• Etymology Today from M-W: utile \YOO-tul or YOO-tyle\
: useful

For over a hundred years before "useful" entered our language, "utile" served us well on its own. We borrowed "utile" from Middle French in the 15th century. The French derived it from Latin "utilis," meaning "useful," which in turn comes from "uti," meaning "to use." "Uti" (the past participle of which is "usus") is also the source of our "use" and "useful." We've been using "use" since at least the 13th century, but we didn't acquire "useful" until the late 16th century, when William Shakespeare inserted it into _King
John_. Needless to say, we've come to prefer "useful" over "utile" since then, though "utile" functions as a very usable
synonym. Other handy terms derived from "uti" include "utilize," "usury," "abuse" and "utensil."

• Previous E.T.

• Latest Tribune article:
On restaurants and feedback. The first line of the story was meant to be a headline, reads kind of cheesy as part of the article. Also, I think I should have given greater play to the function of positive feedback. But I guess the overall point comes across.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0210300056oct30,0,3343425.story
• Previous Trib articles

• Architecture Watch:
The new hybrid bowl renovation of Soldier Field is not only ugly, says Blair Kamin--it's cause for the stadium to be taken off the list of National Historic Landmarks.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0210300058oct30,0,4832110.story
• Previous A.W.

• Number of the Day: 5.4 trillion
Odds, to one, of winning Britain's Lotto lottery twice. Electrician Mike McDermott did by playing the same five numbers and bonus ball, within a span of four months, "earning" him nearly half a million American dollars' worth of earnings (£121,157, then £194,501). Odds of winning once are 2,330,636 to one, according to London's Daily Telegraph
• Previous Number
• Quote of the Day:
"The contemplative life is often miserable. You should do more, think less and not watch yourself living."
Nicholas-Sebastien Chamfort
I disagree, but point taken--I spend too much time philosophizing from the comfort of my apartment, perched high above downtown Chicago's liveliest bar district. Then again, where's the wisdom in aimless living?
(both items seen at G&M's S.S.)

Another e-mail update from my friend in Richmond:
...2002_10_20_nbiermafile_archive.html#83510713
(Here was the first)

• Architecture Watch
The redevelopment of Times Square has finally produced a building worth talking about: the new Westin Hotel on Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets. And people are talking about it for a welcome reason. The Westin has raised a flag over the issue of taste. Translation: many people find it ugly. Hideous. The very embodiment of beauty's evil twin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/20/arts/design/20MUSC.html
• Previous A.W.

Weekend reading:
Well-written analysis of the rhetoric of Ari Fleischer, from Slate and The New Republic, on file:
...2002_10_06_nbiermafile_archive.html#82840481

And, also on file, a fine description of white-collar prison life from the NY Times:
"White-Collar Criminal? Pack Lightly for Prison"
...2002_10_20_nbiermafile_archive.html#83510642

• Previous Sunday Clippings

I'm the freelance questioner for the Trib's Just Asking, the stuffy paper's lame stab at populism. Actually, the experience, however superficial, can be enlightening: the next column, about which TV show people say they never miss, unearthed all sorts of surprising responses, from Good Morning Miami to My Wife and Kids to Charlie Rose. A more diverse assortment than the narrow scope of newspaper TV reviews suggest is important. Also refreshing earlier this summer to be asking people about whether the economic downturn--bathed as it was in ink about panic--was affecting their plans. Most said not really.

Speaking of populism, I'm still trying to deconstruct this quote from historian Jacques Julliard:
Elitism is democracy without the people. Populism is the people without democracy.
Does he mean that the representative elite operate the machinery of democracy detached from the people? And that populism, as with the Charlton Heston's and Ralph Nader's of the world, is the attempt to operate democracy without the machinery? Any ideas?

Other Trib polls: this great spoof of the BCS:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0210250012oct25,0,2688065.story

• Etymology Today from M-W: vatic \VAT-ik\
: prophetic, oracular

Ex: Andy's years of experience bird-watching have given him a vatic ability to name the precise day each bird will appear in the spring.

Some people say only thin lines separate poetry, prophecy, and madness. We don't know if that's generally true, but it is in the case of "vatic." The adjective derives directly from the Latin word "vates," meaning "seer" or "prophet." But that Latin root is in turn distantly related to an Old English word for "poetry," an Old High German word for "madness," and an Old Irish word for "seer" or "poet."

• Fun Words: loathsome, cajolery, dossier
• Previous E.T.

A good friend of mine when we were both in Grand Rapids checks in from Richmond, with his own take on the sniper, the investigation, and the culprit. Posted at my file site:
...2002_10_20_nbiermafile_archive.html#83350809