Law & Order Episode: Marathon

This long running television series was set and filmed in the Manhattan section of New York City. The first half of each episode typically was devoted to the police effort to make an arrest or arrests for the murder that had been committed. The second half of the episodes centered around the trial and legal case against the defendant or defendants, but there were variations at times.  

 

This episode was first broadcast in November 1999.

Comment: This series was absolutely phenomenal, in my opinion. The scripts often attempted to show and explain to Americans their own system of justice, which is often not easy to understand. When we lose someone close to us to criminal behavior, we are emotional about it; by that, I mean we're not only sad, WE'RE MAD AS HELL! The law, over time, has tried to remove emotion from decisions, which is not always possible (if ever). If we lose someone and the perpetrator "seems" obvious, we want them tried and punished, pure and simple, but the law requires that things be done "by the book;" and that means, that the perpetrator is eligible for all the rights afforded to all of us. (I'm not saying the system always works this way, but usually that is the intention.) That means that law enforcement is supposed to use and obey how evidence is gathered in a case. If we are on the victim's side of a case, we and our emotions want the perpetrator convicted, and we don't want them getting off for technicalities. But the rights of those perpetrators are also the same rights that can potentially protect US, if we are wrongly accused of some crime. It is far more complicated than many people realize. When I was teenager, one night there were a few of us walking along the street when the police stopped us. They were looking for a bunch of teenagers for some property damage, and one of the teens was described as having blond hair and wearing a red or maroon paisley shirt. I had blond hair and I was wearing a maroon paisley shirt (Hey, it was popular back then! haha) I'm not sure, but I think they took our names, but they didn't arrest us, mainly because one of the neighbors saw the police with us, and she spoke up and told them she knew my mother. Well, somewhat later, the police came around and told us they had found the guys they were looking for, and that indeed, one had blond hair and was wearing a maroon paisley shirt, just slightly different from the one I was wearing (I told you they were popular!). It taught me how things can happen by sheer coincidence, and I and the others were lucky this didn't take a different turn. All because I had good taste in shirts. hahaha When the police told us about the guys, we knew them, and the guy who had the blond hair and maroon paisley shirt that night, died just a few years ago. 

 

 

Episode Cast:

 

Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe

Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green

Sam Waterston as Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy

Angie Harmon as Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael 

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren

Steven Hill as District Attorney Adam Schiff

Larry Clarke as Detective LaMotte

Guillermo Diaz as Bobby Sabo

Gloria Irizarry as Hilda (Bobby's grandmother) 

Russell Hornsby as Danny Ruiz

Loren Velez as Ms. Torres (Bobby Sabo's attorney)

Michael Irby as Diego Garza

Maximiliano Hernandez as Victor Sabo

Richard Barboza as Flaco Ochoa

Michael Ryan Segal as Roger (pizza shop worker/gun seller to Bobby Sabo)

David Rosenbaum as Judge Berman (the judge in the seized gun case)

E. Katherine Kerr as Judge Holtz (judge in Sabo's case)

 

The episode opens with a female police officer trying to calm flaring tempers over a parking space. Shots rings out nearby and the officer draws her gun and runs toward where the shots came from. She finds a woman lying on the street, the apparent victim of the gunfire. She radios in to report what's happened and to get medical aid for the woman. Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green arrive a little later, but the woman is dead. They find the woman has a wallet with a couple hundred dollars and a purse that is ripped, as seemingly the shooter tried to take her purse. (Just for the record, the murdered woman's name is Eva Harrison.) The officer who first responded tells them there are witnesses and that the shooter is "a Hispanic kid on a silver mountain bike." The fact that this is a murder and attempted robbery in broad daylight turns up the heat on the police to get the murderer. 

 

One young witness was fascinated by the mountain bike and he tells the detectives the make of the bike and that the bike costs $800 (this episode is from 1999 which makes the $800 equivalent to more than $1300 in 2022). A female witness can't really describe the man on the bike, and a German couple visiting the United States also can't agree upon a description of the shooter. The silver mountain bike is the one thing the witnesses agree upon. The detectives talk with a young girl at a playground not far from the crime scene about the mountain bike, and she makes a deal: $20 and she'll give them information about the bike, and Lennie makes the deal, which also includes the name, Danny Ruiz, and the residence building of the guy she has seen with the mountain bike. The two detectives go to the apartment building to find Ruiz, where the management only has the tenants by last name. An older man security guard accompanies them and when Lenny says they've already checked on five tenants with the last name Ruiz, the guard says, "We can't keep track of 'em, they multiply like roaches," a remark which irritates Detective Green. They finally locate Danny Ruiz's apartment, and he turns out to be a black Latino, but they are looking for a white Latino, and he denies having a silver mountain bike, but Green finds the bike in another room. Ruiz says he found it behind the building, and Green says the killer may have ditched it, and Briscoe makes a remark. "And then blend in with the rest of the roaches." Green is again bothered by such language.

 

The bike is covered with finger prints of one Bobby Sabo, who has been arrested before for purse snatching, so the detectives go off to arrest Sabo at his grandmother's apartment, but Sabo runs up the stairs to the roof and gets away, as the police had not covered the roof as a possible escape route for the suspect. Briscoe is worn out from running up the stairs to the roof. A little later, the detectives find out that Sabo's cousin, Victor, has taken Bobby to the bus station and they go there. Briscoe sees Bobby go into the restroom and he follows with his gun drawn and Bobby is arrested, and no gun is found, but not before Bobby shakes his genitals at Briscoe. Bobby makes a remark how he ran past Briscoe "like he was my grandma." The problem gets worse, as the one female witness can't identify Bobby in a lineup, and the German couple has returned to Germany. Bobby Sabo is freed. The detectives lean on Bobby's cousin, Victor, and he tells them Bobby had been staying with a guy out on parole named Diego. The police go to Diego's apartment, but they find no gun. They decide to go back to Victor, who had given Bobby the ride to the bus station in his girlfriend's car. Inside the car they find a 25 caliber pistol, which was the same type gun used to kill the woman during the attempted purse snatching. Bobby's fingerprints are on the gun and the detectives and other police officers go to arrest Bobby at a basketball court. As Briscoe handcuffs Bobby, Green and other police move the other guys at the basketball court out of the way. With Sabo in handcuffs, Briscoe tells Green, "Our boy here just confessed." 

 

At the precinct, Bobby, with his attorney present, faces questions from Briscoe and Green, but he denies the gun is his, and when Briscoe says it doesn't matter, because Bobby confessed on the basketball court, Bobby denies that too, and he claims that the police are trying to frame him. Bobby asks Lieutenant Van Buren, "Are you just going to stand there and let this cracker frame me?" (Note: In American English, especially regionally in the state of Georgia and parts of nearby Florida, calling a person a "cracker" has usually meant "a Southern white person (often poor)," but in some regions, it has also been used for "a white policeman." While the word spread outside of Georgia and the South, my guess is, due to its limited usage, many Americans likely don't really understand the terminology in this context. "Cracker" has had a number of varied meanings over time; of course, with by far the most common in the U.S. being, "a crispy type of biscuit or wafer.") Back to the story: It becomes more obvious that this kid's attitude and his luck in getting off the hook is messing with Briscoe's mind. Privately, Van Buren asks Green if he heard the confession, and he admits he did not hear it. Briscoe hands his written report to Green to check over before filing it in the case, and Green simply asks Lennie how he got the confession so fast. This prompts a sensitive Briscoe to say that after all of his years on the police force, he has a right not to be second-guessed. Van Buren tells the detectives to see what the ballistics show about the retrieved gun. The ballistics show the gun was not the gun used to kill the woman. Briscoe sighs, as they just can't nail Bobby.   

 

The Borough Detective Commander has Van Buren, Briscoe and Green in his office and raises hell with them because the case is still open. When the subject of the confession comes up, Van Buren tells the commander that only Lennie Briscoe heard it and there is no corroboration, although she says she believes Briscoe. Afterwards, Briscoe and Green have some words with each other, as Lennie feels Green questioned whether there was a confession. Lennie angrily walks away. Later, as Green prepares to leave for the day, Briscoe mentions that Bobby's gun was found in a "Pizza Land" bag, and that there are twelve such places in Manhattan, the indication being that maybe they can find the right pizza shop and find someone who might know Bobby and who might know something about how Bobby ended up with a different gun than the one he used to shoot the woman on the street (Note: To hopefully make this a little clearer: how did Bobby get the gun that he then put into the pizza bag and left in the car, which was then found by the police, and what happened to the gun he used to murder the woman?). Green decides to stay at work and the scene shifts to one of the pizza shops where one of the employees identifies Bobby from his mugshot. He then points out another employee, Roger, who recently had some "business dealing" with Sabo in the shop restroom. When Roger is questioned, the detectives find out that he sold Bobby the gun the police found, and that Bobby had dealt his own (original) gun "to a Dominican dude" (that's how Bobby got the money to buy the other gun). Roger tells them he doesn't know the guy's name, but he does tell them where the guy hangs out. The detectives go there and observe the guys until Lennie says, "There's our guy ... he's carrying heavy on the right side." Green is reluctant, but Briscoe gets out of the car and goes to the guy, and Green follows. The guy, named Flaco, asks what it's all about, and Briscoe says it's about the gun he's carrying in his pocket. Flaco asks, "What, you got, x-ray eyes or something?" Briscoe answers, "Yeah, I've got x-ray eyes," and Green checks Flaco's pocket and pulls out a 25 caliber gun. Lennie, always ready with a smart ass remark, says, "Too bad Flaco, you had to run into Superman today." Flaco is arrested and taken in, and it's found he also has a warrant for a misdemeanor, carrying a 30 day sentence. The gun is tested and this gun is found to be the weapon that killed the woman on the street. The detectives tell Flaco they don't think he's the killer, but Flaco won't immediately tell them from whom he got the gun. After some back and forth, Flaco gives them Bobby's name. The detectives go to arrest Bobby again, and predictably, Bobby gives them attitude and tells them "You're just making my lawsuit fatter." Briscoe replies, "Keep talking smart ass, we've got your gun." 

 

The scene shifts to the District Attorney's office, where Jack McCoy tells DA Adam Schiff they finally have a more solid case to prosecute and that Sabo has been indicted. When Adam looks at the evidence and Flaco's arrest record, he's not as convinced of how solid the ground is. McCoy assures him they have made a deal with Flaco to testify against Bobby Sabo, but then in comes Abbie Carmichael with news that Flaco is moving to suppress the gun, based upon the Fourth Amendment (about unreasonable searches and seizures). So much for the deal. A judge agrees that Briscoe's "hunch" that Flaco was carrying a gun was not sufficient reason to search him. The detectives follow up with Flaco in jail, where he is serving the 30 day sentence for the misdemeanor charge, but he refuses to testify against Bobby Sabo, leading an angry Briscoe to grab Flaco and pin him to the wall. Green intervenes to calm the situation, which later leads Lennie to tell Green to never lay a hand on him again. McCoy and Carmichael now only have the confession Lennie says he heard, and McCoy is at least somewhat unsure if Lennie is telling the truth. 

 

The scene shifts to the courtroom, where Briscoe tells the court what happened when Sabo made his confession, which was in reply to Briscoe saying to him then, "You little bastard, I'm arresting you for the murder of Eva Harrison," to which he testifies that Sabo replied, "I gave that white bitch what she deserved." Sabo's attorney questions Lennie about why no one else heard this statement from Sabo and she then tells how a judge ruled about illegally seized evidence and that her client had eluded the police earlier, seeming to make Briscoe angry, as pressure about the case increased on the detective. She makes the point about the gun being illegally seized showed how far Briscoe would go to get her client, but Briscoe responds that his work file is clean, and that the case is not about him, but about Bobby Sabo. Now Sabo takes the stand and proceeds to tell the court he feels Briscoe has a grudge against him, and he denies ever having said what Briscoe testified he said about the murdered woman, Eva Harrison. Sabo's cocky attitude continues when McCoy questions him, but he affirms his denial about the confession. The judge tells them that Briscoe obviously has bad feelings toward Sabo, and this makes her question Briscoe's motives on the confession statement, but she gives the prosecution 24 hours to deliver more evidence, or she will dismiss the charge against Bobby Sabo.                                

 

Back at the precinct, Briscoe and Green get into another argument, with Green saying that Lennie's screw ups had hurt the case, and Briscoe coming back about some of Green's actions having come into question in his time as his partner. Green throws up Lennie's earlier statement in the case about "blending in with the other roaches," and Briscoe denies having meant it to be derogatory. Lieutenant Van Buren stops the argument and takes Briscoe into her office where he indicates he feels they think he's getting too old, but Van Buren tells him she has no such thoughts. Briscoe calms down and goes back out to Green and politely asks for the court transcript of the testimony. During testimony, Sabo stated that he had a pair of brand new shoes. Briscoe now wonders where these shoes are, so he and Green head back to Diego Garza's apartment, where Bobby had been staying. They find the shoes and forensics finds blood stains matching the dead woman's DNA, as well as Sabo's thumb print on the shoes. Sabo and his attorney are confronted with the evidence and McCoy says, "There are no suppression issues this time, your client's run out of miracles." Sabo consults with his attorney and she offers information Sabo has on a rapist running loose, this information in exchange for a 6 to 12 year sentence in the murder case. If the deal is agreed to by Adam Schiff, Sabo will have to admit to the murder in court, and he almost gleefully agrees. McCoy says there is one more thing, he tells Sabo that he went one-on-one with Detective Briscoe and beat him. He wants to know what Sabo did say when Briscoe arrested him that one day. Sabo says, he told him, "I gave that bitch what she deserved." The deal is presented to Adam Schiff who must agree to it, and Carmichael objects to it, but Schiff wants the rapist apprehended, so he okays the deal. Van Buren gets word of the deal and calls Briscoe and Green into her office to tell them, and that the rapist has been arrested. She also tells them that Sabo admitted he made the confession to Lennie earlier in the case.    

 

 

Photo is of the 2012 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment "Law & Order, Tenth Season" DVD box set

 

WORD HISTORY:

Marathon-This word and its modern meaning is from the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece in 1896, where a long distance race was part of the games; however, the distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195km) didn't become the set distance until the 1920s. The race name comes from the Greek town of that name near Athens, where in 490 B.C.E. the Greeks defeated invading Persians. The story is, Greek messenger Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to bring news of the victory. The town's name means "fennel," or "field of fennel," but the word's actual origin is unknown, although seemingly from a non Indo European source in the Mediterranean area. The word has broadened in meaning beyond the Olympics to "any long race," with figurative uses for any "long lasting event," and the ending of the word is often tacked onto other words to show they are meant to last for long periods. Example: "telethon."  

Seeing the Past from the Present

In spite of the hiccup caused by a dispute between the owners and players, the 2022 baseball season is underway, although about a week late. Early one day last season, I was waiting for the train to take me to the market, when a teenage boy wearing a Cleveland baseball jersey, carrying a baseball glove and accompanied by his dad, walked onto the platform to wait for the train to take them downtown for a game that day (I don't now recall the visiting team that day).

I couldn't help but think of my dad and me, and sometimes my older brother, heading to Cleveland Municipal Stadium for games in the 1960s and early 1970s. My dad would never say "We're going to the stadium for the game," but rather, "We're going to the ballpark," the term he always used. Anyway, I briefly talked with the father and son about the then new season, and it was like having a conversation with my dad and myself, but 60 years ago.

 

I suppose we all reminisce about times gone by, and some seek almost desperately to hold onto the past, perhaps often at the expense of the present and the future. This episode of "The Twilight Zone" fits right into the idea of the past: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-visit-to-past.html   

Back in the 1960s ... my uncle, my dad's brother, was visiting us from Connecticut, where he and his family lived back then. I believe it was the last game of the season for us the day this picture was taken. Just think, "I coulda been a contender," but Marlon Brando made that line famous before I had a chance.

WORD HISTORY: 

Jersey-The origin of this word is uncertain, although it seems to go back to one of two possibilities, both of which have to do with the name of one of the Channel Islands, which is a British Crown Dependency; and thus, it is not a constituent part of the United Kingdom nor of any of the UK's component parts, with many perhaps first thinking of England. First off, there is an argument that the name "Jersey" is simply from a French pronounced form of Latin "Caesarea," which was rendered in French as "Césarée," and then which supposedly became "Gersui" in the French spoken by the descendants of the original Normans in England, then this became "Gersey," before the form "Jersey." Others believe the name comes from Old Norse, and indeed, the Norse sailed and raided along the western European coast, the English coast and among the Channel Islands. The idea is, the Norse called the island "Geirrs Island;" that is, with the Norse form coming from "geirr" and "ey," words from Germanic. "Geirr" comes from the same Germanic source that gave English "garlic, garfish, Oscar" and the verb "gore," and its basic meaning is "spear, spearhead," and in the verb gore meaning, "to be pierced or stabbed by a spear or other sharp object (usually an animal horn)." Old Norse "geirr" meant "spear," and it was also used as a male name. "Ey" goes back to Old Germanic "awjo," which meant "meadow area by a river or stream, the lower level of land near a river or stream;" thus, "a floodplain," with the further meaning "island." The Germanic form gave Old English "ieg," which meant "island," and it gave Old Norse the previously mentioned "ey," also meaning "island." The Norse forms of "Geirr" and "ey" then supposedly became "Gersui," "Gersey" and "Jersey," in succession. Whatever the case, the use of "jersey" (small 'j') for a garment for the upper body is from the island name, seemingly because such garments were commonly worn there, but when this really came into use for the garment name is unclear to me, as some have noted the name was originally applied to the particular cloth made on Jersey and then used for the garment, but there is a huge gap in possible beginnings of the term dating from the 1500s to the first half of the 1800s. This may be because the original cloth was named this in the 1500s, and then that transferred to the name for the garment, but with the "athletic shirt" meaning, which is still common today, first being used around the mid 1800s in the U.S. The U.S. state of "New Jersey" was also named after the island in the second half of the 1600s, as one of the big landowners in the region was from the island of Jersey (he had been given land in America by England's King Charles II). In every day lingo, "New Jersey" is often shortened to just "Jersey."

How "Some" Go Off The Rails

Sometimes people and events from the past pop into my mind. This man was one of those people I have never forgotten, even though I didn't really know him all that well. The final part of his life (mentioned below) certainly reinforced my memory about him, although time has taken a toll on many of the details I once knew.   

Back in the 1980s this man rented an apartment at a building I managed. He was older, smoked a pipe and had retired (about 1984?). The 1980s saw the rise and explosion of AIDS around the world. This man was very solitary, which certainly isn't a crime, but did it contribute to an increasing eccentricity that eventually overwhelmed him? Now, when I say "he was solitary," I don't mean he never spoke to others, because he did, but it was limited and he was not a conversationalist, and the housekeeper for the building had known him for quite a number of years, and she had told how he could be somewhat to the abrupt and cantankerous side. There was a legal case pending in the court system about the building, a battle between the building owner and the owner of an office building next to it, over "air rights," so many things were on hold, but I offered to have the man's apartment painted, as he had been there for a number of years, but he said he didn't want to be bothered. Basically the man stayed in his apartment and watched television news (nowhere as extensive in those days compared to today) and listened to talk radio, which became a focus of a conservative to a growing right wing effort in the time of Ronald Reagan, who was the then president of the U.S.

One day in I'd say about 1987 the man came down to the office just as the serviceman for the elevator company was having me sign his paperwork for his regular maintenance visit. The man was agitated about some things he had heard on talk radio about AIDS. I cannot recall the radio show host who had helped work the man into a hateful frenzy. The tenant condemned everyone to death who had AIDS, and when the elevator guy asked him if that meant children, he said "Yes," without any hesitation. The two of us tried to reason with him about the things he was saying, but he was adamant. I have no idea what his overall religious beliefs were; and by that I mean, whether he had some strong religious belief about AIDS and its ties to gay people in those times, as some so called "religious" leaders of the "religious right" loved to condemn others to death or suffering, until of course, they got busted for some transgression, which then miraculously turned them into preachers of forgiveness and redemption for themselves. Then again, the man said "EVERYONE with AIDS" should die, including children, so maybe there was no religious connection. I never saw the guy intoxicated and he certainly did not seem to be "under the influence of any alcohol" that day. I don't believe he drank alcohol. The man with the elevator company was totally appalled by the tenant's hateful rant.

Well the man eventually rented part of a house approximately a mile away, and about 10 to 12 years later, when I worked at a different building, a report came over the radio that a man was shooting at people from a house that had been then surrounded by police. A little while later came the report that the man had been killed. I don't believe he killed or wounded anyone before his end came, but I just cannot remember. It was not until further reports came in and the man's name and address were released that I knew it was the former tenant from the other apartment building.

WORD HISTORY:
Mercury (mercurial)-The ultimate origin of the name/word "Mercury" is uncertain, with it possibly being a Latin borrowing from Etruscan,^ and the Etruscan word that "may" have provided the basis for the word "market." There is a tie between the name "Mercury" and "market" in meaning, as the Roman god Mercury was the god of trade and business initially, with other powers added over time. If true, "Mercury" would go back to Latin "merx," a noun meaning "things for sale, wares," which then would have spawned "Mercurius," the name for the god of business. English borrowed this as "Mercurie" in the mid 1100s, with the planet name also being taken from Latin in about 1300. Latin "Mercurius" came to be applied to the silvery scientific element, "perhaps" because of its quick flowing characteristic, as "Mercury," the god, had also come to be seen as the god of news, and was often depicted with wings on his shoes to convey his fleetness as a messenger. This scientific use was borrowed by English in the latter part of the 1300s. "Mercurial" came as a borrowing in circa 1400 from the Latin adjective "Mercurialis," which meant "associated with or having to do with the god Mercury;" thus from Latin "Mercurius." It "seems" astrologists also added the meaning, "influenced by the planet Mercury," which was supposed to have characteristics from the god Mercury; thus, "quick, fleet;" but also, "quickly changeable, volatile in temperament," the meaning that has remained in English since the middle of the 1600s. 
 
^ Etruscan is not an Indo European language, or at least, linguists have not thus far connected it to Indo European. The modern Italian region of "Tuscany" is named after the Etruscans. Latin is an Indo European language related to English further down the family tree, and it obviously came into much contact with Etruscan in Italy. Etruscan is a mystery language, but it was "possibly" related to some languages of the Aegean Sea area, including "Minoan." Etruscan was spoken in a fairly large part of what is now Italy, but it eventually died out when Latin came to the area, although some of its words were borrowed into Latin.               

A Tenant Named Bill

Recently I again watched the 1939 movie, "Of Mice and Men." * For those unfamiliar with any of the movie versions or with the book, one of the characters is a big man named "Lennie Small," who is often termed as "feeble-minded." Lennie wants to be happy and be nice and he loves to pet little animals, but he doesn't realize his own strength. His friend is named "George," and George has great difficulty keeping Lennie out of trouble. Well, my thoughts went back to the 1980s and to a tenant in one building who only vaguely reminded me of the Lennie character, but the connection was strong enough to me, that this tenant, named "Bill," came to my mind while I watched the movie.

Bill was a military veteran in his 30s back then, but at some point he had some mental problem. I believe the Veteran's Administration** had determined that Bill was unable to manage his own financial affairs, and they had commissioned an attorney to take care of Bill's money and necessities, which is how Bill came to live in the building I managed; it was only a few blocks from his attorney's office, as I recall. Bill wasn't a totally huge guy, but he was bigger than I was, which wasn't any miraculous event, as I'm not all that tall. One of his problems was, he couldn't remember things, including his apartment key, which was a constant problem, as we had to continuously unlock the door for him (the doors automatically locked upon closing). I must admit, it was aggravating, as at just about any time, Bill could come looking for one of us to unlock his door, and myself and two other employees lived on the premises, so after regular office hours didn't spare us from Bill's knocking. I would "give him hell," but not in a nasty way, and he knew it, because he'd sometimes smile a little when I lectured him. We put the key on a chain to go around his neck, but it didn't help, he would forget to put the chain on. One of the things about him was, when he would talk with me, or if I lectured him, he would stand and sort of march in place. He was clean, but he wouldn't have won a clothing award. He was always respectful to us, and it was a great shock when his lawyer called me and told me he had signed papers to have Bill picked up by the police or sheriff's deputies, I forget which, and that he would be taken to the mental ward of the VA, if I remember correctly, because he had gone to visit his father and his sister and then "beaten the hell out of them" (the words used by the attorney).

I had never met any of Bill's family, but Bill was in his 30s, so his father wasn't 41. I certainly don't condone Bill's violence toward his family members, who lived about 10 miles from the apartment building, but it was kind of funny when the police came that night. It's been so long, I don't remember the time, but Bill was in bed. The police wanted me with them, so I went and I knocked on Bill's door, in sort of a reverse of him knocking on my door at any hour to let him into his apartment, but this wasn't like midnight or anything like that. So he came and opened the door and the police took over and showed him the legal papers. I'll never forget it, because Bill said to them, "Can this wait until morning, I was sleeping?" We all chuckled, but it was sad for the violence Bill had committed and for Bill's mind, as he seemed like a little child, unaware of how serious matters were. His lawyer, whose name I can no longer remember, told me that Bill had been a top notch radio operator in the military (I can't remember what branch of the military he had been in either), and there was some special commendation or some such thing he had received. As the lawyer said, however, somewhere thereafter Bill's mind "blew a fuse" (I believe that was how the lawyer termed it). Well, if I remember right, the doctor(s) at the VA recommended to the attorney that he move Bill to a facility about 50 to 60 miles away, in the Youngstown, Ohio area, and I never saw Bill as a tenant again after that night. 

I would guess that about 8 years went by, and I saw this guy one day. I knew him, but I couldn't place why I knew him. He disappeared, and then it came to me.... BILL! He looked well, but whether the VA had been able to help his mind, I don't know. Just a few years ago, I was looking through the local obituaries, and there was Bill's name. I know Bill did wrong about his father and sister, but I've got to admit, seeing his obituary hurt. I've been unlucky to know a few really bad people, but I've been lucky to know lots and lots of other people in my life, all with various flaws, just as I have, and when I see or hear that one of them has passed on, a part of me dies too.            


* For my article on this movie, here is the link:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/02/steinbecks-of-mice-and-men-great-book.html

** Commonly called the Veteran's Administration, but more commonly simply referred to as the "VA."

WORD HISTORY:
Tenant-This word is distantly related to "tendon," a word English borrowed from Latin, which had gotten it from Greek, and to "tense" (the verb and the adjective^), a Latin-derived word borrowed by English. It goes back to Indo European "ten," which had the idea of "to stretch, to stretch or reach out." This gave Latin "tenere," meaning, "to grasp, to hold," which passed to Latin-based Old French as "tenir," which meant, "to hold, to possess," and the participle form of which was "tenant." This was used as a noun for, "a holder of land," and, "a holder of land by agreement in feudal society." This was carried by the Normans to England, but became "tenaunt" by the second half of the 1200s. This was borrowed into English in the first quarter of the 1300s as "tenaunt," but the spelling later was altered to "tenant" (perhaps by influence of the original French spelling?). Its modern meaning has settled on "some agreement, written or spoken, where occupancy to some property is granted to a person, to people, or to an entity, usually in exchange for some regular payment; that is, rent."       

^ It is NOT related to the grammatical noun "tense," used in "present tense," "past tense," etc, as this word is from a totally different source.   

Voting Is Not A Game, There Can Be Serious Consequences

Competition in sports and other activities can bring us tremendous satisfaction from individual or team accomplishment, but after celebrating victory, life moves on to the next game or to the next part of life. Politics is NOT like a game. Election results can bring real consequences, good or bad, often depending upon point of view, in their aftermath. I've written here before about my father's competitive nature and how it affected his political views. He was long a staunch Republican, and he was against Democrats, not because he disliked them, but because they were on the "other team." One time he was talking with a guy out in the yard. When he came inside, he said the guy's name (I don't recall the name now, but this was about 45 years ago) and said he had gone to school with him. The man was running for a political office, county commissioner, I believe, and my father said all kinds of nice things about the guy. This all prompted me to ask, "So, you're voting for him?" He said, "No, he's a Democrat." If I remember correctly, he didn't even know who the Republican candidate was, but it didn't matter, because whoever it was, was on his team. This is how it worked in my dad's world.

Back then, the Republicans, or at least a part of the Republican Party, generally the more conservative part,* had long seethed over Social Security, a program established in the mid 1930s, during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but with a good deal of Republican support and some Democratic opposition.** Conservative and libertarian Barry Goldwater secured the 1964 Republican nomination for president, and Goldwater was no friend to anyone on Social Security, as he essentially believed it should be voluntary, an idea that could well have led to "Social Insecurity." Well my dad supported Goldwater and tried to play down Goldwater's rough edges, of which there were many. While an outspoken and honest person, Goldwater, in my opinion, hated living in (then) modern times and he would have preferred a more distant time, unless, of course, a time machine dropped him off as a poor person in the 1600s, where "work until you drop (dead)," was largely the way of life for the overwhelming percentage of people not in the nobility. An idea like Social Security would have sounded pretty good to old Barry in those circumstances, and let's forget about that "voluntary" stuff. Anyway, eventually, as with all of us who live long enough, my dad came face to face with the realities of getting older, and the opposition within the Republican Party to Social Security had continued, if not increased. He then saw that politics is not like some sporting event to be won or lost, but that elections could turn your life upside down, and at a time in your life when you had become highly vulnerable, older age. When Republicans took over both houses of Congress in 1994, the situation was much on his mind, as he mentioned how Republicans were too connected to big money interests just greedily rubbing their hands together, hoping to get those hands on Social Security money. How times had changed!  

* I need to point out, that in those times the two major political parties were not as they are today. I think it's safe to say that the most conservative elements in the country were in the Democratic Party, as the South was then known as the "solid South;" that is, it overwhelmingly voted Democratic by tradition dating to before the Civil War. This allegiance to the Democratic Party was HEAVILY reinforced in the post Civil War time, because the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and an anti slavery party, the party that led the Union in its defeat of the South, as well as in the occupation of the South (Reconstruction). The post World War Two "solid South," however, had been showing the strains of an increasing number of  Democrats moving to advocate for the breakup of segregation and fairer treatment of black Americans, a part of the population then still heavily located in southern states, although some black Americans began to move northward to large industrial cities in hopes of landing good paying jobs. The post World War Two Republican Party still had a fairly potent moderate to progressive wing, eventually led by New Yorker Nelson Rockefeller. Just my opinion, but the venomous part of conservatism was even in evidence back then, as some conservative Republicans absolutely HATED Nelson Rockefeller. That nasty element received lots of reinforcements in the times leading up to today, as the conservatives in the South shifted from the Democrats to the Republicans. Just to be clear, not all conservatives are like this, and wanting checks on spending and government power is not necessarily a bad thing, but rather they are worthy of debate.   

** For more on the establishment of Social Security, here is the link to an earlier article I did:
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2009/09/yikes-were-already-socialists.html 

WORD HISTORY:
Virus-This word, closely related to "virulent," and more distantly related to "viscous," both words of Latin derivation borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "weis," with the meaning, "slimy liquid." This gave Latin "virus," meaning, "plant sap, slime, foul smelling liquid, venom." English borrowed the word in the second half of the 1300s from Latin with the meaning, "venom;" thus also, "poison." By the first half of the 1700s, it was applied to "infectious substance," and by the 1970s, the idea of "infectious substance" began to be used for "transmittable computer program for malicious use;" thus, "computer virus."  

"Salute the Uniform" Can Only Go So Far

Way back when I was a teenager, the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement brought some, but certainly not all, younger Americans to begin to question the nation's adults. In those times, that was a "no-no." Back then, a common expression used by adults to avoid the difficult arguments of the young was, "Children should be seen and not heard," an expression that apparently dates to the mid 1400s. It means that children should only be seen, and they should not offer opinions on what were seen as "adult matters." Back then too, adulthood was "often" legally defined as the age of 21 on many matters. The 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the states in the summer of 1971 and it established the age of 18 as the lowest legal age for voting.

Over the years there have been various allegations about members of the clergy being involved in sexual matters with children, both male and female. The clergy is a group that has benefited by people's trust and the fear that if you criticize a member of the clergy, there is a spot reserved for you in Hell. Now, just days ago, we learned of a major scandal in the state of Pennsylvania involving Roman Catholic clergy. The scandal comes from a grand jury report hundreds of pages long in which it alleges that a thousand children were abused by hundreds of Catholic priests and that Church officials developed a plan to protect the abusers, not to help the children.

I "suspect" the same thing has been true, to some degree, in schools. Teachers have received lots of respect because of the role they are supposed to take in educating children and in preparing them for life. Accusations of misbehavior, especially criminal misbehavior, against a teacher is not something the public will necessarily leap to believe right away, and that was even more so when I was young. Back when I was in high school, a good friend of mine, a girl, talked to me very privately one day. She ended up crying as she told me about a male teacher who had grabbed her and tried to kiss her. It's all been so long ago, I can't remember everything, but she didn't want me to do anything about it. I was a student leader and I was on pretty good terms with the school principal, an ex military officer. I advised the girl to talk with her parents, which I believe she did, but I can't say that with complete certainty, as time has clouded my memory. The thing was, in those times, to accuse a teacher of such an offense was difficult, to say the least, as adults were given the benefit of the doubt and, "children should be seen and not heard" was the prevailing belief. Even today such would likely be the case, but in those times, the chance of breaking through against a teacher would have been very, very low. Not only that, this was not just any teacher, but a man well known throughout the community because of his other job, which was highly public, but not in government. He didn't really like me anyhow, but I didn't particularly give a damn. I don't recall exactly what happened, but he confronted me about something one day, and I threw out a hint that I knew about what he had done with my friend. He was furious and threatened to have me suspended. He always acted as if the principal had died and left him in charge. This is how people in power can abuse that power to cover their asses. And this is why there must be checks and balances on power, including, or perhaps especially, on the power of the president of this nation. I never pursued the matter of his behavior, because the girl didn't want the matter brought out in public, so we went on with our lives, but not too many years later, a family member mentioned that this teacher had been implicated in similar matters with female students. The teacher passed away a couple of decades ago, but with the recent grand jury report, this episode with my friend and the teacher came back to me.

"Salute the uniform" needs clarification. We do not always have to agree with leaders in various parts of society in order to give those leaders respect, BUT if they are breaking laws, they are not deserving of our respect, and I don't care what garb they wear, whether it be a military uniform, some type of religious outfit, law enforcement uniform or the outfit of a school teacher. People need to earn respect by who THEY are individually, not by just serving in some position.    

WORD HISTORY:
Use-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown. The verb form (pronounced in English as if, "youz") goes back to Latin "uti," which had a wide range of meanings: "to make use of, to gain from (thus also, to benefit, to profit), to enjoy, to consume." This produced Latin "usare," meaning, "to use." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "user," meaning, "to make use of, to employ." English borrowed the word as "usen" in the early 1200s. By circa 1400, the word had also come to mean, "to take advantage of," a sense shared to a great extent by the derived words, "misuse" and "abuse" (formed by "ab" + "use"). The noun form (pronounced in English as if, "youss") has the same older history, which then produced the Latin noun "usus," which meant "use, employment, habit, skill," This passed into Old French as "us," meaning "a custom, a habit, the usage of." English also borrowed the noun form in the early 1200s. 

Penrose Hot Sausages

Some of you may remember the large jars of Penrose sausages that sat on the counters in little neighborhood stores and bars years ago. The sausages were pickled, perhaps symbolic of what happened to some of the bar customers, too. Depending upon the time frame, the sausages were a nickel or a dime, and some neighborhood bars sold the little sausages on a slice of bread. It was not uncommon for the bars to pickle eggs in the spicy brine after the sausages were all sold. In with the sausages were always a few small fiery red chili peppers. Like my grandfather, I liked spicy food, and the other kids would love to see me eat one of the hot chilies with the sausage. The bar owner would use a long spoon or tongs to get one of the sausages and then to land one of the peppers to go along with it. The people in the bar, all of whom knew my grandfather, would often watch too, as I chomped on the pepper all by itself. No bite of bread or drink of water for me.

From what I understand, they stopped selling the sausages in jars a number of years ago. If I remember right, they had smaller jars for sale in grocery stores, but now they sell them in plastic packets, but I'll bet they don't have any little chili peppers in them. Time changes us and the things from our lives, but we still have the memories, including of those wonderful Penrose pickled sausages with chili peppers.

WORD HISTORY:
Tongs-This word goes back to Indo European "denk," which meant, "to bite, to sting." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "tango," with the notion of, "to grip by biting down." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the noun "tange," meaning, "pincers," which later also came to be used by some to mean "pliers." Relatives in the other Germanic languages, all meaning "pincers, tongs, pliers:" German has "Zange" (the "Z" is pronounced "ts"), meaning, ""pliers, pincers, tongs;" Dutch and Low German Saxon have "tang" (pincers, tongs, pliers); Danish has "tænger;" Norwegian "tenger;" Icelandic "töng;" Swedish "tång."

Randy & Some Spanish Sailors

Way back in 1981, I believe it was, I left a baseball game early at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium one evening. As I walked up W. 3rd Street, a group of about ten guys came over to me. One guy asked me a question in broken English, a question I no longer recall. Anyway, I asked the guys where they were from, and the spokesman answered, "Spain." He explained their ship was docked  right by the stadium at the Port of Cleveland and that they were out to see a little of the town before heading back to the ship. Well four or five of the guys decided to go along with me, while the others chose to return to the ship. I took them to a few places and they had a good time and when the time came for them to get back to their ship, they asked me to come along. Maybe I was daring, I don't know, but I accepted, although I thought, "Randy, you're going to end up at a bullfight in Barcelona." These guys were great. They gave me some type of Spanish melon and some Spanish cheese, and what else but some Spanish beer, the word for which is "cerveza" (see Word History), since they taught me the word that night. It was a great experience. They all were very friendly and one guy they teased a little, because he was from Basque country in Spain, up in the north of the country, on the border with France, in the region of the Pyrenees Mountains. All of these years later, I still think of these guys on occasion.    

WORD HISTORY:
Cerveza-This word for "beer" goes back to Indo European "krhem," which had the notion of "heating liquids." This gave its Old Celtic offspring "kormi," meaning, "heated or brewed liquid." Borrowed by Latin from some form of Celtic, where it had come to mean, "beer" (Welsh and Irish had such forms). In Latin it was "cervisia/cervesia," and meant, "beer." In Spanish, a Latin-based language, it was "cerveza," and North American English has essentially borrowed the word, as there are imported brands of beer from Spanish speaking countries, especially Mexico. 

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."

A Sad Time Of Year

First published 9-30-14 (Note: I am re-posting this on 9-29-19, and this is the last day of the regular season. This year the Cleveland Indians will not be in the playoffs. When I was a kid, there were no playoffs, because there were no divisions, but rather the top National League team and the top American League team simply faced off in the World Series.) 

My major passion as a kid was baseball. I played it, listened to it on radio and watched it on television, although in those times, the late 1950s through the 1960s, televised games were not as common as today, although besides games televised by the teams on local stations, the fans could get special television treats if their favorite team was participating in the "Game of the Week," carried by NBC on Saturday afternoons. I lived and died with the Cleveland Indians ... okay, I died, but there was always next year, so I kept hope alive. I knew every player's uniform number, his batting average and his other stats. The last game of the season was always a sad time for me, as the days to spring seemed to move more slowly than I could eat broccoli or turnips... okay, maybe the days weren't THAT slow; then again, let me think about that. Gradually the leaves emptied from the trees, the north winds brought snow and cold temperatures, but then, just as gradually, the snow began to melt, the winds began to warm, the Indians went to spring training at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, and my spirits soared, as I knew it wouldn't be long before I heard the familiar voice of longtime Indians' broadcaster Jimmy Dudley say, "This is your old friend Jimmy Dudley." And his wonderful Virginia accented voice couldn't have come at a better time, because I had finally finished that damned broccoli.

WORD HISTORY:
Sad-Notice how the meaning of this word, closely related to "sate" (once also spelled "sade"), has changed in English. It goes back to Indo European "sa(h)," with the notion of "satisfaction, having enough." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "sathaz," which indeed meant "sated;" that is, "full, satisfied, enough." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "saed," with essentially the same meaning, but also the extended meaning "weary (of/with)," from the notion of being full. The idea of "weary from being full" then expanded in the 1300s to the primary meaning it has retained ever since, "unhappy." In case you were wondering, both "sad" and "sate" are related to "satisfy," but this word, from the same Indo European source as "sad/sate," came from the Latin branch of Indo European, and it was borrowed by English via French, a heavily Latin-based language. As for "sad," its Germanic relatives are: German "satt" (full, well fed, but also "smug," and the comparative form is "satter," formed just as English "sadder," and the superlative "[am] sattesten,'' similar to English "saddest"), Low German "satt" ("full, not hungry," but notice the comparative form is "sadder" and the superlative is "saddst," very much like English "sadder and saddest,"), West Frisian "sed" (full, sated), Dutch "zat" (sated, but also "drunk;" that is, "full of alcohol"). To be quite honest, modern forms of "sad" or "sate" in the North Germanic languages, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish, at least forms that are used somewhat, seem to be lacking, although Old Norse had a form,"saethr" (actually "saðr" in old style). So it seems North Germanic forms are archaic (for example: Norwegian "sat" and Icelandic "sethja").

Easily Confused

How does this damned thing work, anyway?

Dental Work and Chinese Food

This is a true story from a good many years ago. The guy was very nice, but a little ... well, let me just say, this story tells how he was, and such things were not uncommon for him. He was quite a talker and once he started, you were not likely to get away easily. Sadly he has since passed away, but I still can't help but laugh every time I think of this story.

I was on the elevator when it stopped and this guy got on. He proceeded to tell me that he'd had some kind of dental work done and that his gums were very sore, he couldn't chew properly and that he felt awful. He then said that he was going to the lobby to wait for a food delivery, since he didn't feel like fixing anything for himself. That prompted me to ask, "What are you getting?" He answered, "Chinese." So I said, "Well, that's always good. What are you getting?" He answered, "Cashew Chicken." How I ever kept from bursting out laughing is a mystery to me to this day, but when I got away from him, I let loose and I couldn't stop. I told others who knew him and they laughed just as hard, and all agreed it was just something like what you'd expect him to say. (NOTE: Because I have a number of non-native English speakers who read this blog, I'll explain this further. The man said how sore his gums were, yet he ordered cashew chicken ... cashews aren't the easiest thing to chew; in fact, they are like one of the opposite foods you'd order if you had difficulty chewing.)

WORD HISTORY:
Food-This word, closely related to "fodder," goes back to the Indo European root "pa/pi," which had the notion of "to tend to, to watch over," providing the further idea from these of "to feed." This gave its Old Germanic offspring the noun "fodo," which meant "food." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "foda," which then became "fode," before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German has "Futter," which is actually the same word as English "fodder," and indeed, the German word means "food/feed  for animals," and German uses other words for "food;" Low German Saxon has "Födels" (nourishment, food); Dutch has "voedsel" (food, nourishment); West Frisian "fiedsel" (food/feed); Danish "føde" (food/feed); Icelandic has "faeða" (the "ð" basically equals "th", word means "food/feed); Norwegian has "føde" (nourishment); Swedish has "föda" (food, nourishment).   

True Debaters

When I was in college, I once got the opportunity to participate in a public speaking contest. It's been so long ago I just forget, but I believe they used the term "festival" to describe the event, but it was a competition in various categories of public speaking. As I recall, a number of people in the "debate" category were also studying law, and certainly being able to hold one's own in a debate lends itself well to becoming a good attorney, and debaters were paired in teams for the competition. Just to make this clear, I was not on the college debate team. I was entered in the competition in the individual category of "oratory," but our debate team coach liked my speech and approached me about being on the team the next year. Up until that time, I hadn't known there was such a thing as a college debate team, but the competition held great interest for me, and some of the debaters were just excellent. They had been given a number of topics (I just forget how many) to gather information about, and they had to be prepared for any of these topics during the competition. And, they had to be able to argue for or against whatever topic was selected. They kept information on index cards and they pulled the cards from a small file box as they needed them during the debate. If I remember correctly, they had to cite their sources in their arguments. I tried never to miss these competitions.

With this being political season and so called  "debates" going on all over the country for various offices, I couldn't help but chuckle when I recalled how the college debaters had to be able to argue either side of an issue, because some of our politicians actually seem to be in a debate with themselves on some of their positions, rather than with their opponent. A perfect example is Mitt Romney on health care. He helped engineer the law in Massachusetts when he was governor there, but now he says he's against the national law. Of course, he still wants to get credit for the law in Massachusetts. Hm, I'd like to see his index cards.

WORD HISTORY:
Debate-This word has two parts; the "de" prefix goes back to Indo European "dwis," which meant "divide into two parts;" thus, "separate, apart from." This then gave its Latin offspring "dis," with the same meaning, also used to intensify an action, and often changed to "des," or the shorter, "de," in prefixes in later Latin-based languages. The second part of the word, "bate," goes back to Indo European "bhau," which meant "to shove/push, to beat." This gave Latin "battuere," which meant "to beat/hit, to fight." Whether the two parts were combined in Latin is unclear, but Old French, a Latin-based language, had "debatre," which meant "to beat down," with the "de" intensifying the "beat" meaning; thus, "to fight," and from this developed the further figurative sense, "verbal argument ("fight") over an issue." English borrowed the word in the 1300s. The noun comes from the verb. 

Ernest Borgnine, Andy Griffith & Memories

Note, July 30, 2017: Tough to believe they've been gone for five years... 


Actor Andy Griffith died recently at the age of 86, followed just days later by fellow actor Ernest Borgnine, who was 95. Borgnine was born in the United States of Italian heritage, and in fact, he lived in Italy for a time as a child, before his family returned to America. Andy Griffith was born and raised in North Carolina.

The deaths of these two much respected actors took me back in time, well back in time in the one case, to the early to mid 1960s when I devotedly watched "McHale's Navy." If you lived through that time and watched the show, I'm certain you haven't forgotten the antics of the crew of PT-73, led by Borgnine as the boat's commander. The series, which aired on ABC, lasted a number of years and it made stars of both Tim Conway* and Joe Flynn. Conway played the PT-73's bungling ensign, Charles Parker, and Flynn played Captain Wallace Binghamtom, the base commander and a man who wanted to move up in rank, but whose own ineptness and bad luck** held him back. The series was set during World War Two, mainly in the Pacific, where the Japanese were the enemy, but during the last year or two, the series shifted to the Mediterranean and Italy, where the Germans were the enemy.*** The basic story line was, McHale's PT boat crew was top notch, but they spent much of their time plotting how to make money and throw parties. They even had an escaped Japanese POW, named "Fuji," helping with the chores around their base. Binghamton was obsessed with wanting to catch McHale and crew at their games and have them thrown into prison; something he could never succeed in doing. Borgnine's role in the show turned out to be less important than his name, since he was a well known actor (an Academy Award winner in 1955), which gave the network a marketing point. Once the public caught onto "McHale's Navy," it was Conway and Flynn, not Borgnine, who stole the show. The show's success led to two full length movies being made, including one without Borgnine,**** who had other commitments during the filming, as I remember, which only demonstrated that Borgnine's McHale character had become secondary to the Parker and Binghamton roles. Nevertheless, over the years, when I have seen Ernest Borgnine or heard his name, "McHale's Navy" and those times in the 1960s come to mind. At that time my friends and I thought we had it tough going to school or enduring the heat of the baseball field, but those times were easy compared to later.

I was not much of an "Andy Griffith Show" kid, although I certainly was well aware of the popular show. In fact, and it has been a long time, but I don't recall any of my close friends mentioning watching the show regularly, as many of us did with "McHale's Navy." In the mid 1980s, however, Andy Griffith starred in popular "Matlock," initially on NBC.*****  The idea of the show was about an aging southern defense attorney who typically proved the innocence of his clients in the final courtroom scenes of each episode, often by some obscure finding that pointed to the real culprit. Griffith was just great in the role and the duration of the series from 1986 until 1995 is a testimony to his outstanding portrayal of Ben Matlock, decked out in his seersucker suit. While more of a drama, the show used humorous scenes, including occasionally with former "Andy Griffith Show" mate Don Knotts.

All episodes of both "McHale's Navy" and "Matlock" are available on DVD, although "Matlock" episodes are still shown on television. I can't say for certain, but I don't believe "McHale's Navy" is shown on television any longer.

* Tim Conway is from suburban Cleveland, and his name is actually Thomas/Tom, but he changed it to Tim for show business, as there was already a "Tom Conway." Joe Flynn was from nearby Youngstown.

** Whenever he overcame his own bungling, fate seemed to turn things against him, prompting him to look heavenwards and say, "Somebody up there has got to hate me." Flynn also was known for saying a frustrated, "I could just scream!"

*** No political correctness in those times, as World War Two's horrors were still too fresh in the minds of many Americans. In the television series, the Japanese were referred to as "Nips," taken from the Japanese word for Japan, "Nippon," and the Germans were usually called "Krauts," obviously after the common German dish, sauerkraut.

**** "McHale's Navy Joins The Air Force" is absolutely hilarious. If you have never seen this movie, please do so. Tim Conway's "Parker" is a scream, as he is mistaken for the son of a top Air Force general, and his scenes in the women's barracks and as the navigator of a transport plane will have you laughing well beyond the duration of the movie. Flynn too continues his excellent portrayal as Captain Binghamton.  

***** The show later switched to CBS and then to ABC, before leaving the air as a first run series in 1995.

WORD HISTORY:
Navy-This word goes back to Indo European "nau," which meant "boat." This gave its Latin offspring "navis," which meant "ship, boat," and then "navia," which meant "fleet of ships." Old French, a Latin-based language, inherited a form of the word as "navie." English borrowed the word from French in the 1300s, but it wasn't until the 1500s that the modern meaning developed of "collective military ships and vessels of a country." 

My Veterans

I first published this in 2007 and I added a "Word History" in 2012. I periodically rerun it, as it was a memorable experience in my life.

During my time in property management, I had lots of experiences and made many acquaintances, including a good number of American military veterans. Just like any group of people, there were some veterans who certainly were not model citizens, but overall, this group made an impression on me more than any other. Now, military veterans are everywhere in American society, but the specific group of veterans I’m going to emphasize here is a group composed of men who had problems with drugs and alcohol (it just so happens these were all men, but there could just have likely been women involved). They were part of a treatment program at our VA hospital in Cleveland (the then Brecksville unit) where the veterans had to actually live at the hospital facility where they received the treatment and the counseling for their addiction. To be quite honest, there were some rough and tough folks involved in this program, as many had been living out on the streets, but they had finally sought treatment; treatment that could last for many months or even for a year or two.

After the VA officials determined that a person had made sufficient progress, they would help them find work, and then housing. I want to emphasize, this was NOT some government give away program, nor did the VA coddle any of these guys. It was tough, and I can tell you the TREMENDOUS RESPECT I have for the VA counselors who worked in this program. At first I was a bit taken back by how tough talking the counselors really were in dealing with the veterans who first entered the program, or especially with those who went back to their addictions and had to re-enter the program, but it’s a tough world, and the counselors were only dealing with the harsh realities of folks trapped in their own addictions. Once a veteran was committed to trying to straighten out his life, the counselors relaxed the tough talk. I can testify how much these veterans respected the counselors as they moved through the program.

The VA tried a cooperative program with the local housing authority to provide Section 8 vouchers to veterans who were preparing to leave the treatment program. Again, this was not a give away program, as the veterans HAD to have a job, and show responsibility for a certain period of time before being able to move out on their own. The housing authority only paid a small portion of each veteran’s rent; I just forget the percentage, but I believe it was no more than thirty percent of the rent, and in many cases it was less than that. The VA monitored each veteran’s employment record, and then their tenant record; that is, the VA made sure the veteran paid their share of the rent and kept their living quarters in decent condition. When I had a problem with a veteran, all I had to do was call my VA contact, and she sent someone out to the property within a day or two to check on the situation. Let me make this clear, the program was not one hundred percent successful, but I’m happy to say that there were more successes than failures.

Over time, I developed a good relationship with many of these veterans. As I said, there were failures, and one guy in particular, whom I recall, went back to the streets. One little story on the positive side, a veteran was moving into the building one day, after more than a year in the recovery program. He always seemed to have “a chip on his shoulder,” but this story shows how that chip finally fell off. The building office overlooked a busy street across from a feeding center for homeless people. After the veteran had signed all of the paperwork to move in, he went out to get his belongings from someone who had transported him to the building. I was looking out the window when I saw two homeless guys approach and then call out to him. They may have known him from his “previous” life, but I’m not certain of that. They extended their hands and he went to them and shook their outstretched hands. When he came back to the office, I told him, “I saw those guys come up to you and I just want to say to you, leave those people alone!!! No good can ever come of it for you!” He just glared at me. Now, I probably would never have even remembered this incident, except about 8 or 9 months later, this same veteran came into the office to pay his rent. He had been doing exceptionally well, and had a good job working in a hospital. He told me the VA had given him a really good evaluation, and he then said, “And you’re part of the reason I’ve done so well.” I was stunned and I couldn’t imagine what I had done to earn such a remark from this battle hardened guy who had been living on the streets just a couple of years before. He said, “Do you remember the day I moved in? You saw those street guys come over to shake my hand.” He then mentioned what I had told him that day with emphasis on the  “no good can ever come of it for you.” He said, “At first I was angry that you would say that to me, but then it stayed on my mind. Every time I thought about going back to the streets, I thought of what you’d said that day. Those guys had their hands out to try to drag me back into the streets with them.”

A few of the veterans, including the above mentioned man, became friends with one another and acted as a ready-made support group. I so enjoyed the way these guys helped each other. These guys had come so far and were doing so well. I wasn’t afraid to let them know if they got out of line in some way, and they knew my remarks were for their own good. Then, the time came that the building was to be torn down for redevelopment. I had to give notices to all of the tenants that they would have to move within sixty days. I was concerned about some of these veterans finding housing, because their personal histories were not without some blemishes, namely arrests. A short time after the vacate notices were given out, a knock came at the office door. When I opened the door, in came a group of veterans and another tenant who had become friends with them. They sat down and I told them that when they went to look for housing, to use my name as a reference, and I’d be sure to get them in somewhere, even if I had to fudge the truth a bit. (Hey, I never claimed to be up for the “Mother Theresa Award” that year.)

Then came perhaps the nicest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. To this day, I get tears in my eyes when I tell or write about it. The one guy acted as spokesman for the group, and he said, “Randy, we didn’t come down here to get help from you. We came down here because we’re all worried about you and whether you’ll have a job now.” I can be pretty battle hardened myself, but I have to admit that it took me a couple of moments to get my composure. Here, these rough and tough guys were worried about me. So maybe old Randy did accomplish a little something in his life.

(This next part was published separately, but I'm including it here)

Just a few other thoughts about this story: I had an excellent relationship with the Cleveland VA Hospital counselors and I sadly miss them, as they did so much good for people. I called the Cleveland VA a few years ago to inquire about the counselors I had dealt with back during the time of this story, Jan, Steve and Charlie, only to find that they had all transferred to other parts of the country; a loss for Cleveland, but a gain for those other parts of the country. The veterans housing program that I participated in was the first in the country.

I don’t know where all of the veterans are, but I sure hope those who had progressed so much have been able to maintain their lives, without going back to any dependency on drugs or alcohol. And I hope that those who were not success stories at our building regained their footing and continued to fight the battle against addiction elsewhere, but not on the streets. My thoughts are often with you guys and will continue to be with you for the rest of my life.

After the building was vacated, I received a call from one of the VA counselors. He said the VA had something special for me and that he would be in to see me shortly. He showed up with a signed card, a cake and a special certificate that I have on my wall to this day.

It reads:
“Department of Veterans Affairs”Certificate of Appreciation Presented to Randy Smith

For his participation and service in the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) Program. As the FIRST participant in this initiative to provide veterans housing assistance, Mr. Smith provided the veterans with a unique opportunity to reside in the community, obtain employment and live a more productive lifestyle. Mr. Smith's contributions to the veterans are greatly appreciated by the veterans and staff of the Domiciliary Service.

Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Cleveland, Ohio
December 1, 1994

(It is signed by the Chief of the Domiciliary Service and has the seal of the Department of Veterans Affairs.)

WORD HISTORY:
Honor/Honour, first is the American spelling, second the British spelling-The ultimate origins of this word are unknown, but it traces back to Latin "honor(em)," which meant "esteem, respect." Old French, a Latin-based language, inherited the word as "honor," and it was carried to England with the Norman dialect of French in 1066 as "honour." It was borrowed into English in the late 1100s as "honour," and overtook the native Germanic word for "honor," which was "aar" (German, for instance, still has the related "Ehre" and Frisian has "eare" as their words for "honor"). The American spelling without the "u" developed in the 1800s. The basic meanings of "respect, esteem" have remained, as in the title/address "Your Honor;" that is, "someone due respect." The verb form developed from Latin "honorare," which had been derived from the original Latin noun (above). This gave Old French "honorer," which was also carried to England by the Norman dialect, and "apparently" it was borrowed into English as "honouren" or "honuren" a few decades after "honour," the noun.

Making A Choice, Final

So, out with N.E.W. and in with O.L.D. To be quite honest, Dan's overall personality just wasn't suited to the job of actually running a company. Like him or not, George was much more dynamic, and just his "hustle and bustle" made him far more appealing to the owners than the laid back Dan. Plus, Dan was basically truthful and straightforward; where George was a master of spin. Even when he didn't know what he was talking about, he could make many folks think he was right on top of the situation. There's no question that his connections to the ownership of the property helped him, and he used it. It just shows how weak a figure Dan was, when early on and the owners had issues, they went to George, not Dan, even though we now know that Dan was the actual owner of the company, although I'm sure the property owners still thought that George was the real owner, too. (What ever deal George and Dan had about N.E.W., it doesn't matter. Dan was the owner.) What perhaps is even more telling, Dan didn't seem to mind the situation in the least. I come back to "balance." You've got to have SOME ego, and Dan was just lacking in this department.

In the aftermath of my leaving, one of the employees for the property owners told me that I should file for unemployment, even though technically I had walked out. I finally contacted Art, the president of George's overall company, and Del's boss. He was nice and granted me the vacation pay I had coming (the building owners were paying for it), and, before I said anything, said that he felt that I should collect unemployment until I got other work. I eventually did contact the local unemployment office and they sent the necessary paperwork, which I completed and returned. The interesting thing was, Art turned over to Del the job of answering the questions of the unemployment office on behalf of the company, something he did with relish and lies. The unemployment office called me and denied the claim, and the lady read back to me exactly what Del had told them, which was untrue. He never mentioned the incident with the Polish student, and he said that I was "unqualified," and he insisted that I REFUSED an offer to learn new job tasks necessary for employment with O.L.D. Now, I had been in property management for 17 years, 12 of those years with O.L.D. or what I'll call the "affiliated" N.E.W.. So now I'm not qualified? And this imaginary "offer" to learn new tasks was just that, IMAGINARY... it never happened!

O.L.D. received the info about the claim denial and Art called me apologizing for what had happened, saying that he had just called Del and "told him that he better be on the phone to the unemployment office explaining to them that he'd misspoken," but you can't undo something like that, so the denial stood. I told the unemployment office the truth, and I have no regrets about doing so. Art proposed that I call them and say that I, too, had misspoken, and alter my story, something I would not do. (So typical of these companies, any lie for whatever purpose of the moment.) The whole thing was, the incident happened just three days after O.L.D. had taken over. If they didn't want me, which is what I think was Del's real agenda, they should have made that clear before, and I would have left when Dan's contract expired, and there would have been no issue about unemployment benefits, because Dan's company went out of business at that point. To keep me on for those three days put me into O.L.D.'s employment, and gave Del the chance to get even with me for the incident with the young Polish student; something he did with relish, and WITHOUT penalty, despite Art's reprimand. I can only remember George saying so many times, "This company reflects its owner!" I'll let you ponder that statement.

Nealy a year later, Dan called me about something. During the conversation, he mentioned that he had been talking with Del, and that the building was still struggling and that Del now knew, first hand, what we had been up against in getting and keeping the occupancy up. To this day, from what I've read in the newspaper, it is still not anywhere near full occupancy.*

* Since I wrote the original article, the property has been taken over by the university, something Dan had recommended several years before, as the university wanted more student housing directly under its control. The owners of the building were against the idea, at that time, as it would have proven how poorly conceived their renovation plan had been and how over leveraged they were. Dan died a few years years ago. He was in his mid 70s. 

Word History:
Ware-Noun form-This goes back to the Indo European root "wer," which had the notion of "watch out for, be aware of." This then gave Old Germanic "war/wer/waro." The idea behind any of these was "watch, be on guard, be alert." From the Germanic base evolved a variety of words in the developing Germanic languages, for example: Frisian "were," Swedish "vara," Dutch "waar," and German "ware." In Old English it was "waru." The idea behind "ware," or more commonly in modern times, "wares," was "object(s) of care." Eventually this changed into "goods for sale." As I mentioned, in modern times we use "wares," the plural form, except in compound words like "adware" (watch your computer!), "hardware," "software," and "Tupperware!" Or, if we reverse the position of the word in a compound, we have "warehouse." By the way, German has "Warenhaus" (literally a "wareshouse"), and while closely related to the English word, the meaning isn't a building for storing "wares," but rather a building that sells "Waren;" that is, a department store!

Ware-Verb form-This too comes from the same Old Germanic base "war/wer/waro." From the base developed the word "warojan," meaning "to guard, to watch out for, be cautious." In Old English it was "warian," with much the same meaning. The word still exists in English, but its usage is archaic. In modern times we prefer the offshoot of the Old English word: "beware," which has much the same meaning.

Making A Choice, Part Six

So, the “divorce” was complete between O.L.D. and N.E.W., and everyone now knew that they were indeed two separate companies, although George had always acted like he was really the owner of both. (There’s that galloping ego!) The purely figurehead president of N.E.W. resigned, as she was an employee of O.L.D. and, to be quite honest, I don’t know who was made president; perhaps Dan gave his wife the title. As the former president told me, she was stunned by the developments, as she always thought that George was the real owner of N.E.W. In reality, N.E.W. was only a one-person management company, Dan! It had no office or phone number, as previously, O.L.D.’s address and phone number were used. Eventually, Dan used his home phone number and home address for N.E.W.

In spite of all of the crap going on behind-the-scenes, N.E.W. got a letter of “commendation” from the local HUD director. Remember, the government was insuring the loan on the property through HUD, and periodic inspections were required to verify that all was in order, and that the management was performing its duties properly. Each month, HUD also received financial reports for the property. While the apartment building was part of a larger complex, HUD was only insuring the apartment building, and was in no way involved with the rest of the non-residential complex. When we got this “commendation,” it was after an inspection by the HUD director himself, not someone down the chain of command.

Laying the commendation aside, three main issues plagued the situation: one, “good,” but not “great” occupancy numbers, which affected two, “good,” but not “great” profits,* and three, Dan’s relationship with the owners and the project in general. Dan wasn't "political" enough. He seemed NOT to understand how he needed to relate to and interact with the owners of the building, especially once he lost the support services of O.L.D. There were egos involved here, and Dan just didn't get it, that you have to pay a certain amount of "homage" to the powers that be. You don't have to kiss their...ah...well...below the belt, but you do have to show that you're interested and involved. The owners' offices were right in the apartment building, but Dan very rarely ever went up to them. Just stopping in to say, "Hello," would have helped, but in reality, Dan didn't much care for the owners, and it showed. That's not to say that I loved them either, as I thought they were a bunch of bunglers who'd gotten themselves into a real mess with all of the debts they had taken on, and with the unrealistic income forecasts they had made. Folks, any time you mortgage virtually everything you have, and then you need about 100% occupancy, or 100% of anything, to pay your debts, you've got problems, all of your own making! (Well, George's development company has to bear some responsibility, too. You can't call yourself a responsible developer and either recommend or allow such nonsense to go on.)

Now back to Dan. He used poor judgment about some decisions he made, perhaps influenced by his own dislike of the owners. (He should have loved them after they allowed him to put himself and his wife on an insurance plan being paid for by the building!) For instance, he kept raising wages, which as an employee I liked, but it wasn't realistic, given the fact that the building's income was stagnant, and that there was no way to recover those costs. Now, you're probably thinking, "That blasted Randy is always popping off about poor wages and working people and such, and here's a guy upping his and the other employees' pay, and he's criticizing him." That's true, but I also understand that businesses have to make money. I'm not that far out there. Plus eventually, in self interest, I could see what was going to happen; the owners would look elsewhere for a management company. So keep giving me raises, and lose my job, or give me an occasional raise and keep my job? And yes, if the building had been raking it in, I'd say the profits should have been shared to some degree in salary increases. With competition from the student dormitory and our own occupancy less than great, we couldn't raise rents, even a little, to recover ANY costs, let alone regular raises and the yearly increase in health insurance costs. In what turned out to be our last year at the building, I finally convinced Dan to at least scale back the wage increases that he'd put into the budget, just to show that he was trying to rein in expenses.

Eventually, the owners began experiencing serious financial problems with the entire complex. Several of their employees were let go, some having been with them for 25 and 30 years!!! The City was complaining that the loan they owed to them was actually escalating, as the owners couldn't even pay enough to cover the interest costs. It was VERY UGLY! Not one of their income assumptions proved to be correct. (How did Gomer Pyle say that? "Surprise! Surprise!") They began to make noises that they would look for another management company to get the occupancy up nearer 100%. Just to show how poor the communication was between the owners and Dan, the owner's representative came to me and told me to tell Dan that they were thinking of changing management companies. Eventually, they called, guess who? George. Whether George put the idea into their heads, I have no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me. With about three months left on N.E.W.'s contract with the owners, they informed Dan by letter that his contract would not be renewed.

* The owners had a large regular mortgage payment and had taken out another loan through the City, and it was to be paid back according to a percentage of profits from the apartment building. With the owners leveraged up to their necks, they essentially needed the building to be 100% occupied, year round, to be able to pay down the loan to the City in a timely manner. Remember, this was primarily student housing, and keeping it anywhere near “full” during the summer months was next to impossible, and even during the regular school year, many college students stayed in the nearby dorm, run by the university. Next, "Part Seven," the final part..... 

Word History:
Listen-This goes back to the Indo European base "klu/kleu," which had to do with "hearing." Lithuanian, an Indo European language related to English further down the family tree, has "klausau," meaning "to hear." Some linguists feel that Lithuanian is the modern language that is closest to ancient Indo European, as they believe it has changed the least over the centuries. Greek, another relative of English further down the line, has "klyo," also meaning "to hear," and Latin, another relative, had "cluere," meaning "for a person to hear themselves called, or be spoken of." Anyway, from the Indo European base word, Old Germanic developed a verb something like, "khlusnojan" and/or "khlusinon," but it is possible that the first was an older form and the other came a bit later. My "guess" is, the "k" sound was NOT prominent in the Germanic pronunciation of the word and was more aspirated, thus it is often rendered with an "h" replacing "k." The developing Germanic dialects had various forms of the word and Old High German had "hlosen," which meant "to listen" and in Old English is was "hlysnan," both forms meaning "to listen." Both modern English and modern German have altered the spelling of their respective words, with German having "lauschen" and, of course, English with "listen." The beginning "h" sound undoubtedly blended in with the "L" in both languages. So why do we have a "t" in the spelling? From the same Old Germanic verb (see above) was derived a noun "khlustiz," which developed into Old English "list," (not the kind for your groceries), which meant/means "to listen," and the word is still around in modern English, but it is certainly archaic. Linguists feel that "list" influenced the spelling of "lissen," I mean "listen." Notice that close relative German does not contain a "t" in the spelling, but another close English relative, Dutch, has "luisteren." Ah, there's that "t!"