The Golden Girls Episode: Dorothy's New Friend

"The Golden Girls" was a comedy series set in Miami, Florida (it wasn't filmed in Miami) and originally telecast on NBC from 1985 through 1992. The basic gist of the show is that four women, 3 widowed and 1 divorced, share a house together and develop such a strong family-like friendship, they deal with and overcome their differing personality conflicts, as they support each other in life's challenges, including that of aging.  

This episode is from "Season Three" and it was first telecast in January 1988. Sometimes shiny new objects distract us from our long time reliable fixtures. Sometimes too the shininess obscures the flaws in the new object, some of which may be worse than just little blemishes. In this episode, Dorothy is captivated by a new friend and it takes her some time to see "the shiny new object" for what she really is, a person who feels that tolerating antisemitic discriminatory policies don't make her a bigot. 

Cast for this episode:

Dorothy Zbornak .......................... Bea Arthur
Blanche Devereaux ....................... Rue McClanahan
Rose Nylund .................................. Betty White
Sophia ............................................ Estelle Getty
Barbara Thorndyke ........................ Bonnie Bartlett
Murray Guttman ............................ Monty Ash

This episode opens with Sophia preparing some food for her new 84 year old flame and Rose and Blanche getting ready for the annual charity masquerade ball at the counseling center where Rose works. Rose has gotten a horse's outfit for herself and Dorothy, although she hasn't decided which of them will be the head and which will be the "behind." Dorothy comes in disgusted with life, but she is encouraged by the others to get active, so she decides to go listen to a lecture that evening featuring a local author named Barbara Thorndyke. We later learn from Dorothy that she introduced herself to Barbara after the lecture and the two discussed a variety of topics, much to Dorothy's delight. She invites Barbara to the house where the writer meets Blanche and Rose, who prove too unsophisticated for the condescending Barbara and she makes an excuse to leave. Blanche and Rose agree they don't care for Barbara.

The next day Rose and Blanche plan to go to a movie and they ask Dorothy to come too, but she tells them Barbara has invited her out. They tell Dorothy they think Barbara is snooty, but Dorothy tells them that is unfair, as they don't know Barbara. When Rose tells Dorothy she'd have more fun going to the movies with them, Dorothy turns patronizing, patting Rose on the hand and telling her two friends, "I promise, we'll do something together real soon. Okay?" Blanche and Rose feel they may have been too hasty in their judgment of Barbara after such a brief first meeting, so they decide they want to invite Barbara to dinner and give her another chance.

Barbara comes to dinner, but she continues to give her attention to Dorothy, while pretty much ignoring Blanche and Rose. Blanche grabs her attention with some criticism of one of Barbara's books. When Barbara snobbishly begins to explain what a metaphor is to Blanche, Blanche sets her straight, but Blanche has to explain it to the clueless Rose. hahaha When Barbara prepares to leave, she offers Dorothy a ticket she has to a writer's symposium, and Dorothy accepts. Barbara leaves without even saying goodbye to Rose and Blanche, and Rose tells Dorothy the symposium is the same night as the masquerade ball, but Dorothy makes it clear she will be joining Barbara and not going to the masquerade ball with Rose and Blanche, even though the masquerade ball is very important to Rose. Later Blanche and Rose let Dorothy know how they feel about Barbara, with Rose telling Dorothy that Barbara only pays attention to her, because Dorothy looks up to Barbara, and Blanche chimes in that Barbara likes to make others feel stupid, as when she used Latin to ask for someone to pass the salt at dinner. Dorothy gets very angry when Rose says that Dorothy has every right to have her friends, but that it also takes a good friend to point out another friend's mistakes, and that she feels Dorothy is making a mistake by befriending Barbara. Dorothy tells them they have no right to tell her who her friends should be, and she stomps off.

Dorothy meets Barbara for lunch at a restaurant with a "literary theme," where the menu is in the shape of a book, with "Chapter 5" being the lunch menu, featuring such dishes as, "The Crepes of Wrath," "The Old Man And The Seafood Salad," "Edgar Allen Poe-tatoes" and "George Bernard Slaw." Dorothy tells Barbara that their friendship has put a serious strain on her friendship with Rose and Blanche, who feel left out. In her often condescending way, Barbara makes it clear that she doesn't understand why Dorothy is so close to the other two women, but she tells Dorothy she wants to make an effort, so she wants to invite everyone, including Sophia, to dinner at the Mortimer Club, the most exclusive club in town. Dorothy still fails to grasp Barbara's attitude toward Blanche and Rose.

On the evening of the dinner, Barbara appears at the the house with her much younger date, a student from one of her writing classes. The bell rings and it is Sophia's date, Murray Guttman, the 84 year old, who is dressed in a flashy tuxedo. Barbara shakes Murray's hand and then asks to see Dorothy privately in the kitchen. She tells Dorothy they have a problem because of Murray Guttman. This is important, so I'll do the dialogue here:

Barbara: "He can't come to the club."
Dorothy: "Why not?"
Barbara: "Guttman."
Dorothy: "What are you talking about?"
Barbara: "Guttman, he's Jewish isn't he?"
Dorothy: "I don't know. What difference does it make?"
Barbara: "A big difference, the Mortimer Club is restricted."
Dorothy: "Barbara, why are you a member of a club like that?"
Barbara: "Because they serve a great breakfast and the parking is free. Besides, it's their policy, not mine."
Dorothy: "Yes, but you tolerate it."
Barbara: "Dorothy, I tolerate a lot of things; for instance, I'm tolerating this evening with Rose and Blanche because of my friendship with you."
... A little more dialogue ..... then:
Dorothy: "Boy did I misjudge you. You know, Blanche and Rose were right. You are not the kind of person I want as a friend. Why don't you go to the Mortimer Club by yourself?"
Barbara: "I don't understand."
Dorothy: "Let me spell it out for you: Go to hell!"
Barbara walks out.

When Blanche and Rose come into the kitchen to find out what happened, Dorothy apologizes for her behavior and her failure to see the real Barbara. Rose asks if this means Dorothy will be attending the masquerade ball, and Dorothy tells her she's had a lot of practice lately, so she'll be honored to be the "horse's behind" at the masquerade ball. The three REAL friends embrace.   


Photo is of the 2005 Buena Vista Home Entertainment Season 3 DVD set

WORD HISTORY:
Snare-This word is a distant relative of "narrow," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Snare" goes back to Indo European "(s)ner," with the notion, "to twist, to twist together, to wind (long 'i'), to constrict." This gave Old Germanic "snarh(o)," meaning, "string, rope, cord," "perhaps" with the additional meaning of "rope or cord tied to form a noose or ring." This gave Old English both "sner," meaning, "string for a harp or other musical instrument," and "snearu/sneare," meaning, "noose, snare for trapping animals." This was certainly reinforced in late Old English by the related Old Norse form "snara," which had that meaning, and which was from the same Germanic source. The original "string, rope, cord" meaning has essentially died out in English, as we have those separate words to use, but the "loop of string, rope or wire used for trapping" is still very much around. Musically, circa 1700, the strings or wires under tension on a drum were called "snares," thus by the 1800s giving that particular type of drum its name, "snare drum." The verb form was derived from the noun, and by the second half of the 1500s was usually rendered as "insnare," before the modern "ensnare." There is quite an array of relatives in the other Germanic languages, all in some way having to do with "string, rope, looped rope, snare." Here are just a few: German has "Schnur" (string, cord, electrical wiring/cable), Low German "Snoor" (band of string/cord), Dutch "snaar" (string, cord), Icelandic "snara" (snare trap, loop, noose), Swedish "snöre" (twine, cord), Danish "snor" (cord, string), Norwegian "snare" (?) (snare trap).   

2018, Perhaps The Most Important Election EVER

Signs of a developing trend leading to the crucial midterm election on November 6 have been in abundance in early special elections. Americans almost always seem to reprimand the party holding the White House in elections held at the halfway mark of a president's term. (DAMN! It just dawned on me, that must be why they call them the "midterm elections." See, just give me a few decades and I can figure it out.) It doesn't always seem to mean that Americans dislike the president in office at the time, but all presidents step on some toes, and those with smarting toes are highly motivated to limp to the polls to vote, often leading their own party to turn out in large enough numbers to give anything from a nudge to an outright smack upside the head to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, better known as the White House. There have been numerous special elections since Donald Trump took office in January 2017, and while these elections have produced a number of Democratic wins, including some stunning wins, even the Democratic losses have shown a major narrowing of the margins of Republican victories, compared to recent historical Republican margins in those regions. 

Thoughtful change often wins in the end, but it can take time and the question is, can American institutions and American ideals hold on long enough to win against a man who longs to destroy American democracy so that he can become the undisputed Führer of the United States? Republicans in Congress have knowingly rolled over for this strident, divisive and highly insecure president. Have we forgotten the longstanding question about Hitler and Germans? How could an educated and cultured people follow such a self centered and maniacal man like Hitler, a man with obvious emotional problems? We need not ask that question any longer, for the answer is right before our eyes in the United States of America, where a bigoted, resentful and spiteful old bastard with a bad hairdo has risen to lead this country (hey, Hitler had a bad hairdo too). The GOP has long cultivated the uneasiness of some white Americans about the attempts of black Americans, as well as other American minorities, like Latinos, women (who are actually a majority) and gays, to gain equality and fairness in our society. The thing is, in my lifetime, I have heard many divisive statements by American politicians, including, but not limited to, George Wallace* in the 1960s and 1970s, and David Duke** in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, but I've never heard a president of the United States use so much divisive rhetoric to further his own cause and to satisfy his own ego, as one Donald Trump, the unity of the country be damned!      

This upcoming election is likely to be a fight to the death. Are Democrats, independents and anti Trump Republicans ready? Trump and the complicit and enabling Republicans will do anything and everything to minimize their losses and hold onto their control of Congress. The Koch brothers, the Mercers and all of the other "take me back to a previous century" people will spend unprecedented amounts to further Republican control of government. They will say it is to further the Republican Party, but that party is now the party of Donald Trump, which they will NOT tell you. Will the election prove to be the beginning of Trump's political demise, or will he and Republicans emerge stronger than ever, and likely be able to suppress the rights of Americans to protest and to stop the media from reporting critical news articles about them? Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China are Trump heroes, and they are dictators. We don't need to dig up Einstein to connect the dots for us to understand where Trump stands on democracy. This is all in front us, not hidden somewhere in the shadows of the news. Don't be in denial. Don't stick your head in the sand. We can't take our eyes off of them for one second. The young people of this country have stirred and have been springing into action. They can help to lead us through the potentially destructive nightmare of Trumpian fascism.

For the last couple of centuries, people around the world have looked to the United States as a beacon of hope. Some people have been inspired by the U.S. to pursue freedoms within their own respective countries, while others have left their homelands bound for American shores. We're seeing the light of that beacon flickering like a kerosene lamp running low on fuel. The question is, will WE choose to refill the lamp and keep this beacon of hope shining, or will we let the lamp go dry and extinguish its light, letting the path of hope go dark? We now have a man in office who praises dictators and judges people not as individuals, but by their ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds. That's what Führers do.


* George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 1960s, a time when desegregation of schools and public facilities was ongoing. For more on the issue of desegregation and racial politics, here are  two links: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_8.html 

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_15.html 

** David Duke is a long time member, and a former leader, of the "Ku Klux Klan," often known by its initials, "KKK," a racist and overall hate filled group dating to the post Civil War era in the American South. Duke was born in Oklahoma, but he has spent much of his life in Louisiana. As most Southerners of earlier times, Duke was a Democrat, and he sought office as such, but as Louisiana and the South, in general, moved more to the Republican Party, Duke changed to that party in the late 1980s. Duke became known for his anti Black American and anti Jewish views. 

WORD HISTORY:
Beacon-This word for "a light positioned on some high place to serve as a guide or warning, often for ships, but not exclusively so," goes back to Indo European "bhah," which had the notion, "to shine, to be bright, to appear as bright." This provided the later basis for West Germanic "bauknan" (English is West Germanic), meaning, "signal light." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beacen/becn," meaning, "sign, signal." This then became "beken," before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German "Bake" (pronounced as if, "bahkeh") meaning, "traffic sign, railway signal," originally used in reference to "a fire set on a geographically high point or in a tower to provide sea navigation);" Low German Saxon "Baak" (sign or signal for ships), West Frisian "beaken" ("buoy"), Dutch "baken" ("beacon"). "Apparently," long ago, Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, borrowed the word from Frisian as, "bákn," which meant, "signal, signal fire."^ This was passed down to the modern North Germanic languages as: Icelandic "bákn," which now means, "large stone column;" that is, "a column showing direction."

^ Centuries ago, the Frisian word was "baken/beken," and meant "signal or signal fire." Later, Frisian split into dialects, giving West Frisian the altered spelling and the narrowed meaning to the modern "buoy." Researching North Frisian is very hard, but it "seems" to have "beken," but I can't confirm that from multiple sources. North Frisian is spoken in the German region of North Frisia, which also includes a number of North Sea islands, called the North Frisian Islands (someone stayed awake late to come up with that name). Remember too, while North Frisian is the spoken regional language, standard German is taught to everyone in school.   

It's About Coalitions, Not Purity, Part Forty-Eight

The Chickens Come Home To Roost, But It's Too Hot In The Hen House ... The Financial Meltdown, Part 5

While the nominations and political party conventions took place, Americans continued to endure record high oil and gasoline prices, along with the news of mounting numbers of foreclosures in the housing market. Believe it or not (offered sarcastically), some people better versed in economics actually began to ask questions in print and on television, as to "who" was absorbing the losses on what was becoming a staggering number of foreclosures. Put simply, if I loaned you the money to buy your house, and then you can't meet the payments, "it ain't Aunt Mary in Tuscaloosa" who is losing the money, it's me! So those in the know about the financial system began focusing on the banks, and then on the whole system in the mortgage industry, which was very complex, and thus beyond the scope of this article. It turned out, the system was rotten with bad mortgages, as many individuals, government entities and businesses had invested in mortgages. DAMN! Aunt Mary in Tuscaloosa did lose money! She held investments in a bank and an insurance company.

In mid September 2008, Lehman Brothers, a large Wall Street investment bank in business for more than 150 years, was next to suffer the consequences of irresponsible capitalism. After serious declines in its stock price and announced layoffs of personnel, clients abandoned the bank in droves, withdrawing their money and assets almost instantly. The bank announced it would file for bankruptcy, and the DOW dropped 500 points in one day, with further staggering losses to follow. The Fed did not intervene, thus giving the "free marketers" their wish. With Lehman's collapse, the situation became so serious, the Bush administration, that bulwark of "free market capitalism," having oft essentially said to American economic problems, "we can't do anything about anything, because its a free market economy," announced, along with the support of the Fed, that they needed a special fund of $700 billion (with a "b") to shore up the financial system or that the country faced a new DEPRESSION. Fear spread, as the extent of the mortgage crapola became more obvious, and that it was not just limited to a couple of financial institutions. Further, the greed and corruption had many accomplices throughout the "free market" system. You can't regulate 'em, or it ain't freedom (excuse me, third grade English teachers). The thing was, getting anywhere near accurate information of the financial condition of many institutions was difficult, because they were fearful of releasing how bad their individual situations truly were, or of seeking help from the Federal Reserve,* as that could bring about what had happened to Lehman Brothers, a fast collapse, as customers withdrew their money in just hours.

On the political front, the McCain campaign, struggling with its ties to the unpopularity of President George W. Bush, and with increasing discontent over the war in Iraq and high gasoline prices, now faced an even bigger challenge, as some Democrats, independents, and probably even some Republicans, even though at least some, likely harboring some bigotry toward Barack Obama over his racial background and/or his atypical name, overcame those feelings out of fear for their own well being and decided to support Obama. There were, however, opposite reactions, as some longtime Democrats, unable to overcome their bigotry, or outright racism, chose to support McCain. At the time, a guy I knew, a life long Democrat, so full of hatred toward black Americans, backed McCain. He turned against Democrats with a vengeance. I'm not certain of this, but I believe since that time, he became a Republican. So the coalitions were jumbled a bit, but with Obama and Democrats benefiting more than McCain and Republicans; at least, in the overall political situation, although not in specific states or certain local communities. The 2008 election showed our good side and our bad side, simultaneously, as many Americans rose above race and bigotry, but the election, and Obama's background, aroused some of the basest fears and hatreds in other Americans. 

John McCain has long had a "maverick streak," and an admiration for former progressive (for his times) Republican, President Teddy Roosevelt. In a country increasingly divided over politics, often driven, in my opinion, by radio and television personalities promoting division over unity, candidate John McCain in October 2008 told supporters at a rally, one of whom had commented that he was "scared" of an Obama presidency, and another who had claimed Obama was "an Arab," with all the racism and bigotry that was meant to convey to Americans about terrorists, that Obama "is a decent man," and that, "you don't have to be scared of him being president," and further, "he's not (an Arab.") ** I guess I'm showing my own cynicism, but I was PLEASANTLY stunned to see McCain rise above the nastiness of politics and choose to stand up for his opponent.

The stock markets plunged and so did the price of oil, even after we had been told what an oil "shortage" there was; thus, justifying the surge in price to $140 to $150 a barrel. Within weeks the price had plummeted to about $30 a barrel. Ah, see Sir Walter Scott quote in note *, below.

Next, the results of Election 2008 ...

* The reason financial institutions feared going to the Federal Reserve, was that it would then be an admission of financial trouble, and while in "normal times," logic by investors and customers might not have sparked a stock selloff and customer withdrawals, as the institution was getting help to stabilize, with the tense situation in late 2008, logic was something not in supply, as lack of transparency over financial matters had made EVERYONE distrustful, including distrust between banks and other financial institutions. "O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." (quoted from Sir Walter Scott, and technically it was/is "practise" in British English) 

** McCain was not acting as if being an Arab were something to be ashamed of, but rather, he was simply pointing out the error stated by the lady. There were rumors circulating about Obama not being an American and about him being a secret Muslim (again, stoking fears by Americans of terrorism) and that he was associating with terrorists.  

WORD HISTORY:
Plunge-Like its relative "plumb" (also, "plumber"), the origins of this word are uncertain, although some believe it is from a non Indo European language in the Mediterranean area, as both Latin and Greek have forms of the word. It traces back to Latin "plumbum," which meant "lead" (the metal). This produced the Latin verb, "plumbicare," which meant, "to throw/toss lead," "seemingly" in reference to "tossing lead weighted fishing nets or lines into the water." Old French, a Latin-based language, took the word as "plongier," meaning, "to dive or sink into water." English borrowed the word, as "plungen," in the second half of the 1300s, almost certainly under the influence of the Norman spelling, or what came to be the Norman spelling, "plungier." ^ Also by that time, the meaning had broadened beyond "diving or sinking into water," to more figurative senses, like, "diving into work or into a particular task;" also, "to commit to some idea or cause." The noun was derived from the verb, with the meaning, "a dive into water," or, "an unexpected forceful fall downward" ("I tripped and plunged down the hillside").    

^ It is unclear to me whether "plungier" was the spelling brought to England by the Normans. It's important to remember, the Norman dialect differed somewhat from the French of Paris or other parts of France, so spelling and pronunciation variations were common. 

Some More Questions To A Republican

"Hello folks! This is Dan Ratherbe, in Philadelphia. Today I once again have Republican George Owen Pappenstiel here to speak out on the issues confronting the nation and his Republican Party, no holds barred."

DR: "Well Mr. Pappenstiel, it's been a little while since I first interviewed you." *

GOP: "Yeah, that was back when that Bomma guy claimed to be president."

DR: "That's Obama."

GOP: "Yeah right, tryin' to be Irish.... 'O' bomma... haha.... about as Irish as the rest of them people from them places in Africa."

DR: "But he IS part Irish. Don't you remember he visited Ireland?"

GOP: "Visitin' a place don't make ya from that place. I cun visit Massichew... Masseshoe... that place where Boston is, but that don't make me no Democrat, an' that's fer shur."

DR: "So what do you think of Donald Trump's first couple of months in office?"

GOP: "It's a breath o' fresh air! Finally gettin' some truth out, 'cause Ole Donald tells it like it is. That's what's gonna make America great agin, truth tellin.' Just like with that Bomma listnin' in on Ole Donald talkin' on his own private phone in his own private buildin'."

DR: "But there's been absolutely no proof that any such thing ever happened."

GOP: "That's what you librals in the media want folks ta believe. There is proof.... Ole Donald said it, didn't he? That's proof! He the president of the UUUNited States, ain't he?"

DR: "Well I assume you support the wall the president wants to build on the border with Mexico?"

GOP: "Oh now, truer words was never spoke. All them folks south of the Rio Grande is jus' what Ole Donald said 'bout them. They er murderers and rapists. Then they come up here and want US to speak Mexican."

DR: "You mean Spanish."

GOP: "No, I mean Mexican. They ain't from Spain."

DR: "So what do you think of the Republican failure to repeal Obamacare?"

GOP: "That's jus' plain terrible! Don't know what's becomin' o' this country. Wantin' ta give health care to ever'body. An' this law from Bomma helpin' to give care to millions. An' that Bernie Sanders guy... he the worst, even worse than Bomma hisself. He ain't no Christian, that fer shur."

DR: "Ah, Bernie Sanders is from a Jewish family."

GOP: "See, told ya he ain't no Christian. They jus' like those Mooselims... all from over yonder there in the Middle East. All them folks need to jus' stay over there. Ole Donald messed up there, he needs to ban people from all them countries, not jus' a few. All we do is give money to them people over there, includin' Izrel. Never knew any good people from that part of the world, not a one."

DR: "Ah... Jesus Christ."

GOP: "An' don't be takin' the Lord's name in vain, ya hear?"

DR: "Well, our time is up, Mr. Pappenstiel."

GOP: "Ya got that right, if we don't do what Ole Donald wants an' you keep takin' the Lord's name in vain. Jus' ask Pat Robertson!"


* The first "interview" was in May 2013 and this is the link:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/05/asking-republican-few-questions.html

WORD HISTORY:
Ode-This word "seems" to go back to Indo European "aweid/e-weid," which had the notion, "to make (voice) sound, to speak, to vocalize." This gave Ancient Greek the transliterated "aeido," which meant, "to sing, to give praise in song." This gave Ancient Greek "aoide/oide," a noun, "song, poetic song." Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "oda," then "ode," the form taken by Latin-based French. English borrowed the word from French, likely with reinforcement by Latin, in the late 1500s.

Sleuth, Laurence Olivier & Michael Caine Star

I first saw this 1972 film on television at some point during the second half of the 1980s. An acquaintance, who did some acting in local theater, had previously mentioned the stage play to me. The film stars Laurence Olivier as Andrew Wyke, an eccentric writer of crime mysteries and a lover of games, and Michael Caine as Milo Tindle, a half-Italian, half-English hairdresser, who is having an affair with Andrew's wife. Both stars were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1973, but lost to Marlon Brando for his role as "Vito Corleone" in "The Godfather." Joseph Mankiewicz was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director that year for "Sleuth," losing out to the director of "Cabaret," Bob Fosse, and the Music score for "Sleuth" was also nominated for an Academy Award. If you've never seen this film before (or the stage play), you likely will need to see it more than once to really follow it, and to further appreciate the great performances of Olivier and Caine. Be aware, this article deals with the entire film and it's ending!

The film is a bit deep, symbolized by its opening scenes, as we see a lifelike painting of a mansion, which then changes to real life, and as the film progresses, you'll find that telling what is real can be difficult. Then in another symbol of what's to come, we see Milo's car pull up in front of the mansion, which we eventually learn belongs to Andrew. Milo then walks into a maze made of large hedges on the grounds of the mansion. He walks and walks, but cannot find his way through to the center, finally asking Andrew, who is in the center of the whole maze, for help. The two later go inside and we see a house filled with all sorts of games, toys and mechanical dolls. Andrew tells Milo that he knows Milo wants to marry his wife, Marguerite, and that he wants to be rid of her, but he's fearful that Milo doesn't have the financial means to keep her happy, and that she'll end up coming back to him. The film is much about class status, ego and revenge. As for status, when Milo says his father was an Italian immigrant to England, but he wanted himself and his family to "become English," this prompts Andrew to repeat the words as a question ("Become English?) and in a condescending way.

Andrew tells Milo that he has a large collection of very valuable jewels in a safe in the mansion, and that he wants Milo to steal the jewels, so he will have enough money to support Marguerite, thus making sure she will not return. Since the jewels are insured, Andrew says he won't lose anything, but, in order to convince the insurance company and the police that a robbery has occurred, he wants Milo to wear a disguise and actually break into the mansion through an upstairs window. Milo dresses as a clown with long floppy shoes, climbs up a ladder, cuts out a glass panel, reaches in and unlocks the window, then enters the house, although not before first falling down the ladder. The whole thing is hilarious. Throughout the whole "robbery," Andrew, the fiction writer of crime, is giving Milo instructions on what to do to make it all look completely real for when the investigators come later. Andrew rigs up a small explosive charge to the wall safe for Milo and the safe is blown open. Milo triumphantly gets the box of jewels. Andrew says the two need to scuffle and he gets a gun, because he wants the gun fired, so the police will think it went off during the scuffle. Things then turn very serious, when Andrew points the gun at Milo, and tells him, "I'ma gonna killa you," in a mocking Italian accent. He then proceeds to unleash anti-Italian and class bigotry abuse on Milo. Andrew tells the terrified Milo that he has the perfect set up, a man dressed in a clown suit, who has just robbed his house. The gun goes off and Milo, dressed in the clown outfit, tumbles down the staircase.

A couple of nights later, with Cole Porter songs playing on a phonograph, and as Andrew prepares to bite into some caviar on toast wedges, the bell rings and an overweight, balding man is at the door, who introduces himself as Inspector Doppler, from the local constabulary. He tells Andrew he is investigating the disappearance of Milo Tindle. Andrew plays down his knowledge of Milo, telling Doppler he hadn't seen Tindle for "some months." The inspector shows Andrew a note he found at Milo's house, which Andrew had sent to Milo, inviting him to his manor. Andrew admits Milo had been there. Doppler then says a passerby had heard shots fired the night Tindle had been there, but Andrew says the shots were all part of a game the two had been playing that night. Andrew finally tells the inspector what had really happened that evening, and that he had "shot" Tindle with a blank, which caused Milo to faint, but that a short time later, Tindle left. He tells the inspector he had done everything to humiliate Tindle, not to kill him. Doppler finds some dried and even damp blood on the staircase, which shakes Andrew, especially when the inspector follows that by telling Andrew he saw a mound of fresh dirt on the manor grounds. On the way back from the mound of dirt, we see Milo's car hidden in some hedges and vines, something not observed by the two men. Back inside the house, Doppler finds Tindle's clothing in a closet. When the inspector asks if Tindle had left Andrew's house while naked, Andrew tells him that Milo had changed back into his clothes, the very clothes found in the closet. When Doppler lays out the evidence he has and tells Andrew he must take him in to headquarters, Andrew runs off, only to be caught by the inspector, who then peels away his disguise to reveal that he is really Milo. As Milo cleans up, Andrew tells him he was only playing along with Milo's own game, and that he likes the Inspector Doppler character Milo has invented.

Andrew thinks the two are now even with one another, but Milo tells him that is not really the case, as he really thought he was witnessing his own last moments when Andrew pointed the gun at him and then pulled the trigger. He tells Andrew that he really killed Andrew's mistress, something Andrew does not believe, but when he calls her house, he's told that she has been murdered. Milo tells him that he has planted clues around the room, clues that point to Andrew as the killer of his own mistress. Further, he tells Andrew that he has already called the police, and that they are due there in a matter of a few minutes. Andrew scurries about the house, trying to find the four clues, at times seeming to be totally taken by the whole thing, game player and fiction writer though he is. Given hints as to the whereabouts of the clues by Milo's riddles, Andrew finds all the clues just after Tindle tells him the police are coming up the driveway. As Andrew struggles to make himself appear composed to meet the police, we find out there are no police, as this has just been another game by Milo, who has shown himself to be above Andrew at game playing, even though Andrew has considered himself to be the master of games. Milo turns the humiliation on Andrew, telling him that he really talked with Andrew's "supposed" mistress, who told him that Andrew is "pretty much impotent," and that she was more than happy to participate in the deception of Andrew about her "death." As Milo goes upstairs to get Marguerite's fur coat, Andrew loads a pistol, all the while speaking aloud of the plan he has to justify Milo's death, just as if he were writing one of his mysteries. When Milo comes downstairs, he is confronted by Andrew, who tells him he can't let him leave, now that he knows humiliating information about him, and that this time, the gun has real bullets. Milo explains that he really did talk to the police, and that they know of Andrew's games of humiliation and possible homicidal tendency. Milo walks toward the door and Andrew shoots him. Milo falls to the floor, but we hear the sound of a motor, the motor of an approaching vehicle. Andrew opens the door to see the police pulling in. He goes inside, locks the door and sees wounded Milo crawling along the floor. As then we see the flashing blue lights of the police car through the windows, Milo tells Andrew, "Be sure to tell them it was all just a bloody game." With the police pounding on the door, Milo grabs the switch to the mechanical dolls and toys and pushes it, making all of Andrew's collection laugh, spin, flash. Milo then dies. Which man is crazier?

Photo is of the Umbrella Entertainment 2015 DVD 

WORD HISTORY: 
Sleuth-The origins of this word are unknown, but English borrowed the word in the late 1100s from Old Norse^ "sloð" (ð=(e)th), which meant "track of a person or animal." Where Old Norse got the word is unknown. English applied the word to a bloodhound as, "sleuth-hound," obviously for a bloodhound's super sense of smell and it's ability to track something. By the 1800s (mid?), the hound part had largely been dropped, leaving "sleuth," and the meaning "investigator." The less used verb form developed from the noun and means, "to investigate, to act like a 'sleuth'."

^ Old Norse is from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, and it, or its most prominent descendants: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, influenced, and was/were influenced by, Low German, Frisian and English. Old Norse speakers, collectively called "Danes" by the English, landed and often settled in northern and parts of eastern England beginning in the 800s AD, eventually leading to a number of words being borrowed by English, which often already had similar, related words.

"The Cardinal," Otto Preminger Directed

I first saw this movie many years ago on television. I believe it was in the late 1960s, although the film was only released in 1963. The film was directed by Otto Preminger, often considered one of the greatest directors of all time, although his personality was highly volatile, and he was known for being "difficult." Preminger did often get results, as several of the stars he directed received Academy Award nominations for their performances in the films he directed, including this film, "The Cardinal, as John Huston, better known for his own movie directing, than for acting, received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Otto Preminger will certainly be known to you, if you've seen the movie, "Stalag 17, as he played the role of the German prison camp commandant. Never fear, Preminger was no Nazi, as he was Jewish, and he came to the United States in the 1930s, after Hitler had taken power in Germany. Earlier he lived primarily in Vienna. Preminger took on controversial subjects in some of his films, and he battled the television industry to keep his films intact, and not be cut to pieces to fit into time slots and for commercials.

The movie, based on the book of the same title by Henry Morton Robinson, which itself was loosely based on the life of Francis Cardinal Spellman, is about the rise of a young Catholic priest from Boston, Stephen Fermoyle, played by Tom Tryon, beginning in the era around World War One, and his eventual rise to the position of cardinal a couple of decades later. The movie begins with the preliminary ceremony for his appointment as cardinal, and as the necessary documents are read in Latin, Fermoyle stands and looks back on his life, and it is in this way that the film is presented. Remember he understood Latin and yet he drifted off to other matters. How about the people in attendance, likely many, who didn't understand Latin? Where do you think their minds were? *

Stephen's life reflects the stresses and strains in Catholicism, the religious doctrine, and the way every day Catholics really live their lives. Stephen's sister, Mona, played by Carol Lynley, wants to marry, but her boyfriend, Benny Rampell, played by John Saxon, is Jewish and Stephen wants the young man to convert, or at least to agree that any children will be brought up as Catholics. At first the young man agrees to being able to be persuaded, but when he and his parents are made to feel uneasy about not being Catholic and Irish, he decides not to convert. Mona goes to her brother for advice, which turns out to be the Catholic religious answer, to give up the boyfriend. Mona leaves home and, months later, she is found, in labor, and taken to a hospital, where the doctor tells Stephen that the baby will have to die to save his sister, but Stephen cannot give his consent and go against Catholic doctrine, so his sister dies, but the baby lives. This is a staggering blow to the young priest, as this is now religious belief actually having to be put into practice.

Cardinal Glennon, played by John Huston, sees Stephen as ambitious and in need of some humility, so he sends him to a very poor parish to assist and learn from Father Ned, played by Burgess Meredith. Father Ned lives a very simple life, and he is beloved by his parishioners, but the priest is seriously ill, something Stephen finally takes to Glennon, who goes off to visit his long time friend Father Ned. When the dying priest asks that he appoint Stephen as his successor, Cardinal Glennon thanks him for the suggestion, giving Father Ned the impression that's what will happen, but outside of the room, the cardinal tells Stephen he has other plans for him to become his secretary, not become the parish priest.

The pope dies (1922) and Stephen travels with Cardinal Glennon to Rome, where Glennon convinces the new pope to give Stephen a position in the Vatican, but Stephen, badly troubled by his priesthood so far, does not want the position, causing Glennon to give Stephen a leave of absence of two years for the priest to see what he wants to do. Stephen goes to Vienna (he speaks German) to teach English. He meets a young woman, Annemarie, played by Romy Schneider, and the two fall for each other, but he tells her he is a priest, and eventually, Stephen decides to stay with the priesthood.

Stephen returns to Rome, where he takes a position in the Vatican. In 1934 a black American priest from Georgia, Father Gillis, played by Ossie Davis, comes to Rome to seek help, as the only Catholic school in his area will not admit black Catholic students, and further, his church in Georgia has been burned down by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Stephen takes the priest to see Cardinal Giacobbi, a highly conservative close associate of the pope, but instead of helping him, Giacobbi essentially scolds Father Gillis when the priest tells him members of his congregation protested the discrimination of the school by holding a protest with signs, an act said by Giacobbi to be a method that is "inflammatory." This brings a statement from another cardinal present, played by Raf Vallone, "I'm not sure we can afford to use methods that tend to be glacial," but Giacobbi is generally unsympathetic, although Stephen tries to get the cardinal to understand the racism in the United States. The priest leaves with no help for the Catholic school racial discrimination. Stephen goes to Georgia to see what he can do and to gather information he can take back to the Vatican. He is met with hostility and both he and Father Gillis are severely beaten (even with a whip) by a group of the KKK. Standing on principle about racial justice in the American South can be very dangerous.** (Note: When this film was released in 1963, racial tensions in the U.S. were climbing.)

Finally, Hitler's influence is expanding in Europe, and heavily Catholic Austria has become a part of Germany. Stephen is sent to close the papal nuncio in Vienna (Austria is no longer a separate country), and to take a message to the head of the Catholic Church in Austria, Cardinal Innitzer, played by Josef Meinrad, to tone down his public support of Hitler and the Nazis. The cardinal seems detached from the reality of the situation, believing himself to have been non political in statements supporting Austria joining Germany. He curries favor with leading Nazis, but reality strikes when Hitler goes back on earlier promises about Catholicism in his native land. Then Nazi thugs vandalize Catholic properties. Stephen has to flee. Just as in Georgia, the same is true in Vienna, when you oppose hate and evil, be prepared for great difficulties, even possible death.

The film ends with Stephen addressing the people assembled, including his mother and other family members who traveled to Rome for the ceremonies of Stephen's becoming a cardinal.

* Originally the language of Christianity was Aramaic, a Semitic language of the Middle East akin to Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament) and Arabic. Then Christianity began to spread in the eastern Mediterranean area, a region where Greek was heavily used, making Greek a common part of early Christianity. As the religion became more popular further west in the Mediterranean and in the Roman Empire, Latin, the language of the Romans, began to be used more and more, until it became the acknowledged language by many in Christianity, with writings and masses often being in Latin. This didn't just happen one day, but rather it took place over a period from about 300, 400 and 500 AD. The interesting thing is, and it shows how religion can get out of step with, and fear, change, Latin itself was changing dramatically during these times and beyond, as it, or more specifically its dialects, were morphing into separate languages: Italian (right in what had become the center of Christianity and Latin... Rome), Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Romansh, French and others too, but it took time for these languages to fully emerge as distinct entities. Meanwhile, Latin was the language of Christianity, with writings and religious services conducted in Latin up until the 1960s, even though most parishioners did not understand much, if not most, of what was said. Of course, there were those little things called "the Great Schism" and "the Reformation," that caused a major split in Christianity, and in the use of other languages as part of segments of Christianity, and since the 1960s, although better late than never, Roman Catholicism has permitted the use of national and local languages, although a small percentage of Latin masses have continued. Perhaps there will be a movement to, "make Latin great again."

** While the details in the movie are vague, some white men have been arrested and charged in the church arson in Georgia. Father Gillis is scheduled to testify, but many of the white residents of the town are in an uproar, prompting the priest's superior, Monsignor Whittle, played by Chill Wills, to order Gillis not to testify and to drop the complaint. Stephen challenges the monsignor, who disparagingly uses the term "Yankee," in reference to Stephen, but then finds out that Stephen is from the Vatican. When Stephen returns to Rome and Cardinal Giacobbi, who feels Stephen has gotten the Church into controversy (heaven forbid! ... hey, what a pun!), Stephen explains there was a conviction in the case, and while not for arson, but for disorderly conduct, it was the first time in Georgia that white men had been convicted for anything based upon the testimony of a black witness (the film uses the term, "Negro," long seen by American white society, and even by many people of black society, as the proper term for black people, especially in those times, mid 1930s in the film, but also still in the early 1960s, when the film was made and released). While it's firmly implied in the movie that Giacobbi is against Stephen being named a bishop, and that he will use the incident in Georgia to try to influence the pope in that direction, the pope makes Stephen a bishop; so a bit of hope for some change comes from the ordeal, both legally and religiously.             

Photo is from the 2005 Warner Home Video DVD.

WORD HISTORY:
Cardinal-The ultimate origin of this word are unknown, but it goes back to Latin "cardo," which meant, "hinge of a door," and from this developed the notion of, "important, prime," from the idea of "a matter or a person upon which others are dependent, upon which things turn or hinge," and this gave Latin the adjective "cardinalis." The Christian church initially applied the noun form to a clergyman of a church; thus, "the prime person, or person of importance for that church." Later, Christians elevated the meaning to a bishop who became, "a prince of the Church," as an elector of the pope. English borrowed the noun from Latin circa 1100, and it borrowed the adjective from French, a Latin-based language, in the 1200s. The use as the name for a particular red and reddish brown bird began in the second half of the 1600s, from the comparison of the red attire for the religious cardinals.

Trump Is Just Like Their Führer

Just like the original fanatical, furious Führer, Donald Trump is half nuts and half manipulator. He fears all sorts of things, mainly other human beings, which distorts his ... ah, judgment, but he knows what he's doing. Giving voice to concerns about trade, border security, crime and some other issues, doesn't bother me in the least. We need such discussions, but wanting to build walls to keep people out, using bigoted and racist descriptions of Mexicans, women and others, as well as disparaging veterans captured in the service of this country, and mocking a disabled man, is stoking the fears, bigotry and racism of people to his own perceived advantage. It isn't unifying, it is divisive. The same with using the grieving mother of one of those killed in Benghazi. A true leader would try to console this woman, not exploit her grief and stoke her anger. That's manipulation. I've never been much of a John McCain fan, but in 2008, he at least had the decency to set the record straight when a woman at one of his rallies said Barack Obama was "an Arab." That took guts. And some in the crowd did not like McCain for his comments, nor his asking them to tone down the rhetoric against then presidential candidate, Obama. You know Trump's bad, when his running mate, Mike Pence, himself a fanatical fascist, hiding his nastiness behind fundamentalist Christianity, looks more reasonable than Trump. 

Hitler too, knew what he was doing.* As he sought to gain power, Adolf Hitler was known for his fiery and provocative speeches given to cheering crowds, while he was protected by brown-shirted stormtroopers, who beat up and carted off any protesters. The thing is, "I'm not sure" that even Hitler yelled to his bullies to, "get him outta here," about protesters, or ever told his audiences, that a protester "would be carried out on a stretcher." No matter what Hitler brought about, even death and destruction to to his homeland, his faithful remained loyal to him.** Sound familiar? How about this Trump quote: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and I wouldn't lose any voters. OK? It's like incredible."

* This is NOT meant as a comparison to Trump, so I'm putting it in this separate note, as even I don't think Trump has gone this far, although he seems to be trying hard to work toward similar hate. More troubling is that Trump knows his rhetoric has prompted avowed racists and bigots to endorse him and has "inspired" supporters at his rallies to confront and bully protesters:
 
While in some of his public speeches Hitler ranted against Jews, and some of his lines were dripping with venom, he watched his language, so as not to give away his real long term goal of mass murder. But such speeches by Hitler and other Nazi leaders stoked hatred, dehumanized minorities and began to prepare Germans for the ultimate hatred ... murder. Even later, while his killing machine murdered millions of innocent people, Hitler kept these events as quiet as possible (although rumors and stories circulated). Traudl Junge, one of his secretaries for the last couple years of his life, said the subject of Jews was never discussed in his private times, and she and the other secretaries saw him every day, even having lunch, dinner or tea with him. He knew what he was doing. After the war, much was made by Hitler apologists that he never knew about the death camps and executions, because there were no written orders from him to carry out these atrocities. It was all a bunch of nonsense. One case shows he knew exactly what was going on.  See next note

** Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, cited one telling incident, which took place in 1943 at Hitler's villa, "the Berghof," above the town of Berchtesgaden. She admits that she only heard about it from others who were present in the dining room, including her husband, who was one of Hitler's personal aides. The Schirachs had been invited to the Berghof, at Henriette von Schirach's request, to see and dine with Hitler. The husband, Baldur, had been head of the Hitler Youth in the 1930s and then the Nazi Party leader of Vienna, and if you've seen any of the documentaries on the Nazi Hitler Youth, you've undoubtedly seen Baldur von Schirach in the films or still photos from that time. By the way, Schirach was under lots of American influence from both sides of his family, as his mother was an American and his paternal grandfather served in the Union army during the American Civil War, and Baldur grew up speaking both English and German. At the time of the dinner with Hitler, Henriette von Schirach had recently been in Amsterdam, where she had witnessed the brutal round up of Dutch Jewish women, who were then packed into railway cars and sent to the "east," which was another Nazi euphemism for "sending Jews to their death," as the extermination camps, designed to kill Jews and others as quickly as possible, were located primarily in Poland. "Auschwitz," the most infamous of all, was located there, as were others. Mrs. Schirach told Hitler the terrible things she had witnessed in Amsterdam, adding that people in Amsterdam felt these Jews would never be heard from again. She was under the impression that Hitler was unaware of such things, but upon mentioning the information to Hitler, the conversation at the dinner table stopped, Hitler momentarily went silent, then he told Mrs. Schirach not to get involved in matters that she didn't understand, adding that she was "too sentimental." Hitler abruptly arose from the table, left the room and did not return, nor did the Schirachs ever return to Hitler's company, as he never invited them back. Even here though, Mrs. Schirach apparently thought Hitler could not possibly know of what was happening, and she sought to inform him, only to be told to mind her own business by the fanatical, furious Führer. He knew what he was doing. 

WORD HISTORY:
Manipulation-This word, made up of three parts: "mani," "pul" and "ation," and meaning, "skilled use of the hands to work something, skilled direction of situations, the managing of other's emotions and mental state or faculty for a purpose either good or bad." The first part, related to "manual" and "manager," goes back to Indo European "man," which meant "hand." This gave Latin "manus," also meaning "hand." This then was combined with the second part to give Latin "manipulus," which literally meant "handful," and its derived form in Old French, a Latin-based language, "manipuler" which was used for, "take as many medicinal herbs are you can hold in your hand; take a handful of herbs (medication)." This was combined in French with the third part to form "manipulation," which was then borrowed into English in the first half of the 1700s, with the general meaning of using the hands, including "to mine for ore or minerals," in those times, of course," done "by hand." The second part of the word, distantly related to both "fill" and "full," ^ goes back to Indo European "pleh," which meant "to fill, to complete," and this gave Latin "pleo," also meaning, "to fill, to complete," the root of which, rendered as "pul," in Latin, then joined with the first part, as noted above. Finally, the Indo European suffix "te/tis," gave Latin "(a)tio," which became the third part of "manipulation." 

^ The connection goes back to Indo European, as both "fill" and "full" are from Germanic, which had its own form derived from Indo European

Donald Trump, Captain of the Titanic

Donald Trump is the captain of the new "GOP Titanic." The ship took years of hate and division to build. Years of hate and fear mongers like Morton Downey, Jr., Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter preaching against government, minorities, women, gays, labor unions and just about any change, and using various conspiracy theories to scare Americans, usually white Americans, into supporting an ever more reactionary agenda and the reactionary politicians who pushed it. If you think such propaganda doesn't work, Joseph Goebbels would not have had such a prominent position in the Nazi regime. Rush Limbaugh, "seemingly" somewhat diminished in the number of listeners in the last year or two, was so powerful a force within the Republican Party, that any Republican officeholders who dared criticize him, spent the next day groveling at his feet to regain favor. Of course, another monumental moment in the march of reactionaries into the lives of many Americans came when long time conservative Republican operative, Roger Ailes, was given his own personal fiefdom with the creation of "Fox News" on cable television. It became a "conservative media paradise," where Republicans and leaders of conservative causes ran for cover, as it was anything but, "fair and balanced." (NBC then chose to make cable station "MSNBC" the anti-Fox News outlet; thus liberal/progressive.)  

While the ship was built, the escalating harshness and stridency of the hate preachers continued with barely a peep from the Reagans, the Bushes, or the Mitt Romneys and Bill Welds of the world. Some of these same folks got into a panic when Donald Trump began moving like a juggernaut toward the Republican nomination for president. Some panicked so much, they tried to derail Trump with Ted Cruz, a true fire-breathing fascist, who lacks only the armband and a raised right arm salute. Trump prevailed by a large margin. The so called "Republican establishment," those who previously tolerated this crap for so long, and who did not speak out, not even to save their own honor, have further removed the mantle of "the party of Lincoln" from the Republican Party, a party now based upon racism, bigotry, extreme nationalism, militia groups and conspiracy theories. When basically good people fail to speak out, this is how fascists take hold. I've written here before, that once you let fascists in, you can only get them back out with great difficulty and pain. The GOP regulars are passengers on board the Titanic, and they bought their tickets long ago, on an installment plan, just paying the final balance about the first of the year. There is an immense iceberg unseen in the distance and there are not enough lifeboats for all the GOP passengers.
       
WORD HISTORY:
Sink-This word goes back to Indo European "sengw," which had the notion of "to go beneath water." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "sinkwanan," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sincan," which meant, "to sink, something to go below water." It also gave Old English, "besencan," which meant, "to sink something, to cause something to sink." The latter then became "sinken," before the modern form. The other form died out, or evolved, in part, into "sench," which kept the meaing, "to sink something, in the sense, cause it to sink." It has since died out, with both meanings now used only in "sink." The noun for a basin; as in, "the kitchen sink," originally developed from the verb in the 1400s, and it came from the idea of a hollow area of ground where water collected; the term then transferred to the man made objects "sunk" into a cabinet. Common throughout the other Germanic languages (verb forms): German has "sinken" (to sink) and "versenken" (to sink something, to scuttle), Low German Saxon "sinken," West Frisian "sinke" (to sink), Dutch "zinken" (to sink), Danish and Norwegian "synke" (to sink), Icelandic "sökka" (to sink, but it lost the "n" over time) and Swedish "sjunka" (to sink) and "sänka" (to lower, to cause to sink or lower).

Orlando: Our Tears Show Sadness, Not Weakness

At this terrible time of mourning, parents and family members who scorn, reject or isolate gay children or other family members, let this tremendous loss of life show you how misplaced your feelings and fears are. Our lives are fleeting enough, without hate seeking to do us in. Some parents may have only found out their child was gay when they were informed of their death or wounding in this massacre of innocent people. Religion used as a cover to spread hate needs to be called out. DON'T BE STILL, SPEAK OUT! Our tears show sadness, not weakness. Remember the victims, their families, their friends. Donate in some way to help comfort those who suffered loss and to help those who survived, for even those untouched by bullets will bear the scars of this tragedy for the rest of their lives. No matter how much our hearts ache, WE ARE STRONG, WE HAVE STRENGTH!

WORD HISTORY:
Strength-This word, derived from the ancestor of "strong," goes back to Indo European "streng/strenk," which had the notion of "tight, taut." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "strangiþu" (þ essentially equals "th"), meaning "strongness." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "strengþu," with the general meaning, "physical strongness, firmness in body or spirit." This then became "strengthe" (ending 'e' pronounced 'eh'), before the modern form. The close relationship between "strong" and "strength" makes it difficult to separate the exact meanings, as they often overlap, so I will list only a few, but German has "Strenge" (hardness, toughness, strictness, harshness), Low German "Strengde" (harshness, strictness), Dutch "strengte" (strict, stern, severe).  

Trump & All in the Family

Note: This was written during the Republican primaries in March 2016


The 1970s saw the airing of a television series unlike any other seen up to that time. The series was "All in the Family," and it showed us ourselves complete with bigotry, fears, prejudices, racism, and all, but usually in a lighthearted, comedic way. Unlike the later "political correctness police," who wagged fingers in faces, or yelled and screamed in an apparent attempt to humiliate those deemed to have violated their codes (thus often so angering people, as to lose them forever), "All in the Family" usually got in your face in a funny way. We saw how silly some of our fears and prejudices were, but without anyone ever leaping through the television screen with index finger pointed at us.

So .... what does all of this have to do with Donald Trump? Well, when Trump began his campaign for president, I thought he was blatantly showing us how bigoted, fearful, prejudiced, and racist many of us still are. Some of his statements were things we might well have heard uttered by one Archie Bunker, the main character in "All in the Family" all of those years ago.* At times Trump seemed to smirk when making his pronouncements, making me wonder if indeed he was thinking, "What a bunch of dingbats we have voting in this country."** The thing is, I no longer think he was doing an Archie Bunker imitation to show us our flaws, but rather he was deliberately stoking the fires of bigotry and racism in a bunch of Archie Bunkers in the country for his own self interest. Trump has been compared to Hitler, but my use of Hitler here is not "necessarily" intended as such, for if I were going to refer to Hitler in some comparative way, I'd be writing about Ted Cruz. Anyway, what Trump really thinks is unknown to me, for as I said, he seems to use derogatory and inflammatory language for his own ends. Once seemingly many Germans thought the same about Hitler; that he used bigotry and racism to further his political career, but that he didn't mean it. Germans and the rest of the world found out something though, HE MEANT IT! While I've sort of given Trump the benefit of the doubt so far about using bigotry and racism, I'd rather NOT find out if he means it.   

* Archie Bunker was played to the hilt by actor Carroll O'Connor.  

** For those unaware, "dingbat" was what Archie called his often slow on the uptake wife, Edith.

WORD HISTORY:
Bee-For such a common word throughout the Germanic languages, with relatives in other Indo European languages too, the history is a bit sketchy. It "seems" to go back to an Indo European form "bhi," with a notion of "shaking, quivering," or perhaps, "humming, buzzing." This gave Old Germanic a form of something like, "bion," which was applied as the name for the "buzzing" ("humming," "quivering") insect. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beo," which then became "bee," where it has remained for centuries. The other Germanic languages have: German "Biene," Low German Saxon "Bee," Dutch and West Frisian "bij," Danish and Swedish "bi," Norwegian "bie," and Icelandic "býfluga" (literally "bee fly").

The Struggles For Change Are Timeless

This was first published in April 2014.


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

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

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

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

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

Nowhere In Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika)

"Nowhere in Africa" (German: "Nirgendwo in Afrika") is an absolutely wonderful film. It was released in late 2001 in Europe and in late 2002 in the United States. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is in German, but with very good subtitles, so please don't let that stop you from missing this great picture. The main characters are a German-Jewish family (the Redlichs) of husband ("Walter," played by Merab Ninidze), wife ("Jettel," pronounced as if "Yettel," as German "J" is pronounced like English "Y," played by Juliane Köhler) and little girl ("Regina," pronounced like "re-geenah," played by Lea Kurka as a young child and by Karoline Eckertz as a teenager), and their Kenyan cook ("Owuor," played by Sidede Onyulo), who really becomes a part of their family. The movie is based on a book by the same name written by Stefanie Zweig, the real life name of the little girl, with many of her real life experiences incorporated into the book. The DVD, available in the U.S., has an interview segment with Stefanie Zweig, who is now about 80 years old (UPDATE: Stefanie Zweig passed away in the spring of 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, age 81). There is much to this movie, but here are a few things:

What would you do if your homeland were turned into hell? That's the first question of the movie. Germany, the homeland of the Redlich family, has been taken over by the Nazis, who are turning it into a living hell for German Jews and others.* Walter Redlich leaves Germany in 1937 to take a low income job managing a farm in Kenya, an East African nation, then under British rule. He doesn't want to leave his homeland, and he had been an attorney, but survival demands it. He later sends for his wife and young daughter, but he can never convince his father, his sister and his in-laws to leave too, as they believe the Nazi terror will all soon pass. Walter is living on the farm with a tall, thin Kenyan named "Owuor," who is an employee of the English owner. Walter and Owuor become close friends and Owuor begins to teach Walter the local language, Swahili, as Owuor speaks no German. When Regina meets Owuor he picks her up and hugs her and she feels his hair, which is different from her own. This scene is the scene that sticks with me about the picture and it comes into play again later. Jettel is then shown sitting and admiring the scenery when a young Kenyan boy runs up behind her and feels her hair to the delight of his friends. While Regina and Owuor become almost inseparable and he teaches her the language and customs of the local people, which she wholeheartedly welcomes, Jettel misses Germany, her family and familiar surroundings and wants to return "home." She often snaps at Owuor when he tries to help her understand the local customs and she once tells him to learn German if he wants to talk to her (remember, she's in HIS country). She and Walter begin to quarrel, but Walter has been given a radio by another German Jewish farmer who left Germany right when the Nazis took power in 1933, and he has heard the news on a Swiss German station of the infamous "Kristallnacht," a night of terror for Germany's Jews, as Nazi thugs burned and looted synagogues and Jewish shops, beat and arrested Jews, with some Jews being killed. In one argument between Walter and Jettel, he tells her that her treatment of Owuor is awful and comparable to some people back in Germany to whom she would not want to be compared. All of this begins to sink in with Jettel and she finally begins to adopt to her new home.

When the war begins, the British send troops to arrest the male German/German Jewish residents, as they are "enemy aliens;" sort of a supreme irony, as the Nazis had revoked the citizenship of its Jews. They finally release Walter, but he's lost his job, as the British farm owner says he can't have an enemy alien running the farm. Walter and Jettel get another farm job and Owuor tracks them down to join them. The couple send Regina to a British run "white" school. The first day at an assembly, the headmaster tells all Jews to move to the side of the room so that the rest of the students can say a Christian prayer. Later, as Regina does very well in her classes, the headmaster calls her into his office, where, upon her entering he says, "So you're the little Jewish girl." He then wants to know why she is learning so well, to which Regina responds that her father has little money and can't afford for her to fail, so she studies hard. The headmaster then wants to know if it is some Jewish custom to always want to talk about money. So, even in Kenya, far from the Nazis, and among some  "supposed" Christians, anti-Jewish sentiment and bigotry is present.

Both Walter and Jettel receive letters from "home," which stirs their anxiety about the safety of their families back in Germany. Jettel's mother later tells her that she's being "sent to Poland," and Walter tells Jettel it is a virtual death sentence. This sets off a fit of denial by Jettel, but Walter tells her that at least she's lucky in a way, and that he suffers every day, because he doesn't know what has happened to his father and sister. (He finds out later, but I'll let you see the movie for the answer.) Regina becomes a young teenager and asks her mother why people hate Jews so much. Jettel, now fully acclimated to Kenya, tells her that some people can't accept differences in others, but that Africa has taught her that differences are good and that it would be silly if we were all the same.

Walter joins the British Army to find some sort of purpose in his life at that time; a way of striking back at Hitler and the Nazis. When the war ends, Walter is offered a judgeship in Germany, and he and the family must now decide if they want to leave "home" again, for their former "home," filled with so many memories, including the memory of hatred by the Nazis. I'll end it there, so as not to spoil things, but I hope you'll watch this superb film which will leave you feeling good. If you know an "Archie Bunker," have them watch this film. We can't change the world all at once, but we can change it one person at a time.

* The film uses Regina as a sometimes narrator and she tells early on that her father had been an attorney, but that the Nazis then forbid Jews to hold positions in various professions, thus depriving Jews of their means of earning a living. 

Photo is of the Columbia Tristar Special Edition (2 disc) DVD   

WORD HISTORY:
Churl (Churlish)-This word, closely related to the names "Carl/Karl/Charles," is no longer a common word, at least in America, although its adjective form "churlish" is still used. The ancient origin of "churl" is uncertain, but Old Germanic had "karlaz/karilaz," which meant " grown man, mature man." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ceorl," which had numerous meanings tied to "man/male," like "male peasant, common man, layman, husband." This then became "cherl," before the modern version. The adjective "churlish" in Old English was "cierlisc," and simply meant "having to do with churls." The idea of "peasant or rustic behavior" as opposed to "educated, refined behavior" led to its meaning "rude, surly behavior or disposition," the meaning which still exists today. The other Germanic relatives of "churl" are: German "Kerl," which means "guy, fellow;" Low German Saxon "Keerl" (also guy, fellow); Dutch "kerel" (man, fellow); West Frisian "tsjirl" (guy, fellow); Icelandic and Swedish "karl" (husband, man); Danish "karl" (male farm worker, guy); and Norwegian "kar" (man, guy, fellow).

Asking A Republican A Few Questions

This was first published in May 2013

"Hello folks! This is Dan Ratherbe, in Philadelphia. Today I have a Republican here who promises to speak out on the issues confronting the nation and his Republican Party, no holds barred. His name is George Owen Pappenstiel* and he's a strong supporter of the Tea Party. Welcome Mr. Pappenstiel.

GOP-Thank you Mr. Couldbe, or is it Mr. Shouldbe?

DR-It's Ratherbe, but my name isn't important here, you are. So here's the first question, and remember, no holds barred. Is The Republican Party still the "party of Lincoln?"

GOP-Oh no, that was just temporary insanity on the part o' people who weren't no real Republicans. Ol' John Wilkes Booth was just too late gettin' at that guy. See, that's why Americuns need guns, to stop this stuff. 'Sides, I'm not sure Lincoln could ever convince Donald Trump that he wuz a 'gitimate president with a valid birth certificate to prove it. Just like that Bomma guy, a Mooslim if ever there was one. From over there in one of them Africa places nobody knows the name of.

DR- Kenya?

GOP- Cun I what?

DR- The President's name is Obama, not Bomma.

GOP- See, can't even say his name right, 'cuz it ain't no Americun name.

DR-Who is your favorite president?

GOP-Jeff Davis!

DR- Sir, Jefferson Davis was not president of the United States.

GOP- Shows jist how dumb you liberals are. Ya never had a proper edjeecation. Jeff Davis is my answer and that's final. I'll bet Donald Trump wouldn't have no trouble with ol' Jeff. He wuz a real Americun like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. They don't go 'round hatin America like that Bomma guy. They don't see no bad things 'bout this great ol' country and they only tell people the plain and simple facts and the communists and socialists don't like the truth or facts, so theyz agin them.  Michele and Sarah, they just plain and simple, that's what they are.

DR- Okay, who besides Jefferson Davis?

GOP- You sure ere trying to make this tough. Let's see ... ah ... Strom Thurmond? Oh wait, he only ran and he didn't win; got cheated I believe. George Wallace almost made it, but they cheated him too. Well, I guess Ronald Reagan.

DR-Do you believe Ebenezer Scrooge gets a bum rap?

GOP-You better believe it. The liberal media has done made him a scapegoat and felt sorry for that lazy moocher who worked for him. I can't remember his name, but he had that good for nothing son who sang like a woman and had the long hair to go with it. Played a banjo or some such thing too. Maybe a ukelele.  What was his name? Hm ... Tiny Tim or some such crap. Used a crutch to make people feel sorry for him. Not me, I don't fall for that stuff; I don't feel sorry for nobody, exceptin' maybe ol' Ebenezer. He was just a honest business guy tryin' to make a livin'. He was a job creator too. That moochin' worker of his wouldn't o' had a job if'n it weren't for ol' Ebenezer.

DR-Do you think some Republicans secretly celebrate Hitler's and Mussolini's birthdays?

GOP-Oh that Muss-ah-lini was such a wimp, nobody'd be celebratin' his birthday. I dunno 'bout Hitler tho.

DR-You mean you don't know of anyone in your party who celebrates Hitler's birthday on April 12th?

GOP-No, no, not April 12th, 'cause his birthday is April 20th. A cuzin o' mine has an old armband, give to him by his pa from the war time in Germany. He likes to wear it 'round the house sometimes, but I'm not sure it's just on Hitler's birthday. 'Sides, he got a nice white sheet he like to wear too sometimes. Keeps it good 'n clean and has a good Christian cross with it.     

DR-What do you think of the growing Hispanic population in the U.S.

GOP- I think we should use the Army to secure the border and shoot first an' ask questions later, like that there guy done there in Florida. What's his name, Zimmerman? We gotta stop this stuff or soon we'll all be eatin' tacos and refried beans fer breakfast, lunch and dinner. They can't even speak good English like you an' me duz. An' those Pertoo Ricans, why you'd think they wuz real Americuns, the ways they act.

DR- Puerto Ricans are American citizens, sir.

GOP- Now quit joshin' me. Ain't no real Americuns if'n they don't look like you an' me. An' don't fergit my cuzin neither. Then too, real Americuns don't got names like Peedro or Jose. That Jose name only any good fer the national anthem, you know, 'Jose ... can you see, by the dawn's early light?' Jist thought I'd be throwin' in a little humor, but you ain't laughin'. Guess you don't git it.
 
DR- Do you think the Tea Party is at least partially in response to political correctness? If so, do you think they're really racist, or that they just think segregation wasn't a bad thing at all, and that in fact, slavery helped take care of slaves?

 GOP- Now ya got that last part right, an' no truer words was ever spoke. Let me tell ya, a little slavery never hurt nobody, at least not no white person, or Egyptian. Just think, no slavery, no pyramids. No slavery, no cotton industry. No child slavery, no Walmart. Hey, this ain't tough to figur out.

DR-  Why do you think many Americans believe the GOP, especially the Tea Party, is bigoted, if not outright racist?

GOP- I got no idea. I never met a Tea Party patriot who didn't believe colored people, or I guess I should say, Negroes, haven't performed a valuable service to this country; as I said, no slavery, no cotton. If people like John Brown and that bunch hadn't been messin' in, we'd still have a thrivin' cotton business and big plantations all over the South. An' see, I said Negroes. You probly thought I didn't know no better.

DR- What do you think of unions?

GOP- Oh that bunch of Commies. They just wanna keep stoppin' American business from growin'; after all, what's good fer business, is good fer America.

DR- So if unions were destroyed, the country AND workers would be better off? How would workers benefit?

GOP- The country's businesses would be better off, no question 'bout it, and they are the nation's job creators. They need more money to 'spand and invest so they can provide more jobs to Americans. We don't need no unions stickin' their Commie noses in to where they ain't wanted ner needed. Let one company outbid the others over workers with pay and any benefits.

DR- What do you think of Medicare?

GOP- Oh that sozialyzed med'cine started by Lyndon Johnson. Called hizself a Texan too. Baloney! He weren't no real Texan like George W. Bush and Rick Perry. Now thems Texans.

DR- Has your family always been Republican?

GOP- Oh no, no. My pappy and my grand pappy and his pappy were all Democrats, but that was 'fore the Democrats started stirrin' up the colored people tellin' 'em they was equal to us white folks. Can you imagine that? Then it all got worse, 'cause they done tole women they was equal too. Now they's sayin' men cun marry men and women cun marry women and that we should let more feruners become citizens. I'm tellin ya, Lady Liberty is ashamed o' this stuff and pretty soon we white, educated, sane people gonna be a minority in our own country.    

DR- Thanks for your time, sir. You've really answered the questions, no holds barred, just like you said you would. Only thing is, I'm feeling a bit sick to my stomach now.

GOP- I done tole you, you liberals don't like hearin' the truth.  

* Pappenstiel is used in the German expression "etwas für einen Pappenstiel kriegen;" that is, "get something cheaply/get something for chicken feed." It is pretty much pronounced like "poppin-steel."

WORD HISTORY:
Thwart-This word goes back to Indo European "twork/terkw," which had the notion of "turn, twist." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "t(h)werkhaz," which seems to have meant "crosswise, crooked," from the original notion of "twist, turn." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "thweorh," which likewise meant "crooked, bent," and from those ideas, also the figurative meaning "perverse" (the basic idea of such is still around today, as we say things like "the criminal had a twisted mind"), and also "angry." Along came Old Norse speakers to England, usually referred to as "Danes" back then, although not all came from what is now Denmark. Old Norse was the North Germanic offshoot of Old Germanic; thus making it a close relative of English. English is classified as West Germanic, along with its closest relatives: Frisian, Low German, Dutch, and standard German," but English has a number of influences from North Germanic, because of these "Danish" settlements in England, which were mainly in the northern and eastern parts of the England. Old Norse brought the word "thwert" to England, which had much the same basic meaning as the its Old English relative "thweorh;" that is, "across, crosswise." This form gradually worked its way into English by the 13th Century, seemingly blending with the original English word. Apparently from the notion of "crosswise sticks or logs" used to block an entrance/exit, came the idea in the mid 1200s of a verb form meaning "block, obstruct, hinder," which is still with us today. Originally both the English and Old Norse forms were adverbs/adjectives. Other forms in the Germanic languages: German has "quer" (originally spelled with a "tw" and a "dw," instead of a "q"), which means "across, crosswise; diagonally," Low German and Dutch "dwars," West Frisian "dwers," Swedish "tvär," Danish "tvaer," Norwegian "tvers," and Icelandic "thwert."

Bob Dole Hits A Homer!

Former Republican presidential candidate and long time member of Congress, Senator Bob Dole, told it bluntly in a television interview that today's GOP is negative and that it needs to develop a positive agenda. Where I might have to add more is, when Senator Dole says Ronald Reagan could not be in today's GOP, that's because the people who took over your party were invited in by REAGAN, the cheerleader in chief of the anti government and the 'hate government' theme that has been preached like religion by the right wing fanatics who have captured your party, Senator Dole. I like you and respect you and you had many friends across the Senate aisle like Senator Byrd, Senator Kennedy and your recently deceased fellow World War Two veteran, Senator Inouye. I remember the day you resigned from the Senate to campaign for president in 1996 and all Senate Democrats were there; that's how much respect they had for you. Good that you're speaking out, it's a start, but the root problem is there, preached by Limbaugh, Beck, Bachmann and other haters. I've got to believe if you look closely at Lincoln in his memorial, there are some tears to be seen, as he realizes that "the party of Lincoln," has become dominated by a bunch of intolerant, bigoted, and even racist, fanatics. You know, like the ones Lincoln so opposed.  

WORD HISTORY:
Agenda-The word traces back to Indo European "aeg," which had the idea of "move, drive forth." This gave its Latin offspring the verb "agere," which meant "to do." This then produced the Latin noun "agendus," which meant "something to be done," and its plural "agenda." English borrowed the word from Latin in the mid 1600s, seemingly from religious writings, with many English speaking people first using the Anglicized form "agend" for the singular and "agends" for the plural, but the more modern Latin forms, "agendum" and the plural "agenda," prevailed in high speaking society. Most people, however, use only the plural form "agenda," even when meaning the singular. 

A Witness To Changes For The Better On Race, But With Caveats

First published in April 2013, but with an ending note added, July 27, 2017 and a small addition on June 1, 2018, with another addition May 13, 2021.

I've seen a good many changes in my life. Change isn't always easy to accept for some, probably even most of us, at least early on in the process. I was lucky, my parents were not racists and that helped me to look at racial issues in what I think were balanced ways. In the 1960s racial issues exploded across much of the United States, including in my high school, where something less than 10% of the students were black. Race was a red hot issue, but even back then there was cause for hope, as I found most people, regardless of race or background, wanted to get along. I sat next to a black girl in my biology class. When Martin Luther King was assassinated, she came into that classroom, looked at me and said, "I'm supposed to be mad at you." I just played dumb, something I do VERY well, since it comes naturally, and I asked her why. She mentioned the assassination, but then followed with, "but I can't be mad at you." This incident, be it seemingly ever so small, has stayed with me all of these years. I was elected to the school interracial council, a small group developed to diffuse racial problems before they became explosive.

My paternal grandparents were divorced and my father and one uncle lived with my grandfather in Baltimore during a good part of the 1930s. The black population of Baltimore back then was around 18%, a considerable percentage for a non-southern city at that time, but I never heard my dad say anything negative about black people when he talked about his Baltimore days when I was growing up. He always used the term "Negro," the "proper" term in white society back then. He talked about how Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby broke the "color barrier" in major league baseball, and he even recalled how badly black athletes in general had been treated.

I grew up in an all white neighborhood and when I was about five or six, I was standing with a couple of the other kids on the sidewalk when a black guy came down the street on a bicycle. One of the other kids said, "That's a n-----." Later, when I went in the house, I asked my mother, "Mom, what's a n-----?" She grabbed me and said, "Don't you EVER use that word again, or I'll wash your mouth out with soap," a common saying back in those days. I don't recall what she did or didn't explain, but the thoughts of bubbles flowing from my mouth is still with me to this day, although I'm sure my mother did the best she could to explain things to her little son, who unknowingly had uttered a derogatory word.

I don't want to place the crown of sainthood on the heads of my parents, but they were generally ahead of their time on the issue of race, although their views were never tested by having a black family move next door, but then again, they came to my house later on, and I lived next door to a couple from a racially mixed marriage. I certainly wasn't troubled by this fact, nor were my parents, who had seen discrimination toward blacks, segregation, the attitudes of white superiority, and the beginnings of the reversal of these ideas during their lifetimes. Further, a cousin of mine on my mother's side married a black man and I don't recall my mother declaring this would end civilization. No, my parents may have asked little questions about race between themselves* and my dad continued using "Negro" long after he should have dropped the term, but on balance I'd say they knew that things like bombs going off at the Boston Marathon, hijacked planes being flown into buildings, or bankers exploiting the mortgage business were far more important than people allowing race to divide them.

So I've seen lots of changes for the better in my life, although it's been a pretty slow process, which still continues. With the inclusive attitudes of today's young folks, there will be many more positive changes, changes I won't be around to witness, but the country might just truly become the UNITED States, with liberty and justice for all. 

NOTE: 7-27-17: We still have a long way to go on racial issues. The presidency of Barack Obama showed how many Americans were able to move past race and elect a man of mixed racial heritage to lead the nation for 8 years. The early belief and giddiness of some, that we were in a "post racial" era, was far too naïve, as some Americans still felt fearful of voting for Obama, and still others, seemingly a smaller, but more outspoken segment, chose hate, racism and bigotry in reaction to his presidency. To not have voted for Barack Obama does not make a person a racist, just as having voted for Donald Trump in 2016 doesn't make a person a racist, although there are racists in both groups. Addition 5-13-21: Americans still continue to struggle with race, but when I saw protests in the 1960s about civil rights, most protesters, by far, were black Americans. In more recent times, protests about racial inequality almost always have large numbers of Americans of many races and backgrounds included, but as these Americans seek to bring change to racist and bigoted attitudes of a persistent hardcore of Americans, the ugly head and voice of Donald Trump, "the racist in chief," incited acts against Asian Americans, just as his rhetoric had told extremist groups holding torchlight parades in Charlottesville, Virginia and shouting "Jews will not replace us," that they were morally equivalent to people there protesting racism and hate. There has been a tragic rise in anti-semitic incidents, including killings, over the last few years. Fighting such evil is a full time job and we cannot afford to take a vacation from this struggle. 

* Change requires understanding and understanding requires questions to help us understand, and understanding race means we need to answer questions about those who are different in some physical ways from ourselves. Asking questions and wanting to learn about others is not racism. In one of the great scenes in a truly outstanding movie, "Nowhere in Africa," a film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002 (it is in German, with English subtitles), when the young main German Jewish character arrives in Africa, the Kenyan cook for the family picks up the girl and she feels his hair as he holds her close. His hair is different from her hair. This is followed not long after by a young Kenyan boy sneaking up behind the girl's mother, just to feel her hair, much to the delight of his young Kenyan friends. Her hair is different from his own. My article about this wonderful film is here: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/06/nowhere-in-africa.html 

WORD HISTORY:
Learn-This goes back to Indo European "lais/leis," which meant "trail, track." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "liznojan," which meant "to learn, to obtain knowledge;" the notion seemingly being "to acquire knowledge through the track of life." A variant apparently developed which then produced Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leornian," which meant "to acquire knowledge, to study to obtain knowledge." This then became "lernen," before the modern version. English also once had "laeran" (and derived forms) which meant "to teach," and its close German cousin still has "lehren" which means "to teach," and a "Lehrer," is a male teacher, while a "Lehrerin" is a female teacher. English "teach" comes from a Germanic word the basic meaning of which is "to show," and this eventually prevailed over forms of "laeran." The use of "learn" to also mean "to study" generally began to die out in English when "study" was borrowed from French. Learn is closely related to "lore."^  Forms of "learn" in the other Germanic languages are: German "lernen," Low German Saxon "lehren" (which means both "learn" and "teach"), West Frisian "leare," Dutch "leren," Danish and Norwegian  "laere," Icelandic "laera," and Swedish "lära."

^ For the "Word History" for "lore," see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/12/german-question-part-sixty-one.html