| TA | ||
A slang word for Thanks. The word is a result of the heavy Danish influence on the English language. Most people do not realize that the English language roots are really Danish or Jutland. Equiped with this knowledge this word is easy to decipher. The Danish word for Thanks is tak. In Scotland and upper England it was common to drop the k at the end because of the way words were pronounced during the time of old English and Middle English. Hence the slang word "Ta" which should actually be pronounced "TA-k" but over time became "Ta" is really Tak meaning "Thanks". Never teach your baby or toddler to say "ta" instead of "please" or "thank you". You will regret it! When my son Thomas was little, we taught him to say "ta", eventhough he was spoke clearly and likely could have handled "please" or "thank you". He became really good at it. Slowly, the "ta" was corrupted to "tum". I waited too long to teach him the real words. And then when it was time to learn the proper terms, Thomas resisted. He cried and cried when he didn't get something because he said "tum" rather than "please". It took us months before we got the word "ta" or "tum" out of his vocabulary. Unfortunately, by this point, his sister Jacqueline started using "ta". Once again, we had a hard time weaning "ta" from her vocabulary. Finally, we had two "ta"-free children. However, the disease was infectious: now I couldn't stop using "ta" since I had used it for so many years. The word would just slip out unintentionally. Now Jacqueline is 8 years old and every so often that dreaded word still escapes from my lips. So, if you find yourself teaching your child "ta", think again. You don't want the dreaded "ta" disease!  | ||
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Tak Ta Tum
Friday, 3 February 2012
Norman Rockwell
Everyone's heard of the phrase "It's as American as apple pie." When talking about Americana, one could also say "It's as American as Norman Rockwell." Born on February 3, 1894, Norman Rockwell dreamed of painting covers for the Saturday Evening Post. He submitted "Boy with Baby Carriage" in 1916 to the magazine, starting a relationship that would last 47 years and include 300 covers. In his lifetime, Rockwell painted 4000 paintings, often using children as his subjects, although he also painted adults and adult themes.
A look at a Norman Rockwell gallery is a look at the 20th Century history of America. It starts with "Excuse My Dust", the painter's portrayal of an early automobile in 1920. He painted "Wonders of Radio" in 1922 to highlight Marconi's invention. Charles Lindbergh's Flight shows the aviator's first trans-Atlantic flight in the 1930's. Next came Rosie the Riveter, focussing on women wartime factory workers in 1943. "War Bond" helped sell war bonds to America in 1944. Another invention was illustrated in 1949 with "New TV Set". Rockwell's religious upbringing influenced his painting "Saying Grace" from 1951.
"Choir Boy" from 1954 has beautiful colours. With another child as his subject, he painted "Before the Shot", a little boy getting a needle in the doctor's office, in 1958. "The Problem We All Live With", about the integration of a young black girl into an all white school accompanied by the National Guard, focusses on Civil Rights. The following year Rockwell painted Southern Justice: Murder in Mississippi which I suspect is about the slaying of the four white Civil Rights activists. Lastly, Rockwell's Christian faith was evident again in his piece "Uneasy Christmas in the Birthplace of Christ (Christmas Eve in Bethlehem)" from 1970.
A look at a Norman Rockwell gallery is a look at the 20th Century history of America. It starts with "Excuse My Dust", the painter's portrayal of an early automobile in 1920. He painted "Wonders of Radio" in 1922 to highlight Marconi's invention. Charles Lindbergh's Flight shows the aviator's first trans-Atlantic flight in the 1930's. Next came Rosie the Riveter, focussing on women wartime factory workers in 1943. "War Bond" helped sell war bonds to America in 1944. Another invention was illustrated in 1949 with "New TV Set". Rockwell's religious upbringing influenced his painting "Saying Grace" from 1951.
"Choir Boy" from 1954 has beautiful colours. With another child as his subject, he painted "Before the Shot", a little boy getting a needle in the doctor's office, in 1958. "The Problem We All Live With", about the integration of a young black girl into an all white school accompanied by the National Guard, focusses on Civil Rights. The following year Rockwell painted Southern Justice: Murder in Mississippi which I suspect is about the slaying of the four white Civil Rights activists. Lastly, Rockwell's Christian faith was evident again in his piece "Uneasy Christmas in the Birthplace of Christ (Christmas Eve in Bethlehem)" from 1970.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Happy Candlemas!
Although North Americans know February 2 as Ground Hog Day, European Roman Catholics used to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Infant Jesus at the Temple on this day, lighting candles as part of the ceremony. Some Christians consider Candlemas to be the last day of the Christmas season, thereby taking down their Christmas decorations that day. Here is a poem dedicated to Candlemas that I found on the Internet.
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop
(Author Unknown)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Groundhog_Day.
Photo of stained glass window at St. Michael's Cathedral, Toronto, courtesy www.blogger.com.
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop
(Author Unknown)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Groundhog_Day.
Photo of stained glass window at St. Michael's Cathedral, Toronto, courtesy www.blogger.com.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
The Greensboro Four
"It was February 1, 1960. They didn't need menus. Their order was simple. A doughnut and coffee with cream on the side."*
Four black men from the local Agricultural & Technical College walked into a Woolworth's at 132 South Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960. They headed for the "Whites Only" lunch counter, sat down on stools, placed their order, and then waited...and waited...and waited. In fact, they sat on their lunch counter stools all day. They studied, they did their homework and they waited in silence.
News spread across town. In time their numbers grew. They returned on Day 2, twenty strong, prepared for another long wait. Reporters started to cover the event, called a "sit-in". The manager called the police but the police chief said that unless they protested violently, he could do nothing. And so they sat. All they wanted was a cup of coffee and a doughnut.
By Day 3, news had spread even further. At 60 strong, the growing story was widely covered in the press. When Whites approached the lunch counter, some refused to sit with them, some heckled them (KKK) and some joined the sit-in. The protesters' numbers were so great that they had to start taking shifts to cover the day. They did their school work. They waited in silence.
By Day 4, their total reached 300. "The times, they were a-changing" in North Carolina as other cities joined in: Raleigh, Charlotte, Durham, and Winston-Salem. Later, sit-ins were held in Richmond, Virginia and Nashville, Tennessee. One report stated that some protesters even had food poured on them by rabble rousers. But still they waited.
By February 7, the sit-ins totalled 54 in 15 different cities. And still they waited.
Black organizations suggested a boycott of all stores with segregated lunch counters and many complied, sending Woolworth's sales plunging by a third. Protests spread to lunch counters at Kress and Walgreen's.
President Eisenhower made a speech announcing that he was "deeply sympathetic with efforts of any group to enjoy the rights of equality that they are guaranteed by the Consitution." Yes, "times they were a-changing".
Finally, on July 25, 1960, the black employees at the Greensboro whites only lunch counter were served on the same stools that the Greensboro Four had sat on. The following day, Woolworth's opened up the counter to all blacks and 300 were served that day. The Greensboro Four, Joseph McNeil, Frank McCain, David Richmond and Ezell Blair Jr., finally got their cup of coffee and doughnut.
It would take another four years, but the Civil Rights Act was finally signed by President Johnson in 1964, thanks largely in part to the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960.
*Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (Andrea Davis Pinkney)
Photo courtesy http://2.bp.blogspot.com.
Four black men from the local Agricultural & Technical College walked into a Woolworth's at 132 South Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960. They headed for the "Whites Only" lunch counter, sat down on stools, placed their order, and then waited...and waited...and waited. In fact, they sat on their lunch counter stools all day. They studied, they did their homework and they waited in silence.
News spread across town. In time their numbers grew. They returned on Day 2, twenty strong, prepared for another long wait. Reporters started to cover the event, called a "sit-in". The manager called the police but the police chief said that unless they protested violently, he could do nothing. And so they sat. All they wanted was a cup of coffee and a doughnut.
By Day 3, news had spread even further. At 60 strong, the growing story was widely covered in the press. When Whites approached the lunch counter, some refused to sit with them, some heckled them (KKK) and some joined the sit-in. The protesters' numbers were so great that they had to start taking shifts to cover the day. They did their school work. They waited in silence.
By Day 4, their total reached 300. "The times, they were a-changing" in North Carolina as other cities joined in: Raleigh, Charlotte, Durham, and Winston-Salem. Later, sit-ins were held in Richmond, Virginia and Nashville, Tennessee. One report stated that some protesters even had food poured on them by rabble rousers. But still they waited.
By February 7, the sit-ins totalled 54 in 15 different cities. And still they waited.
Black organizations suggested a boycott of all stores with segregated lunch counters and many complied, sending Woolworth's sales plunging by a third. Protests spread to lunch counters at Kress and Walgreen's.
President Eisenhower made a speech announcing that he was "deeply sympathetic with efforts of any group to enjoy the rights of equality that they are guaranteed by the Consitution." Yes, "times they were a-changing".
Finally, on July 25, 1960, the black employees at the Greensboro whites only lunch counter were served on the same stools that the Greensboro Four had sat on. The following day, Woolworth's opened up the counter to all blacks and 300 were served that day. The Greensboro Four, Joseph McNeil, Frank McCain, David Richmond and Ezell Blair Jr., finally got their cup of coffee and doughnut.
It would take another four years, but the Civil Rights Act was finally signed by President Johnson in 1964, thanks largely in part to the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960.
*Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down (Andrea Davis Pinkney)
Photo courtesy http://2.bp.blogspot.com.
Photo courtesy http://2.bp.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Sandwiches, Silhouettes & Sideburns
Did you know that the sandwich is named after the Earl of Sandwich? Or did you know that a silhouette is named after Etienne de Silhouette, the French Controller General of Finance, whose victims of his taxes became shadows of themselves? Or did you know that sideburns are named after the American General Burnside who made the facial hair popular? Our language is full of eponyms, nouns named after people, and yet often we don't even know it. The word marathon is derived from the city of Marathon, Greece where in 490 BC a messenger ran 150 miles within two days to alert the Greeks that the enemy Persians were coming, thereby securing them a victory. When we refer to something as being jumbo in size, we refer to Jumbo the Elephant, who participated in the Barnum and Bailey circus as one of the biggest animals in captivity. If bedlam (a corruption of Bethlehem) breaks loose, it means chaos reigns; St. Mary of Bethlehem Hospital in London, England was a mental institution. The drink bourbon is named after Bourbon County in Kentucky where the drink was a common beverage. Girls wear leotards today, traced back to the acrobat Jules Leotard who also wore them. The form of captial punishment in France where prisoners were decapitated is called the guillotine, after Joseph Guillotin, the French physician who invented it. When we say something is ritzy, we mean that it is posh or hoity toity, named after the Ritz Hotel established by Swiss hotelier Monsieur Ritz. An atlas is named after the Greek god Atlas who supposedly held the earth and the heavens on his shoulders. A quisling is a traitor and can be traced back to the Second World War when Norwegian Vidkun Abraham Quisling collaborated with the Nazis who occupied Norway. Etymology, the study of the history of words, can be a fascinating subject.
For more eponyms, visit www.alphadictionary.com/articles/eponyms.
For more eponyms, visit www.alphadictionary.com/articles/eponyms.
Photo courtesy www.wordpress.com.
Image courtesy www.google.ca.
Photo courtesy http://upload.wikimedia.org.
Monday, 30 January 2012
The Wilhelm Gustloff Villanelle
On an icy night in '45
East Prussian refugees swarmed the ship
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
The boat filled quickly with soldiers' wives
And babes with knuckels between their lips
On an icy night in '45.
Fleeing the Russians' relentless drive
The ship steamed west at a rapid clip
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Beneath the Baltic, the sub took dives
Aborting the steamer's fateful trip
On an icy night in '45.
Scrambling for lifeboats, many did strive
Thousands jumped as she started to tip
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Under the corpses, the last to survive
Was a baby blue from winter's grip
On an icy night in '45
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Linda Jonasson, March 2, 2008.
Dedicated to the 9,000 East Prussian refugees who lost their lives on the night of January 30, 1945 when the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk. The voyage was part of Operation Hannibal, the evacuation of almost 1 million civilians from Germany's eastern provinces after the advance of the Red Army. For further information, read The Cruelest Night by Christopher Dobson, John Miller and Ronald Payne.
Photo of Wilhelm Gustloff courtesy www.wilhelmgustloff.com.
East Prussian refugees swarmed the ship
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
The boat filled quickly with soldiers' wives
And babes with knuckels between their lips
On an icy night in '45.
Fleeing the Russians' relentless drive
The ship steamed west at a rapid clip
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Beneath the Baltic, the sub took dives
Aborting the steamer's fateful trip
On an icy night in '45.
Scrambling for lifeboats, many did strive
Thousands jumped as she started to tip
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Under the corpses, the last to survive
Was a baby blue from winter's grip
On an icy night in '45
Desperately seeking to stay alive.
Linda Jonasson, March 2, 2008.
Dedicated to the 9,000 East Prussian refugees who lost their lives on the night of January 30, 1945 when the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk. The voyage was part of Operation Hannibal, the evacuation of almost 1 million civilians from Germany's eastern provinces after the advance of the Red Army. For further information, read The Cruelest Night by Christopher Dobson, John Miller and Ronald Payne.
Photo of Wilhelm Gustloff courtesy www.wilhelmgustloff.com.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
A Bear in War
Although most Canadian children cannot relate to war, they can relate to a Teddy bear. That is why the World War I based picture book A Bear in War is told from the point of view of a stuffed animal. Teddy belongs to a 10 year old girl named Aileen who lives on a farm in East Farnham Quebec with her 7-year-old brother Howard. Teddy relates the everyday life of the siblings: feeding the chickens and collecting their eggs; a trip into town where they see soldier recruitment posters; a snowball fight that turns into a pretend war battle.
Then Teddy describes the night that Aileen's Daddy came to her bedroom and broke the news that he would be leaving to train as a soldier. The stuffed animal enjoys its first train ride as Aileen, Howard and their mother travel to Valcartier to visit their daddy. Once the new soldier is shipped overseas to France to fight, his children keep in contact with him by writing letters. Later Daddy ends up fighting in the trenches in Belgium. Teddy is sent to Belgium in a care package to raise Daddy's spirits; it is there that he gets to "watch the war from Daddy's front pocket". That is where he died in the Fall of 1917 with Teddy in his pocket. Found by another Canadian soldier, Teddy was shipped home to Canada to his rightful owner.
After Aileen passed away, she left Teddy and some letters in a briefcase for her children. Mr. Rogers' granddaughter, Roberta, found the briefcase and had Teddy placed in the Canadian War Musuem in Ottawa. Mr. Rogers' great-granddaughter, Stephanie Innes co-wrote A Bear in War with Harry Endrulat.
The latter author spoke at the Paris Library as part of Family Literacy Day today. After giving an informative lesson on how to write a children's picture book, Mr. Endrulat handed out autographed copies of his book. A Bear in War is laid out in scrapbook style with authentic photographs from the Rogers family. What a great way to bring Canadian history to life for our children!
Photo courtesy http://store02.prostores.com.
Then Teddy describes the night that Aileen's Daddy came to her bedroom and broke the news that he would be leaving to train as a soldier. The stuffed animal enjoys its first train ride as Aileen, Howard and their mother travel to Valcartier to visit their daddy. Once the new soldier is shipped overseas to France to fight, his children keep in contact with him by writing letters. Later Daddy ends up fighting in the trenches in Belgium. Teddy is sent to Belgium in a care package to raise Daddy's spirits; it is there that he gets to "watch the war from Daddy's front pocket". That is where he died in the Fall of 1917 with Teddy in his pocket. Found by another Canadian soldier, Teddy was shipped home to Canada to his rightful owner.
After Aileen passed away, she left Teddy and some letters in a briefcase for her children. Mr. Rogers' granddaughter, Roberta, found the briefcase and had Teddy placed in the Canadian War Musuem in Ottawa. Mr. Rogers' great-granddaughter, Stephanie Innes co-wrote A Bear in War with Harry Endrulat.
The latter author spoke at the Paris Library as part of Family Literacy Day today. After giving an informative lesson on how to write a children's picture book, Mr. Endrulat handed out autographed copies of his book. A Bear in War is laid out in scrapbook style with authentic photographs from the Rogers family. What a great way to bring Canadian history to life for our children!
Photo courtesy http://store02.prostores.com.
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