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NBierma.com > Notebook
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
This week in my B&C blog: The history and theology of happiness. Also: cleaning up the Tigris River, advertisers and the vanishing mass market, when groupthink isn't so bad, jokes and quotes in spam, the obesity of medieval monks, and more ... LINK/ARCHIVE My latest Christianity Today online article: On indifferent apologies, or "kinda culpas." http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/128/31.0.html I had thought about working in the theme of hypocrisy, and would have quoted this line from Neal Plantinga in The Banner: "At some point the hypocrite becomes blind to his falseness. He becomes that most impenetrable of creatures, the sincere hypocrite." Meanwhile, the Trib's Clarence Page wrote about the indifferent remorse of both Bush and Kerry. And this headline caught my eye: "Clinton: Monica Affair Was 'Moral' Mistake." Finally, Martha Stewart's recent statement went in different directions: "I'll be back," she promised afterward, speaking in a strong voice on the courthouse steps. "I'm not afraid. Not afraid whatsoever. I'm very sorry it had to come to this. ... Today is a shameful day. It's shameful for me, for my family and for my company," she said. But outside the courthouse, Stewart was far more forceful and confident, complaining that a "small personal matter" was blown out of proportion and promising that she would not go quietly.  My latest Tribune language column:
On The Hippie Dictionary. temp link/perm.preview As a blond-haired Dutchman who can't dance, I was glad to see that "groovy" comes from the Dutch word "groeve," meaning pit. More on the legacy of Dutch in English here from LL. Inflections: - The journal Daedalus has some fascinating etymology on words for happiness: It is helpful to look for a moment at the principal word in ancient Greek for happiness, eudaimonia, one of a constellation of closely related terms that includes eutychia (lucky), olbios (blessed; favored), and makarios (blessed; happy; blissful). In some ways encompassing the meaning of all of these terms, eudaimon (happy) literally signifies ‘good spirit’ or ‘good god,’ from eu=good and daimon=demon/spirit. In colloquial terms, to be eudaimon was to be lucky, for in a world fraught with constant upheaval, uncertainty, and privation, to have a good spirit working on one’s behalf was the ultimate mark of good fortune. Even more it was a mark of divine favor, for the gods, it was believed, worked through the daimones, emissaries and conductors of their will. And this, in the pre-Socratic world, was the key to happiness. To fall from divine favor-or to fall under the influence of an evil spirit-was to be dysdaimon or kakodaimon-‘unhappy’ (dys/kako=bad), or more colorfully, ‘in the shit,’ a not altogether inappropriate play on the Greek kakka (shit/ turds). 2 In a world governed by supernatural forces, human happiness was a plaything of the gods, a spiritual force beyond our control. When viewed through mortal eyes, the world’s happenings-and so our happiness-could only appear random, a function of chance. ... - I wanted to do a column on wise as a suffix, but it didn't go anywhere. But Geoff Pullum was good enough to do a search for "-wise" in the Wall Street Journal between 1987 and 89. My guru-level Unix skills enabled me to compile this list with Here's the American Heritage Book of English Usage on wise as a suffix, and here are some recent instances from Lexis. One other thing: I read once that writers should practice re-writing famous lines to see the kind of elbow grease it takes to polish good sentences. It gave the example of how the beautiful "There are times that try men's souls" could have emerged from the banal "Soulwise, these are trying times." - Ever since Jon Stewart said in his commencement speech (at William & Mary) that "'terror' isn't even a noun," I wanted to do a column on President Bush's phrase war on terror. How can you wage war on an emotion? But as usual, Geoff Nunberg closes the case: "Terrorism may itself be a vague term, as critics have argued. But terror is still more amorphous and elastic, and alters the understanding not just of the enemy but of the war against it," he wrote earlier this month in the NYT. He suggests that sloppiness of words leads to sloppiness of policy. "Even if Mr. Hussein can't actually be linked to the attacks of Sept. 11, 'terror' seems to connect them etymologically." - One thing I didn't hear in the freedom fries nonsense last year but did read recently in John McWhorter's The Power of Babel: fry is a French word (see the top right of this page). So should it have been "freedom frees"? - LL on the syntactically sketchy phrase share divergent views. - The history of d'oh. - From the Trib: "In a matter of hours, the Illinois Republican Party's search for a replacement for U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan went from Ditka to bubkes." - One company-wide e-mail update I receive always contains this verbless sentence: "As always, any problems or questions, let me know." (Somewhat relatedly, see the WP on management-speak). - The Trib did a story on people named Kerry Edwards. - Safire's column this week is on a word I hadn't heard: gobsmacked • Last week's column and inflections 
The fearless, reassuring face of our leader as he threatens Saddam with war and rallies a nation to his bewildering cause, on 3/17/03. Airing Network, as Bravo did yesterday, is always an ironic act for a TV executive. But it was a Chayefsky-ian moment when, just after Faye Dunaway tells her underlings that they need "angry television" to get high ratings (a zeal that let to the network airing the rantings of Howard Beale), the scene cut to a promo for "The Ten Things I Hate About You." Tune in! 
Civilian astronomers are using the Air Force's Aeos telescope, above, and an experimental new camera to try to record images of planets around other stars. NY Times - This sounds like an excuse, but it's a good point. The Trib's Don Wycliff: I sometimes wonder at the reluctance of journalists to own up to what seem to me simple mistakes. But a letter like this helps me understand. In today's poisonous political atmosphere, nothing is ever just a mistake. It's a slander, a calumny, an assault on the truth itself and--by the way--no doubt part of some evil conspiracy. Who would admit to that? x From the Chi. Tribune 7/16: "'You are officially a neighborhood when you get a Starbucks,' said [5th Ward Ald. Leslie] Hairston, who fought to bring one to South Shore even as residents of affluent neighborhoods bemoaned the spread of the chain coffeehouses." You are? Presented by a U.S. Army linguist (via LL) : Why did the Iraqi Chicken cross the road? Things people have been kind enough to say about this blog: "... a thought-provoking blog worth viewing."
"... thoughtful treatment of difficult subjects."
"He has many thoughtful ideas that aren't the same as mine so that makes him very much worth reading."
And about my monthly news roundup at my B&C blog:
• Etymology Today from M-W: mansuetude \MAN-swih-tood\ : the quality or state of being gentle : meekness, tameness "Mansuetude" was first used in English in the 14th century, and it derives from the Latin verb "mansuescere," which means "to tame." "Mansuescere" itself comes from the noun "manus" (meaning "hand") and the verb "suescere" ("to accustom" or "to become accustomed"). Unlike "manus," which has many English descendants (including "manner," "emancipate," and "manicure"), "suescere" has only a few English progeny. One of them is "desuetude" (meaning "disuse"), which comes to us by way of Latin "desuescere" ("to become unaccustomed"). Another is "custom," which derives via Anglo-French from Latin "consuescere" ("to accustom"). • Previous E.T.
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