Good evening! Given that I'm WAY behind on my Random Word Wednesdays, I hereby pronounce that it is Random Word Weekend to play catchup. The first batch an interesting mix this time. Here's a teaser: none of the words start with anything later in the alphabet than 'T'! No zithers today, I'm afraid.
1. Goody
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| Now them there are some genuine A1 lookin' shoes! |
The origin of the phrase "goody two-shoes" is an nifty little one. First off, the word "Goody". A "Goody" is short for a "Goodwife" which is an old fashioned term whose modern equivalent is "Misses", but in a low social standing. So, a poor, married woman. Now, there is an old children's story dating back to 1760 where a "Goody" who only owned one shoe was absolutely thrilled because she managed to procure a second shoe. Hence, she was now a goody two-shoes. Everyone loves a happy ending!
2. Algorithm
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| When I'm dead and gone, I wonder what cool stuff they'll depict floating around my head. |
I have a huge respect for the great thinkers of the Arab enlightenment. There were just so many brilliant people in the Middle East back then and because we have such a euro-centric viewpoint on everything, a lot of the oomph of what was accomplished back then in that part of the world. Why, did you know that there are a whole slough of mathematical and sientificwords in English that have their roots in Arabic? It's true! Algebra, elixir, alembic, zero, algorithm... Oh! Algorithm!
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was an absolute genius. Born in Persia in 780 AD, he was one of the greatest thinkers of the Arab Enlightenment. He produced work in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and geography. He is credited with several innovations, including introducing the decimal positional number system to the Western world, and was considered for a long time to be the inventor of algebra. He presented the first solutions to linear and quadratic equations. In fact, his major work, the
Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, proceeded in such a formulaic, well-defined, step-by-step procedure, that his name became the basis for the word "Algorithm" that we use today. He also took Ptolemy's maps, recompiled them, systematized them, and made some serious corrections to them. An all-around really cool guy.
3. Tore
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| It looks so innocous in this picture... |
On July 30, 1995 a plow wind tore through Oxbow, SK and the surrounding around midnight. Wind speeds were measured between 100 - 150 kph and the damage in some areas was severe. Grain bins were twisted up and destroyed. The original steeple of St. Paul's United Church that had been there since 1909 was sheered off in the wind. A portion of the Bow Manor Hotel was blown clean off. A bunch of houses and businesses were damaged, if not destroyed, but very luckily no deaths or even serious injuries were reported.
4. Funny
Never mind who he was at all, just think of the name for a minute.
Dangerfield... Yeah... That's bad ass. That's at least as cool as Bond. I'm gonna say it again.
Dangerfield... Man, that never gets old. So jealous!
Wait. What? His name was actually Jacob Cohen? Really? Huh! That's weird. I wonder if Leanord Cohen's actual real name is Rodney Dangerfield...
Wait. What? When he first started out as a commedian his name was Jack Roy? Really? Jack Roy? Geez! Look. If I was gonna go out there and change my name, it would have to be something awesome! Ricardo Sprocket. Angus Nucleosis. Jojo Kaput. Jack Roy? That's awful lame. No wonder he changed it to Dangerfield. Well, at least he was funny!
5. Launch
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| Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll |
On August 1, 1981 something happened. Something huge. Epic! The launch of MTV! And with the launch of station they showed pictures of the Apollo 18 launch and the moon landing (as pictured above). Apparantly it was kind of a ragtag deal there to open. The dudes there ("technician" seems way to technical for a production that was closer to the movie Wayne's World than Network) would switch VCR tapes between videos, and the screen would go black as they did. I think that that just made it more awesome. But now, more than thirty years and one full generation in, the question is not "Did video kill the radio star?" but rather "Did YouTube kill the MTV star?" Time will tell, but one thing is certain: sending Rebecca Black and "Lana Del Rey" to the moon seems like a pretty good idea right now. Newt! Are you listening? Got some colonists for you here!
6. Interpreter
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| 1936-2012 |
Yeah, I won't say much. I'll be brief.
It almost seems like forever it's been that Don Cornelius was the interpreter of what was cool and what wasn't. As the first host of the first television show, Soul Train, to primarily feature black music, dance, and culture in North America, he was a one of a kind icon and trailblazer. Everyone was on the show, from James Brown to Elton John to The Fat Boys to B. B. King to Mr. T. Just a landmark of popular culture. He was found deadearlier this month of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and he will be missed.
7. Crush
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| Like oranges?! You bet I do! |
So, in 1911 Clayton J. Howell partners up with Neil C. Ward to create that zesty carbonated beverage that we have all come to know and love over the years, Orange Crush. Well, centuries now, really. Originally, the drinks actually contained orange pulp in them to give them that freshly squeezed feel. Here's the kicker, though: though the pulp itself was natural, it was artificially added during the bottling process. Nice. Over the years, though, they got rid of the pulp and introduced a mammoth variety of flavours to its pantheon including, but not limited to, chocolate, ginger beer, nectar, pear, and delicious soda water. Mmm... I wonder what kind of pulp you could put in soda water... Flecks of corroded pipe? Things to ponder.
8. Recursion
The first set of Matryoshka Dolls (aka. Russian Nesting Dolls) was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, a Russian wood carver, on a design created by Sergey Malyutin, a Russian painter, stage designer, and architect. It is said that the two received their inspiration for the dolls from a doll from Japan that had made its way to Abramtsevo, an estate north of Moscow where a whole bunch of artists gathered to hang out, sort of like a Russian Greenwich Village. Accounts differ on what exactly it was, but most likely it was a Buddhist nesting doll, similar in design but with fewer dolls inside. The original dolls were a set of eight depicting a family from Mommy to little baby doll. These days Matryoshka Dolls have many different designs from politicians, animals, and just about anything else you can make of and are still a very popular little nicknack the world over.
9. Grant
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| That thing got a Hemi? |
A German tank commander once said "any one of our tanks was worth 10 allied tanks, but they always had 11". Meet the American Medium Tank M-3. You know, when I look at this tank, it's really amazing. When I think about the armaments that our armed forces use in this day and age (rusted out diesel subs and not that long ago Vietnam-era Sea King helicopters), it's astonishing to think that the M-3 was used in 1942, but was outclassed and replaced by 1943. That's amazing! It takes years to finalize a fighter jet production deal in 2011-2012, but within a year, a tank was obsolete in World War II. That must have been just the most extraordinary time to be alive. Anyway, this tank had two configurations. The one pictured above was the M-3 Lee with the goofy looking gun off to the side there. There was another version with a slightly less goofy design named the M-3 Grant, both being named after the opposing great generals of the American Civil War. Most of the battle that they saw was in the desert in the North African campaign where they did a good job of chasing Rommel across the desert.
10. Casual
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| Go left, up, right, up, right, down, right, up, right, down, right, down, left, head for the fruit, then finish off the dots. |
Pac-Man, or Puck Man in Japan, was first released in Japan on May 22, 1980 (which officially makes it older than I am) and is considered the first "casual" video game ever made. Since then, Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde have generated over an estimated $3.4 billion in revenue, mostly from arcade sales, making it the #1 grossing video game
of all time. Take that, Final Fantasy VII. I never liked you, anyway. Wakawakawakawakawakawakawakawaka...
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