Welsh either, in the national sense, but it is rather, from what is known, an English dish. Check the "Word History" below, as "Welsh" had more meanings prior to the modern era, one being "foreign" and another being "inferior," but whether either of these meanings ties in with the name of the dish is not known.

For those unaware, "Welsh Rarebit," the name I'll use, is a cheese sauce eaten over toast. "Apparently" it was developed in England in the early 1700s. There are many variations to the recipe, which generally involves melting fairly sharp cheddar cheese and mixing it with beer, butter, mustard, a bit of cayenne pepper, some Worcestershire sauce and egg (added after the sauce is taken off the heat). The variations include: using sharp American cheese, or Velveeta or Velveeta-style cheese, in place of the cheddar. Also small amounts of other cheese, like blue cheese of some type are added by some (to keep the English theme, use English Stilton, a type of blue cheese). Some use dark beer, some use light beer (in color, not calories), some use milk instead, or cream. Just to make a point, I just looked at an English cookbook I have and the recipe uses cream, not beer. For mustard, an old recipe I once had (I can't find it now) used dry mustard, and in fact, that recipe was the recipe I used the first time I ever made Welsh Rarebit (it used ale, but did not specify light or dark). Others use yellow mustard, while some use brown mustard. Some melt the butter and mix in some flour to make a roux which is used to thicken the sauce by adding the other ingredients to the roux and gradually heating it until all are mixed in and thickened. As to spiciness, I often use Asian chili paste (with no garlic), rather than cayenne pepper, but some recipes call for some hot sauce. Some add a small amount of tomato paste or ketchup, but most recipes I've seen do not use either, although I use ketchup. Some recipes use whole eggs, others call for just egg yolks. As for the toast, some use rye, some use wheat and some use white bread.

 If you've never eaten Welsh Rarebit, or if you've only had the store bought variety, to see what you might like, here's what I'd suggest, as I make a streamlined version of rarebit often, but just for one serving: get a small microwave-safe dish (even a cup), put in a couple slices of sharp American cheese (broken up a little so it melts easily), or a couple of slices of Velveeta cut into cubes. Add about a teaspoon of ketchup, a dash or two of Worcestershire, a little less than a tablespoon (but more than a teaspoon) of milk (I use evaporated milk) or cream, or half and half, a little sprinkle of cayenne (I use about a quarter teaspoon of chili paste), and a little squirt of brown mustard (I use the squeeze bottle, but use what you have; and yellow is fine). Put it in the microwave for less than a minute (if you have the more powerful microwave, maybe it will only need 30-45 seconds). You will want to watch the dish through the window to be sure it doesn't boil over, as I know from experience. I use a cup and I often, but not always, sit an over-sized microwave safe lid on top (it's from a larger microwave dish I have), just to be sure it doesn't spatter. Check to see if the cheese is melted, but if it's not completely, but is close, just stirring it through the hot mixture should complete the melting; otherwise, give it a few seconds longer. Stir it well to mix everything together and pour it over your slice of toast. This version will keep you from the involvement of opening beer; beating eggs, then mixing them with a little of the mixture to temper the eggs so they won't scramble, then blending them into the melted sauce; or melting butter and mixing in flour to make a roux, as this sauce should be adequately thick.  Once you see how you like this version, or not, you can try some of the other variations from above in small servings like this, before you move on to making larger amounts, and perhaps trying out the more elaborate style. Remember, if you use cheddar, it can often get grainy when melted.

Many years ago on the television comedy "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," the main character, Gomer, eats Welsh Rarebit at a little restaurant. He later sleep walks, going to his sergeant and giving him a piece of his mind. A cousin of mine believed the story, but I doubt any such thing will happen to you if you eat Welsh Rarebit, although I ate rarebit three days ago and I got pulled over in the middle of the night by a policeman, whom I promptly told off. After I got out of jail I thought about Gomer Pyle, my cousin and the Welsh Rarebit. Maybe there IS something to that story; after all, I got pulled over, but I don't have a car! How will I explain this to the judge at my court date next week? Hahahaha

In the first photo, I used some fresh sliced serrano chili pepper in this Welsh Rarebit.

 

WORD HISTORY:
Welsh-This word goes back to the name of a Celtic tribe, the "Volcae," the Latin rendering, but who "presumably" called themselves by a similar form. Why they used this word for themselves is unclear, although "some" believe it is linked to the ancestor of modern English "wolf," "perhaps" because they hunted wolves? Lived close to wolves? (Maybe they were ..."Dancing With Wolves" ... hey, maybe they were ahead of their time.) Anyway, Old Germanic borrowed the word as "walhiskaz," and it was a general term used by Germanic for "Celts." The word seems to have taken on the more generalized meaning "foreigner;" that is, "non-Germanic," as later, the meaning varied, depending upon which non-Germanic people was living next to a particular Germanic group: Germanic people in western Europe used it for various Celtic elements present there,^  southern Germanic groups used it for Romans, who lived to the south of them, and the Germanic Anglo-Saxons of England used it for "Welsh," a people on the far western side of Britain, who are a Celtic people, but who do not use any form of this word for themselves, as they call themselves "Cymry" (meaning "countryman"). Anyway, the Germanic term gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wielisc," which meant the more general "Britons, non Anglo-Saxons," and also the derived "wealh," meaning 'foreigners." Since the Anglo-Saxons used many of the Celtic Britons as servants, the word also took on the meaning, "servant, a non-free person," and that notion later evolved into the meaning "inferior." By the way, in German, "Kauderwelsch" means "gibberish;" that is, "speech that cannot be understood, speech that is foreign to one," which comes from the notion of "foreign," and German also even uses a verb, "welschen," to mean, "to speak in an unintelligible way or language."

^ Swiss Germans use "Welschland" to mean the French speaking part of Switzerland. As with other modern national groups, the French descended from a mixture of people, but the basis of the French came from Celtic people long ago. Whether modern DNA will change (or has already changed?) that historical assumption remains to be seen. My point here is only that the German population of Switzerland long ago called the French part of the area by that name, which simply ties in with Germanic people often calling Celtic people by that name.

A Visit To The Past, The Twilight Zone

This was first published in October 2014, updated a little and photo added November 6, 2020

Way back when, there was a great episode of "The Twilight Zone," called "Walking Distance,"* starring actor Gig Young as Martin Sloan, whose corporate exec-type character decides to visit his hometown to find the happiness and good times of his childhood. The only thing is, his visit literally takes him back to the time when he was a child, some 25 or 30 years before. He sees a little boy, himself. He sees his parents as they were back then. The whole town is still as it was when he was a young boy. He sees the carefree life of his childhood contrasted with the stress of his adult life in the corporate world. When he tries to convince his parents he is their son, now long since grown up, they are frightened. His father finds the man's wallet and sees from its content that the man is telling the truth, but in the meantime, the man finds his childhood version riding the merry-go-round. He talks to the boy and tries to tell him about life and how to enjoy his childhood while he has it, but the boy too is scared and he falls from the ride, injuring his leg. The father comes to the man and essentially tells him he knows he's his son, but he's had his time in the town, and in his past, and that now he needs to move on, and to try looking forward to find the things he came home to find. There's far more to this story than what I'm writing, but I haven't seen this episode in quite some time, and I can't recall some of the details.

The past can be a great place to visit, but we shouldn't try to live there. It gives us comfort and reassurance to visit the past, because we know what happened then. With the future, we can't be totally sure of what may come, and it often makes us anxious. The other day I was at the grocery store and they had music on in the background. The song playing was "Ghost Riders In The Sky," a song I know well from way back in the 1960s, although Johnny Cash did a version later on. The version I most prominently remember** was done by a group many of you may not recognize, "The Baja Marimba Band." The group dressed in Mexican style clothes, at least stereotypical Mexican clothes from movies from that era, with sombreros and such, and the marimba was one of their most prominent instruments. Hmm, that must be why they called it the "Baja MARIMBA Band; how clever, who'd have thunk that... I mean thought that. I believe the band was the brainchild of Herb Alpert, whose band, "Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass," was extremely popular at that time, and it had a Mexican sound and attire to it. Alpert was one of the founders of "A&M Records," a record label company, and the "Baja Marimba Band" was associated with that company. I can't say for certain, but I don't believe either band had a member of Mexican descent, and Alpert himself was Jewish, as was the "Baja" band's marimba player and band head, Julius Wechter. I loved both bands and any bars or restaurants with jukeboxes, which were quite common in those days, were highly likely to have a song, or several, included from the bands, especially from the Tijuana Brass. Most places charged a nickel or a dime to play a song. My friends laughed the way I loved to sing along and dance to the Tijuana Brass version of the show tune, "Mame," which was on lots of jukeboxes back then. Occasionally one of them would put money in the jukebox, just to see me perform. Damn! I knew I missed my calling somewhere along the line.

Anyway, the music at the store caused me to dig out my CDs of both bands, and I played and reveled in the songs I had so loved from those days, now so long ago. The Tijuana Brass started over 50 years ago ... ah, I've been told. Okay, I remember. As I was leaving the store that day, on came another song from those times, this one,"Downtown," by Petula Clark, a highly popular singer from England back then. All in all, I had a great visit to the past, to the wonderful, but turbulent Sixties, a time of lots of great music, 45 rpm records and jukeboxes, but then, like the man in the Twilight Zone episode, it was time to return to the present. It was great while it lasted. Hmm, anyone got a dime for the jukebox, if we can find one?

* The episode title comes from the fact that Martin Sloan is driving back to his hometown and stops at a roadside garage for some work on his car. His hometown is only down the road, so while the mechanic works on his car, Martin walks to his old hometown, because it's only "Walking Distance." The episode was first broadcast in October 1959.      

 

** The song was done a little earlier in the 1960s by Frankie Laine, a version I also recall, but the song actually dates from even before then.

 

Photo is of "The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia" by Steven Jay Rubin, Chicago Review Press, 2018. It contains lots of facts and information about the series and the episodes.

 WORD HISTORY:

 Pass/Past-The noun form "past" usually includes the definite article "the," or a possessive form like, "my," "your," "his/her," "our," or "their," and means, "time that has gone by, time period encompassing time that has gone by," also, "the tense of a verb expressing actions already having taken place." The verb "pass" has many meanings, including: "hand or throw something from your possession to another, to travel beyond someone or beyond a given point, elapsing time, to develop/to happen, go through something, to exceed or do well in some test or endeavor," and there are many other variations. "Pass" goes back to Indo European "peton," which had the notion of "spread, spread out." This gave its Italic offspring "pando(n)," apparently with the "n'' sound transposed with the "d" sound, but written as "d," ^ and which meant "to spread out, to stretch out," which gave Latin "pandere,'' with the same stretch meaning, but also "step," from the sense, "stretch the leg outward." Its participle form, "passus," was also used as a noun for "step." This produced the verb "passare," which meant "to step;" thus also, "walk," and further, "to walk by or beyond a given point." This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "passer," meaning, "move from one location to another, exceed (that is, "go past something"), pass, traverse." English borrowed the word from French in the latter 1200s as "passen," ^^ and the past and participle form, "passed," later became "past," when used as a noun, or as an adjective. By the way, "pass" is closely related to "pace;" that is, "act of taking steps, rate of walking, or movement."

^ It is not uncommon in the Indo European languages to see "d" or "t" used interchangeably through history. This is evident in the Germanic branch, as German has "Tag," which is the same word as English "day," which was once spelled "daeg." German "Deutsch" (English translation: German) is spelled with a "T" in some German dialects.

^^ Like its German cousin still does, English once formed many infinitive verb forms by adding "en" to the root word. This gave the verb the meaning, "to," and whatever the activity of the root meant, such as "to see," "to do," "to walk." Back then, however, English speakers did not need to say the word "to," as the "en" form of the verb meant that, as it still does in German. For example, German "Ich muss gehen," means both, "I must go," or "I have to go."

Nicholas And Alexandra, The Movie and History, Part Two/End

Russian law required the autocratic ruler to be male, unless all possible male heirs were deceased or unable to assume the throne. This all came about in the late 1790s under Tsar Paul I, the son of Empress Catherine the Great and "supposedly" Tsar Peter III, the grandson of Peter the Great.* While eldest sons of rulers "often, but not always," took the thrones to replace their fathers, Paul, the only son of Peter III, was not guaranteed to succeed his father by law at that time, and his mother, Catherine, had the necessary support and became Empress and Tsarina of Russia when Peter III was assassinated, likely with the support of Catherine, after only a few months as Tsar. Catherine ruled for more than three decades, leaving her embittered son's hatred of her to fester. Not long after assuming the throne, Paul issued the new law about succession. This is important, because Nicholas and Alexandra had four daughters during the early years of their marriage, making them, and the nation, anxious about a direct heir for Nicholas, but if Nicholas had no son, the throne would have passed to another branch of the Romanov family. The desire to perpetuate Nicholas's direct line led Alexandra to begin associations with people who were thought to be able to bring about male children. Hey, I'm not making this up. While Alexandra had resisted conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, once she chose to do so and marry Nicholas, she increasingly became a religious fanatic. The movie begins with the birth of the couple's only son, Alexei. Within just a short time, however, it was found the boy was suffering from hemophilia, an affliction where most external wounds are not usually life threatening, but where internal bleeding can cause excruciating pain and possibly death. The defective gene is carried and passed along in the female line to some, but not all, males.** The "guilt" carried by some mothers is a tremendous emotional burden, and this was so with Alexandra. The boy's condition consumed much of Alexandra's energy at times, and added to her intense shyness and judgmental nature, she very much limited herself to a few friends, none of whom were really from the upper reaches of Russian society, which caused tremendous resentment toward her from that high society, where being associated with the Tsarina was a status symbol. With Nicholas's mother being relatively young when her husband died, she often became the center of attention, as unlike Alexandra, she loved social functions, which only showed others how distant and cold Alexandra was. With no reservoir of good will from others, this proved to be a problem later when Alexandra was heavily criticized by many, including many in high society.  

With no medical treatment for the boy's condition, Alexandra turned even more to her religious beliefs to sustain her and to keep her son alive. She eventually was introduced to a peasant holy man from western Siberia, Grigory Rasputin. This man was thought by some to have tremendous healing powers through a special connection to God, and through the years he was called upon to bring the young Russian heir out of his bouts of bleeding. One thing you must understand, the Russian public, and very few people even around the imperial family, knew the nature of Alexei's illness, as it was a closely guarded secret. This never allowed the Russian people to express sympathy with Alexandra, nor to understand her association with Rasputin. Rasputin was not an official of the Russian Orthodox Church, nor was he an official of the Russian government, thus he is a highly controversial figure in history, for while there are some official records about him from those times, much of the other information about him comes from personal stories and recollections from people who knew him, or "knew of him." As I mentioned in "Part One," Russian society was highly stratified, and the idea that the Tsarina, and even the Tsar himself, to some extent, would associate so closely with a peasant was a scandalous story to begin with, but stories about Rasputin's earlier life, as well as his contemporary life, circulated and cast a major shadow over the dynasty, as those stories often had to do with promiscuous sexual adventures, conflicts with religious leaders and later with drunkenness. I'm not sure the movie quite conveys the importance of Rasputin to undermining the dynasty's prestige, although it does try.

The film has several very good scenes, including "something of a reenactment" of what came to be called "Bloody Sunday," where thousands of workers peacefully marched from various parts of the capital of St. Petersburg in order to present a petition to the Tsar about dealing with their wretched working and living conditions. Police and military units opened fire, killing and wounding many, and while Nicholas had not authorized the slaughter, it brought many Russians to call the Tsar, "Bloody Nicholas," which was used to some extent to recruit revolutionaries to overthrow the government. A revolution broke out, but was gradually suppressed, although the Tsar finally relented and signed off on reforms, including the establishment of a body of elected representatives, called the "Duma," which began to place limits on his power, thus beginning a move into constitutional monarchy. After peace was restored, however, Nicholas began to retreat from some of these reforms, but with peace, some land reforms which began to give some peasants control over their own land, and a large presence of secret police (the "Okhrana"), the dynasty seemed to have righted itself, so much so, that the film veers off to show a demoralized Lenin living in exile, pining for what he believes is a never to be revolution.

Russian involvement in World War One gradually brought turmoil to Russia and to the dynasty, as defeats mounted, the lack of weapons and ammunition became acute and a lack of food, especially in the major cities, brought hungry people to question the authority of the Tsar. The Tsar made an ill-fated choice to take direct control of the Russian army, although in reality it was more symbolic, but by remaining at the military headquarters for long periods, he was gone from the capital, leaving Alexandra in charge of day to day governmental matters. Remember, Alexandra was born a German, and with Russian armies suffering devastating defeats at the hands of the Germans, Russians looked for a reason, a reason which seemed all too obvious to many; that is, Alexandra was a German spy, passing along valuable military information to her cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II (remember both were grandchildren of Queen Victoria). Further, her association with Rasputin, who had taken to heavy drinking, tainted matters even more, as he associated with people thought to be German agents by some. Those in government who criticized Rasputin soon earned the enmity of Alexandra, who saw in the, by then, famous peasant, the only way to keep her son alive. Government officials were replaced at an alarming rate, all with Nicholas's consent, but the public saw the changes as Rasputin dictating to the Tsarina, who was in the public mind, running the country. Many of the changes proved unpopular, as men were appointed who had no confidence from the elected representatives of the Duma. Revolution moved closer and closer.  

In another of the great scenes of the film, Nicholas's mother travels to see him at his headquarters. This scene never happened in real life, but it is used by the script writers to depict the real historical attempts by several Romanov family members to convince Nicholas of the changes he needed to make, including the sending of Alexandra to their vacation palace in the Crimea*** to keep her from real and perceived meddling in governmental matters. No question about it, Nicholas had great difficulty opposing his wife. In the movie, Nicholas's mother questions all of the replacements to the officials by incompetents, as well as telling her son how she wished his father were still alive, because, "he knew how to be a tsar." There's the unfavorable comparison to his father. She also tells her son that his father would have known how to deal with Rasputin, which brings a defense of the peasant by Nicholas, but his mother's further questioning of Alexandra's close association with Rasputin brings the admission by Nicholas that his wife "needs him (Rasputin)," and that she believes "he keeps my son alive." In my opinion, this whole scene, which is more extensive than I have noted here, sums up Nicholas's rule in just a few minutes. Not long thereafter, Rasputin is killed in a conspiracy involving Nicholas's nephew, Grand Duke Dmitry, and his friend, Prince Felix Yusupov. The Duma celebrates, but the problems don't go away. Revolution breaks out and Nicholas's train is halted as he tries to get back to his family at one of their palaces just outside St. Petersburg.**** Faced by representatives of the Duma, Nicholas abdicates, and in a legally questionable move, abdicates for his son, thus ending the Romanov dynasty. There is a great deal of historical basis for these film scenes.

Nicholas is allowed to return to his family and they are held as prisoners at the palace until they are sent off to Siberia by the "Provisional Government," as the replacement government was called. In the meantime, Lenin is helped to enter Russia by the Germans, with whom he promises to make peace, as Russia still remained at war at that time. The Bolsheviks plan and execute a revolution of their own against the Provisional Government, whose unpopular decision to continue the war undermines their hold on power. The Bolsheviks overthrow the government and new revolutionary guards are sent to take control of the Romanov family in Siberia. Again, all of these scenes have basis in history, as does the end, as the family is awakened and told they are leaving. They are led to the basement of the house and as they wait, the door opens and Bolshevik guards enter and begin firing. When the movie was filmed, the bodies of the family had not been located, but in more recent times the remains of Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children, a doctor and three servants have all been recovered and identified by DNA and other tests.*****

There are many books and articles about the Romanovs and specifically about Nicholas and Alexandra, but I consulted: "Nicholas and Alexandra," by Robert K. Massie,originally published by Atheneum, New York, 1967, with an edition published in 2000 by Ballantine, New York, and another edition published by Random House, New York in 2011.

* The actual father of Paul has long been in question. For one recent perspective see:  "Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman," by Robert K. Massie, published by Random House, New York, 2011.

** Queen Victoria had four sons, with only one, Leopold, suffering the from the bleeding disorder.

*** This palace, Livadia, near Yalta, was later used near the end of World War Two for the meeting of the "Big Three," Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, often called, "the Yalta Conference." .

**** Because of the German name of the capital, early in the war the official name of the city was changed to the Russian form, "Petrograd."

***** The movie does not have the servants with the family. Also, there has been a dispute between some scientists over which remains are the Tsar's daughter Maria, and which belong to daughter Anastasia. The bulk of the remains were recovered in the early 1990s, but the remains of the last two children, including Alexei and one daughter (either Maria or Anastasia) were recovered and identified just a few years ago, not far from the location which had held the other remains. The Bolsheviks had long said they had buried two of the bodies separate from the others.

Photo of the 1999 Columbia Pictures DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Tarry-This word, related to "tear" (the form pronounced as if "tare," and meaning "rip"), and now generally meaning "stay somewhere, linger," goes back to Indo European "deregh" (from the root "der"=tear, rip, flay), with the notion of "pull, tear," with the additional meaning "excite, irritate," a meaning that "may" come from the idea of tugging at someone "irritating" them ("exciting," in the broad sense). This sense seems to only have been retained in the West Germanic branch of Old Germanic,^ as "tergjan(an)," with the same general meanings. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "tirgan" (the Brothers Grimm^^ also give it as "tyrgan"), which meant "excite, worry, irritate" ("worry'' is something that "tugs" at your mind, and also "irritates"), as obviously the former secondary meaning of Old Germanic was retained as the primary meaning in English, although the "pull" meaning "may" have remained among the common people, as the word eventually became "terien" (before the modern version) and the meaning retained the "irritate" meaning, and thus by extension, "to tease, to harass," but also "to delay, to hesitate," perhaps from the old notion of "pulling, tugging;" thus "holding back, delaying." The modern word certainly conveys the sense of "linger for a certain purpose, or expectation," thus that purpose "pulls at" one, keeping one from moving on. Relatives in other Germanic languages: German has "zergen," which is now somewhat dated, but means, "to provoke, to bring to anger;" Low German Saxon "targen," meaning "to provoke;" Dutch "tergen," meaning "to provoke, to taunt." West Frisian once had "tergje," which might still be used by some, but is no longer common from what I've been able to find, and Danish, Norwegian and Swedish (all from the North Germanic branch of Germanic) borrowed forms from Low German, although the Danish form, "terge," has apparently died out, and the Swedish form, "targa," has either died out or is purely dialectal, while Norwegian "terge/terga," means "rile;" that is, "provoke."

^ The main modern languages of the West Germanic branch of Germanic are: English, German, Low German, Dutch, West Frisian, East Frisian (only a small number of speakers still exist), and North Frisian (a very small number of speakers).

^^ While most of us likely think of fairy tales when we see "the Brothers Grimm," the brothers also compiled an extensive German dictionary, complete with many word histories, often including the links of those words to English and other Germanic languages, which they began publishing in the mid 1800s.  

"Nicholas And Alexandra," The Movie and History, Part One

This beautifully filmed 1971 movie, directed by Franklin Schaffner, who also directed "Patton," is "based" upon actual historical events as presented in the 1967 book of the same name by Robert K. Massie. Massie was motivated to write the book, as his son had hemophilia, just as Nicholas and Alexandra's son, Alexei, who had been afflicted with hemophilia in the early 1900s. Many years ago when I was in college, I had daytime classes, as well as some evening classes. One of the movie theaters a few blocks away had matinees on certain days with low price admission, and if there was a decent movie showing, I'd go there between classes. It's been so long ago I can't remember the price, but it could well have been like fifty or seventy-five cents, but remember, this was the early 1970s. Anyway, that's how I first saw "Nicholas and Alexandra," although they may have charged a little more for admission to see it. The movie is more than three hours long and is available on DVD.

History shows us that Nicholas was not prepared to become the Tsar of Russia, as his father, Tsar Alexander III, was a huge man, who some have said was symbolic of the "Russian bear." He was physically strong, but also strong and confident in his beliefs, and he acted decisively when so required. This all led people to believe he would continue as Tsar for many more years, but at the age of only 49, Alexander III took ill with kidney disease and died within a few months. This brought his eldest son Nicholas to the throne of Russia at the age of 26. While Alexander III was a big man, Nicholas took after his much smaller mother, Marie, who was a Danish princess. Throughout his life Nicholas found himself being unfavorably compared to his father, both in physical stature and ruling stature, a fact mentioned in the movie.

Alexandra, her Russian name, as her real name was "Alix," a German rendering of her mother's name, Alice, was born as a princess and a Lutheran in the German Grand Duchy of Hessen und bei Rhein, at Darmstadt. Her mother died when Alix was only six years old. This brought her maternal grandmother to assume the duties of providing for the young girl's education through tutors and, to a great extent, for her general upbringing. Who was her grandmother? None other than Queen Victoria of England, as Alice had been her daughter. So as some historians have pointed out, Alix was born a German, but raised more as an Englishwoman. She spent much time with her grandmother in England, where the queen taught her about "noblesse oblige;" that is, the idea that noble birth requires the person to act responsibly and with charity toward those less fortunate. It was a concept Alix continued to pursue to a "selective" extent when she became Tsarina of Russia, but with limited success. It is important to remember, Alix was born in Germany, a "limited" constitutional monarchy, where the Kaiser (emperor) was "somewhat limited" in his authority by the elected representatives of the Reichstag (the German parliament), and she spent long periods of time in England with her grandmother, where the British monarchy was much more of a constitutional monarchy, and where Parliament had much more say. So she had seen and experienced democracy to varying degrees. When she married Nicholas, she married into an "autocracy" (see Word History below); that is, a nation governed by someone with unlimited power. There was NO legislative body of representatives elected by the Russian people at the time of Alix's arrival in Russia, although that did come, but not until much later.

Alexander III's death not only brought an unprepared Nicholas to the Russian throne, it brought the hurried marriage of Nicholas and Alix. Alix had at first turned down Nicholas's marriage proposal, as in order to marry him, Russian law required that she would have to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. She eventually relented, and she was rushed through her religious instruction, but more especially her learning of the Russian language was not far enough along for her to feel confident in its use.* This began a division with her Russian subjects right from the start, as Alix suffered from what some have described as pathological shyness (depicted in the movie), and the insecurity of her limited knowledge of Russian left her appearing cold and haughty to many Russians. Further, Russian society was dominated by a very small number of nobles and aristocrats, and that society had little, if anything, in common with her upbringing in Germany and England. Her "Victorian" values were neither appreciated nor welcomed by Russian high society, where extramarital affairs were commonplace and pretty much expected. She later tried to form sewing and knitting circles to make clothing for the poor, but the whole thing was not a great success, as many Russian society women had disdain for such an idea. In the Russian high society, the nobility and the aristocrats flaunted their wealth and power.

The rest in "Part Two" ...

* Like English, Russian is an Indo European language, but from the Slavic branch, so further down the family tree of English, which is from the Germanic branch. Further, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet. While her Russian improved over time, Alix and Nicholas conversed in English! As I recall, she spoke to her children in English and German, and indeed often instructed them in both languages. Nicholas spoke to his children in Russian. Nicholas was related to English royalty, as his mother's sister was married to Queen Victoria's son Edward, who would later become King Edward VII (of cigar fame), when his mother passed away. Hopefully not to confuse you, but in case you haven't noticed, Edward was Alix's uncle, as he was her mother's brother. Nicholas was also closely connected to the German nobility, as both of his grandmothers were Germans, and both, like his wife Alix, were from Hessen!  
 
Photo from the Columbia Pictures DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Autocrat-This compound word, meaning "a person with absolute/total power," was borrowed from French circa 1800. The word had come from Greek "autokrates," which meant "ruling singly, ruling by oneself." This came from Greek "autos," a word of uncertain derivation, meaning "self," and "kratia," which meant "rule," from Greek "kratos," which meant "power, strength." This came from Indo European "kretis" ("power/strength") from the root "ker/kre," which had the notion of "hard," giving the further notion of "strength," and thus, "power."

German Potato Casserole: Backesgrumbeere

Photos added March 29, 2021

The regional dialect of the area of Germany where this dish is a specialty is called "Pfälzisch" (roughly in English, "Palatinish").* The Pfälzisch dialect name for this potato dish is "Backesgrumbeere," which means "Bakers' Potatoes," as long ago housewives used the ovens of the area's bakers to cook this dish. "Grumbeer" ** is one of several German words for potato, with standard German using the word "Kartoffel," a German form of the Italian word "tartufolo," which means "truffle," the very expensive mushroom-type food, and the later chocolate confection. In case you didn't know it, potatoes came from the New World, so people in the Old World had to come up with words for the new food, which originally was thought to be poisonous. Some Germans must have thought potatoes looked a lot like truffles, which also have to be dug out of the ground, so ... While the region of this recipe, called Rheinhessen, once was part of Hessen, since the end of World War Two it has been part of the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz, although still with the Rheinhessen name for that particular region. It is known for its vineyards, white wines, and Backesgrumbeere. I've had this recipe for about 25 years, and I've seen slight variations. This is an old recipe, so it was "heart-y," not "heart healthy," so make adjustments as you like.

Ingredients (7 to 8 servings):

 

3 1/2 to 4 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into about 3/4 inch cubes

10 to 12 ounces smoked bacon cut into about 1inch pieces (remove rind if present) or better yet, use smoked hog jowl, which is used for this recipe in some areas 

1 1/2 to 2 lb. fresh pork shoulder (not smoked), cut into about 1 to 2 inch pieces

3 bay leaves

3 whole cloves

2 medium onions, chopped

1 pint white wine (Germans use dry white wine, but I've used whatever I have and I haven't been hit by a lightening bolt yet; of course, I stay inside during storms ... hmm, some thunder in the distance)

8 oz. cream (or sour cream mixed with a little of the wine)

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Line the bottom of a heavy duty pan or casserole with the bacon or jowl pieces. Toss the potatoes and onions together and then add the mixture over the bacon/jowl pieces. Add a little salt and pepper and add the bay leaves and cloves. Put the fresh pork shoulder on top. Add the wine, then the cream, so that the potato/onions are about covered by the liquid (remember, the amount of liquid will increase during baking). Place the covered dish/pan in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, then turn the heat down to 300 degrees and bake for up to about two hours, or until the pork is very tender. Rye bread is often served with this dish in Germany.

* What is called "Pennsylvania Dutch," or more correctly, "Pennsylvania German," is based heavily upon the dialect from this overall area of Pfalz (Palatine), as many of the people left that area of Germany and emigrated to America beginning in the early 1700s. The erroneous use of "Dutch," simply an English variation of standard German "Deutsch," has come to mean the specific language of the Netherlands in English. 

** "Grumbeer" (singular) is a German dialectal variation of "Grundbirne" (literally 'ground pear'), which also has the variation "Grondbir."  

WORD HISTORY: 

Dish-The ultimate origins of this word are unclear to me, as some explanations just don't add up. The word "appears" to be a borrowing, but there are some who feel it is simply from an Old Germanic offspring form from an Indo European source, with a close relative in Ancient Greek. I don't agree, barring further evidence. This word, related to "disk/disc," goes back to Greek "diskos," meaning "a round, flat plate or stone." This was borrowed by Latin as "discus," which was then borrowed by the West Germanic dialects as "diskas/diskaz," "apparently" meaning "plate, shallow bowl," but also "tray for serving food." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "disc," meaning "plate, shallow bowl," and the spelling later became "dish."^ The verb form meaning, "to serve up food," was derived from the noun much later (circa 1400?). The additional meaning "a particular food recipe or type of food," as in, "His favorite dish is beef stew," developed in the 1500s. The relatives of "dish" in other Germanic languages have the main meaning "table," as the meaning "tray for serving food" prevailed,^^ rather than the smaller "plate or shallow bowl," as retained by English as the main meaning. Standard German has "Tisch" (table), but in Bavarian dialect it is "Disch," the same form as Low German (both mean "table"), and in some dialects along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers it is "Desch." Dutch has the now antiquated "dis" (table). By the way, since tables were often made from wood, the idea of workers making tables from wood gave German the word "Tischler," which meant "a maker of items in wood, a carpenter, a cabinet maker."

^ Old Norse, another Germanic language, but from the North Germanic branch, borrowed Old English "disc" as "diskr," which gave Icelandic "diskur" (plate, but also 'disc'). 

^^ I once read somewhere, but I can't recall where, that long ago (continued in some cases still today) serving trays often had a frame with legs; thus, this gave some Germanic languages the more modern meaning "table."

Are You Using Your Religion To Hurt Others?

Music group R.E.M. did a song in the early 1990s called "Losing My Religion," but I think some people could do a song with the title "Using My Religion," because they twist and turn their religion into what they want it to be. And what they want it to be is a validation of their lives, no matter how contrary to their actual religion they live their lives. We have people from so many religions using those religions to behead or bomb others, even killing people who traveled to help sick and injured people in other countries. Then we have those who send others to commit suicide by carrying bombs into crowds, trying to take as many lives as possible. We have politicians claiming religion, while they plot to cut benefits to some of the country's and the world's poorest and most vulnerable citizens, with the further intent of giving tax breaks to corporations and to some of the wealthiest people on earth, many of whom in the last few years have already seen their incomes rise far more than those less well off. While not everyone will agree with me, I see religion as being a force to comfort people in times of hardship, not a force to be turned on others to kill, maim, inflict mental anguish or pillage. When religion is used to strike terror into the hearts of others, it ceases to be religious.

The perverted forms of religion aren't going to go away, so we have to learn how to deal with them. We need to start with ourselves. Each of us needs to think for ourselves. We need to stop saying that things written a couple of hundred years ago or thousands of years ago can't be challenged or changed if need be. People from long ago didn't usually have the means to see the universe or the world in the broad way we can see it in more modern times. The vast majority of people likely lived and died in a small circumference of where they were born. People in one area didn't even know there were people elsewhere in the world, because their immediate area WAS their world. We can excuse the people from back then their narrow views, but for us, with so much information and so many ways to access it, to restrict our views to those of centuries ago is just ignorance. The past isn't always bad, and it carries many lessons, but we have to live in the present, otherwise, with the weapons we now have, and the hatred stirred by some claiming religious dogmas from long ago, we might not make it into the future.

WORD HISTORY:
Scathe (Scathing)-This word, now more commonly used in the adjectival form "scathing," as well as in the negative form, "unscathed," goes back to Indo European "sket," which had the notion of "to damage, to harm, to injure." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "skatha," with the same meanings. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the noun "sceatha," meaning "injury, harm," and the verb "sceathan," meaning "to harm or injure," which became "scathe" and "scathen, respectively, before settling on "scathe" for both. The hard "c" sound "may" have been picked up from the closely related Old Norse, "skatha." Old Norse was another Germanic language brought in some measure to England by the Danes and Norwegians, although often just termed "Danes." The modern usage of "scathing" means, "harsh and injurious criticism;" while "unscathed" simply means "unharmed." Common in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German have the verb "schaden" ("to harm, to damage"), as well as the noun "Schaden" (damage); Dutch noun "schade" (damage, injury) and verb "schade," more modernly as "beschadigen" (to damage, to hurt); Icelandic noun "skathi" (damage, harm) and verb form "skatha"; Danish and Norwegian noun "skade" (damage, harm) and the same form as the verb; and Swedish noun "skada" (damage, harm, wound) and the same form for the verb.

PBS Series, "The Roosevelts," Shows Us What We Need

Ken Burns' wonderful series on PBS about Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt pointed to one of the things we all need to think about  ... helping others. The Roosevelts didn't have to worry about money for their next meal, and they could have gone through life piling up money and concerning themselves solely with their own lives, especially Franklin, who had been left badly crippled by polio when he was only 39. Instead, the three Roosevelts chose to try to help others and, thus, their nation. They all took abuse from the forces of greed, selfishness and hate aligned against them, but they persevered, and the United States is a far better place for their having lived. Like all of us, the Roosevelts weren't perfect, but their faults paled in comparison to the good things they did, or helped to bring about.

Now in our modern times, when the lives of those three Roosevelts were extinguished long ago, their legacies are seriously under attack, perhaps more than when they were alive and working to attain the things that have had them seen as a great part of American history. At least they were able to fight for and defend their ideas back in their respective lifetimes, but now it is up to us to speak for them and to do battle with the same forces of greed, selfishness and hate they combated. The faces of these opponents may have changed, but the dark souls are still the same as those of more than a hundred years ago, when Teddy Roosevelt led major efforts to break up large corporations, and the concentrated wealth and power of those corporations, and to ban corporate money from elections. They are the same dark souls battled by Franklin Roosevelt during his efforts to help the nation recover from its worse economic calamity ever, and to provide rights, assistance and some sense of income security and dignity to America's workers, poor and elderly. They are the same dark souls who detested Eleanor Roosevelt for her championing of the rights of black Americans and for all poor Americans, and for providing a shining example to the nation's women by daring to be a leader and a spokesperson for a number of causes, and demonstrating to men that women could be leaders too, and that America's women would be taking on new roles in American life, roles long the exclusive preserves of men.

My father was a staunch Republican, but toward the end of his life in the late 1990s, he began to soften his support for the GOP. The Republican takeover of Congress during the 1994 election showed him how some of the GOP policies were not being pushed to help people like him. He also had a simultaneous softening toward Democrats,* so much so, that he related a story to me he had never before mentioned. I can't remember all of the details, but his grandmother was elderly and ill and she had some kind of application in for assistance, and I'm not even sure it was some federal assistance. My great grandfather had died during the mid 1930s, and he had spent his life working in coalmines, so it might have had to do with his former work, as Eleanor Roosevelt took up the cause of coal miners and their families. In those times, Social Security had just started, and if the breadwinner of a family died, usually the husband back then, the family or surviving spouse was apt to be destitute, even in old age. Well my dad was serving in the Pacific during World War Two, and his grandmother couldn't finalize what ever this matter was, so he wrote a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt explaining the situation. He said Mrs. Roosevelt took up my great grandmother's cause and helped to resolve it. To this day, I believe he had never mentioned the story up to that point, because he didn't want to say that he had sought help from a Democrat, and GOT IT!

We sure need some modern Roosevelts. Where are they?

* He even told me he didn't like the Republican attempts to oust President Bill Clinton from office with the impeachment and trial they were pursuing at that time, a statement which nearly saw me fall off of my chair.

WORD HISTORY:
Watch-This word is closely related to "wake" (not the water disturbance type) and "awaken;" in fact, I suppose you could say "watch" and "wake" are really the same word; at least long ago that was true, and the forms are difficult to separate, so I'll try to keep it as relevant as possible to just "watch." Both the noun and verb forms come from the same source. The word goes back to Indo European "weg/wek," which had the notion of "be active, lively." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "wakojana(n)/wakjana(n), with the meaning, "to wake up, to awaken, to be awake," as well as the extended meaning "be awake for the purpose of guarding." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "waecce," the noun form, meaning, "a watch, a vigil," from the idea of "remaining awake, being awake and on guard." This then became "wacche," before the modern form. "Apparently" the later additional meaning of "small implement to keep time" seems to have developed in the 1400s from the notion of it "waking" you, not because you "watch" or look at it. Again, you must remember, the actual meaning of the word had to do with "wake, awake, awaken," and its German relative for an alarm clock is a "Wecker," literally a "waker." The Old Germanic forms also gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb form "waeccan," meaning "to wake," with the secondary "to watch." This then became "wacchen," before the modern form. Just as "watch" and "wake" are closely linked in English, the same is often true in the other Germanic languages, making it very difficult to list the various forms, so I'm going to keep this very limited to forms that are more pointed to "watch," even though they may also have meanings related to "wake," but many forms in the other Germanic languages have to do with the meaning "wake." German has the noun "Wache" (all German nouns are capitalized), which means "guard duty" (see also with Dutch and Low German below) and German "Wächter," means "watchman," as does German "Wachmann" (which in some regions also meant "policeman," although I believe that meaning is now rare). German also has the verb "wachen," which means "to be awake" (a meaning not as common nowadays), but like its English cousin also "to keep watch" (also not as common anymore). German, Low German and Dutch have the noun "wacht," meaning "guard duty," and Dutch has the verb "waken," meaning "to watch," but also " to wake." West Frisian has "(be)weitser," meaning "watchman," and "(be)weitsje," meaning "to guard, to watch." Forms in the other Germanic languages relate to the "wake'' meaning.