"Roundheads and Ramblings"

Five More Great Old Words

05/18/2012 09:30:00

6. Sanguinolency

Noun – “Addiction to bloodshed” – Could be a useful word for history majors and gamers, as in “Genghis Khan was quite the sanguinolent fellow” or “Do you think spending six hours a day playing Postal 2 actually fosters sanguinolency?” I'm thinking it could also be used to describe the finale of Grey's Anatomy!

7. Jollux

Noun - Slang phrase used in the late 18th century to describe a “fat person” – Although I’m not sure whether this word was used crudely or in more of a lighthearted manner, to me it sounds like a nicer way to refer to someone who is overweight. “Fat” has such a negative connotation in English, but if you say “He’s a bit of a jollux” it doesn’t sound so bad! Or does it?

8. Malagrugrous

Adj. – “Dismal” – This adjective is from Scots and may be derived from an old Irish word that refers to the wrinkling of one’s brow. An 1826 example of its use is “He looketh malagrugorous and world-wearied.” I’m tempted to also make the word into a noun: “Stop being such a malagrug!”

9. Brabble

Verb – “To quarrel about trifles; esp. to quarrel noisily, brawl, squabble” – Brabble basically means to argue loudly about something that doesn’t really matter, as in “Why are we still brabbling about who left the dirty spoon on the kitchen table?” You can also use it as a noun: “Stop that ridiculous brabble and do something useful!”

10. Freck

Verb intr. – “To move swiftly or nimbly” – I can think of a lot of ways to use this one, like “I hate it when I’m frecking through the airport and other people are going so slow.”

So let's see . . I've been in a malagrugous mood all week--feeling a bit jollux and brabbling over trifles. So before my mood descends into sanguinolency, I plan to freck out of here and spend the weekend deliciating at a luxury hotel/spa . See y'all on Monday!

Beware the Lurking Homonym

05/17/2012 15:42:00

Yesterday I offered you some "big" words. Today, I have some "little" ones. Do you remember homonyms? Those pesky little words that sound exactly alike by are spelled in several different ways and had several different meanings? In grade school I had a teacher who loved them. During quite periods, she taught us to play a game in which we made up sentences containing homonyms but substituted the word "teakettle" for the words themselves. The challenge was for the other students to identify the missing homonym. The sentences sounded like this: "I teakettle would like teakettle eat teakettle pieces of cake."

The game was just childish silliness, but it's not funny when a writer gets wrapped up in her story and types one homonym for another without noticing. Maybe you are writing a sympathetic description of an admirable politician who suffered from great depravation -- or did you really mean to type deprivation? There's not a spell checker in the world who will catch an error like that. And there's no sure way to avoid making the occasional goof. About all you can do is take time to think about the words that cause you trouble. Here's a baker's dozen that may trip you up when you are busily touch-typing.

• Cite (to summon, to quote, to refer to), Site (place, situation), Sight (view)

• Council (administrative or advisory group), Counsel (to advise, advice)

• Desert (waterless region, to abandon), Dessert (last course of a meal)

• Dew (moisture), Do (perform), Due (owed)

• Gait (manner of walking, Gate (door)

• Grate (iron frame), Great (large, magnificent)

• Haul (pull, carry, transport), Hall (passageway, large room)

• Here (in this place), Hear (to perceive sound, to sit in judgment)

• Idol (image, object of adoration), Idle (not busy), Idyl (poem)

• Leak (hole, to drain out of), Leek (vegetable)

• Made (created), Maid (domestic servant, unmarried woman)

• Meat (animal flesh food), Meet (a gathering, to encounter, to convene)

• Morning (before noon), Mourning (grieving, to grieve)

Five Great Additions to Your Vocabulary.

05/16/2012 10:06:00

The following words were once a common part of the English language. Today, if they appear in a dictionary at all, they are marked as obsolete. But just think what opportunities they offer if you want to insult someone without being understood. I really wish I had known some of them when I was writing lots of letters of recommendation for problematic students.

1. Jargogle

Verb trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in its various forms. John Locke used the word in a 1692 publication, writing “I fear, that the jumbling of those good and plausible Words in your Head..might a little jargogle your Thoughts…” I’m planning to use it next time my husband attempts to explain complicated Physics concepts to me for fun: “Seriously, I don’t need you to further jargogle my brain.”

2. Deliciate

Verb intr. – “To take one’s pleasure, enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate” – Often I feel the word “enjoy” just isn’t enough to describe an experience, and “revel” tends to conjure up images of people dancing and spinning around in circles – at least in my head. “Deliciate” would be a welcome addition to the modern English vocabulary, as in “After dinner, we deliciated in chocolate cream pie.”

3. Corrade

Verb trans. – “To scrape together; to gather together from various sources” – I’m sure this wasn’t the original meaning of the word, but when I read the definition I immediately thought of copy-pasting. Any English teacher can picture what a corraded assignment looks like.

4. Kench

Verb intr. – “To laugh loudly” – This Middle English word sounds like it would do well in describing one of those times when you inadvertently laugh out loud while reading a text message in class and manage to thoroughly embarrass yourself.

5. Ludibrious

Adj. – “Apt to be a subject of jest or mockery” – This word describes a person, thing or situation that is likely to be the butt of jokes. Use it when you want to sound justified in poking fun at someone. “How could I resist? He’s just so ludibrious.”

These items in this list (and others to follow) appeared in a blog entry by Heather Carreiro on November 8, 2010. Words are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series:" Weird and Wonderful Words" and "Totally Weird and Wonderful Words." Definitions have been quoted from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Fort Pillow

05/15/2012 09:57:00

What fascinated me in Sunday's Civil War notes was the mention of a fight at Fort Pillow. The remains of the fort are just a few miles up the road from my house, but I was unaware of the actions that took place there in 1862. Here's a summary of what I learned.

At the start of 1862 the line that separated Union and Confederate territory ran along the Kentucky-Tennessee border, reaching the Mississippi at Columbus. However, after the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson by U. S. Grant in February 1862, the Confederates had to abandon that line in favor of one that that ran through Tennessee. The western end of that line was located at New Madrid and Island No. 10. However, even these new positions were dangerously exposed to Union attack. At the end of February a force of over 20,000 men under General John Pope marched overland to capture the two strongholds. On 3 March Pope began a siege of New Madrid, on the northern bank of the river. On 13 March the Confederate defenders of the town pulled back to Island No. 10, abandoning the town.

Pope, with 20,000 troops launched his attack on 7 April. Two gunboats bombarded the Confederate positions at Watson’s Landing, south of New Madrid, and west of Island No. 10. Pope’s troops landed soon after. Trapped by greatly superior forces, the Confederate defenders of Island No. 10 had no choice but to surrender.

The capture of Island No. 10 was a key moment in opening of the Mississippi. Only one more position, Fort Pillow, a Confederate fort on the Tennessee bank of the Mississippi River. remained between the Union fleets and Memphis. On the same day that Island No. 10 fell, U.S. Grant launched his counterattack at Shiloh, forcing General Beauregard to retreat to Corinth and destroying any chances that Fort Pillow might be held. After a Union army expedition against the fort was abandoned, the burden of capturing the position fell to the Western Flotilla, a collection of ironclads and gunboats.

The Confederate defenders of the Mississippi had constructed their own fleet of rams. On 10 May, those rams launched a surprise attack on the Union fleet attacking Fort Pillow. The Union fleet’s response was not well coordinated. Two of their ironclads were badly damaged by ramming attacks, before the Confederate fleet retreated into the shelter of Fort Pillow’s guns.

The Confederates soon evacuated Fort Pillow itself. The main Confederate army had been forced to retreat from Corinth. This left the fort exposed to an attack from the rear, and so Gen. Beauregard ordered the garrison to leave, after destroying the fort. During the night of 4 June they carried out that order, before withdrawing towards Memphis. The next morning the Union fleet occupied the site of the fort.

After the evacuation of Fort Pillow, the next Union target was Memphis. On 6 June, the Union’s Western Flotilla, reinforced by their own rams, fought and defeated the Confederate fleet at Memphis, and captured the city. Fort Pillow remained in use. It returned to prominence later in the war, when Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the fort, and massacred dozens of black soldiers (Fort Pillow Massacre, 12 April 1864).

This is a summary of two articles found at http://www.historyofwar.org/americancivilwar/index.html:

Rickard, J (14 August 2007), Battle of Island No. 10, 7 April 1862 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_island_10.html

Rickard, J (23 February 2007), Battle of Fort Pillow, 10 May 1862 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_fort_pillow_1862.html

Hired Soldiers – Substitutes During the Civil War

05/14/2012 11:43:00

In response to a reader's comment yesterday, here's a summary of how a gentleman could hire a substitute during the Civil War. It is borrowed with permission from "Articles Exploring the Civil War."

When the Civil War began, there was no shortage of able bodied men who volunteered for service in both the U.S. Army and the Confederate Army. Eager to show their patriotism, convinced that their cause would be victorious in a matter of months at the most, men gathered in cities and towns throughout America to form volunteer regiments, clamoring to assist in the war effort.

However, by late 1862 and early 1863, the patriotic fervor that had characterized the war effort early on was wearing thin in both the Confederacy and the United States, and finding men to replenish the armies of both nations was becoming difficult. Those who wanted to serve were already engaged; those who did not had either refused to serve, or, having volunteered and found the experience to be much more arduous than it seemed at first, had deserted or refused to re-enlist. This necessitated instituting a draft to choose men for service, and, in both the North and the South, the practice of hiring substitutes to serve in the place of those who were called and did not want to serve.

Long before the United States began the draft process, the Confederate Congress had allowed men to forgo service in the Confederate Army if they met certain occupational criteria – criteria that mostly exempted owners of large plantations or other enterprises, leading to the phrase “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” to describe the Confederate war effort. Southern men who did not meet exemption criteria but whom were otherwise able to fight often hired substitutes to serve for them. Yet by 1863, exemptions were outlawed in the Confederacy, where men willing to fight were becoming too scarce to exempt from service. This practice was just beginning, however, its travel north.

When the draft laws – known as the Enrollment Act – were first placed on the books in the United States in 1863, they allowed for two methods for avoiding the draft – substitution or commutation. A man who found his name called in the draft lotteries that chose men for mandatory service could either pay a commutation fee of $300, which exempted him from service during this draft lottery, but not necessarily for future draft lotteries, or he could provide a substitute, which would exempt him from service throughout the duration of the war.

With the Enrollment Act, the Civil War truly began to be known as a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight throughout the entire nation. The $300 commutation fee was an enormous sum of money for most city laborers or rural farmers, and the cost of hiring a substitute was even higher, often reaching $1000 or more.

In small towns where the potential loss of their entire population of able-bodied men became an imminent possibility, taxes and other means were raised in order to pay commutation fees, and, as commutation was outlawed, substitutes. These “bounties,” as the fees were called, would pay substitutes in lieu of townsmen.

The practice of hiring substitutes for military service took hold quickly in the North, becoming much more widespread than it had ever been in the South. For one thing, there was a much larger pool of men to draw from; immigrants that flowed into the ports of the North, even in a time of war, provided a large number of the substitutes hired by those who did not wish to serve. As the duration of the war lengthened, African-American soldiers, who’d thus far been only nominally accepted by the U.S. Army as viable soldiers, also became part of the pool of potential substitutes; many of the recruitment posters from the time explicitly solicit African-Americans for substitution.

Although the hiring of substitutes seems mercenary, and in many cases, resulted in the desertion of the substitute, many who went to war as hired men went because they were unable to enlist through the regular channels. This included the recent immigrants who were anxious to fight for their new country, and, importantly, the African-Americans who found going to war as substitutes the only way to fight for their freedom. For these men, the war was indeed a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” but from the perspective that poor men were more willing to fight for the possibilities they saw in their country.

Asylum for the Wretched and Reform for the Erring

05/13/2012 15:13:00

In recognition of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, "Civil War-Era Memories" features excerpts from The Memphis Daily Appeal of 150 years ago.

May 7, 1862 Corinth. - Scouting parties report the enemy is digging entrenchments, laying plank roads and building bridges over the swamps and ditches as he advances. General Beauregard ...made a speech in which he said he hoped soon to be in possession of some northern cities to compensate for the loss of New Orleans.

May 8, 1862 WANTED. A GENTLEMAN wishes a SUBSTITUTE, with the privilege of going into cavalry, infantry or artillery. Will pay a liberal price.

The Poor and the Erring. - Struck with the need there is for a place that should prove an asylum for the wretched and a place of reform for the erring, the good ladies of this city, in April, 1860, organized the society of the "Home for the Homeless." Since then they have contributed and expended a large amount of money, and performed a good deal of downright hard work...

May 12, 1862 There is no longer any choice about taking Confederate money. In compliance with orders from General Beauregard, Colonel Rosser, commander of the post here, has ordered the provost marshal to arrest anyone who refuses to accept Confederate bills in their ordinary business transactions and all banks and corporations must accept the currency.

May 13, 1862 The Gunboat Fight at Fort Pillow. - We fought the enemy with four of our lightest boats, one hour and thirty minutes. ...our sharpshooters literally mowed them down. We fought side by side with the enemy, and not one shot passed through our cotton breastworks. But although our upper works are riddled, we are all ready to butt again. We will be able to hold the river.

W. C. C. Street railroads - What a blessing it would be to have street railroads in the city at this moment, that we might ride along in comfortable cars ...protected from the clouds of dust that annoy the weary plodder on foot on soil covered sidewalks.

Compiled by Rosemary Nelms and Jan Smith, The Commercial Appeal News Library

Seven More Questions to Ask Your Main Characters

05/10/2012 19:16:00

Here are seven more questions to throw at your characters while you are speed-dating them. Pay close attention to the last three or four, because they will become important as you write. Your reader will forgive you eventually for forgetting that John's eyes are blue, not hazel, but they'll leave you if your character slouches in one scene and struts in another.

I should have taken the Mouse's advice when writing my current WIP. Because I hadn't thought through what her role would be in he story, one of my characters started out as innocuous and bland. Then, 200 pages later, she pulled the rug out from under one of my other characters in a particularly vicious manner, and her actions made no sense at all. I had to go back and re-write some of the beginning in order to make her final behaviors believable.

So ask your characters about these things and then use the mannerisms and verbal tics throughout the story.

• What beliefs do you hold most tightly? Which ones would you be willing to carve on a rock?

• What is your idea of a perfect day? Where and with whom would you spend it, and what would you do?

• What are your favorite expressions? Do you use the latest slang, or do you show off your extensive vocabulary? Do you slip into a more pronounced accent or dialect when you are excited? Do you have a verbal tic, saying “um” or “uh” or “like” or ”you know”?

• What does your posture say about you? Do you slouch, or hunch your shoulders, or keep your arms crossed? Do you keep your eyes on the ground when you walk? Or are your shoulders thrown back as a sign of conﬁdence?

• What about eye contact? Do you keep looking away, or are you giving me a belligerent stare? Are you squinting at me or raising a skeptical eyebrow? Are you avoiding eye contact because you are nervous or because you are bored? Does your smile reach your eyes?

• Does standing close to someone make you uncomfortable? Or do you frequently reach out to make physical contact?

• And what do your other gestures say about you? Do you play with your hair or brush it back impatiently? Do you have a “twitch” or unconscious mannerism? Do you pick at a hangnail, chew your lip, shufﬂe your feet, or bite your fingernails?

We all send out signals with our body language, and most of us are able to interpret those signals, if only subconsciously. If your characters behave as real people do, your readers will judge them accurately.

To read more tips on characterization, visit the Mouse at http://www.amazon.com/Second-Mouse-Gets-Cheese-ebook/dp/B0076B1TE2

Seven Questions to Ask Your Main Character

05/09/2012 19:10:00

A current commercial features a couple in a speed-dating situation. He pulls out all his favorite pick-up lines and she destroys him by quoting from his own Facebook page. The ad is cute and funny, but it always reminds me of a suggestion I included in "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese." Before you write your book, get to know the characters in your book by speed dating them. Here are some of the questions I suggest you ask:

• What is your name? Does it have a special signiﬁcance to your family? Do you have a nickname?

• How old are you, and where were you born? Have you stayed in one location or moved around? And if you have moved, at what point in your life?

• What was your family like when you were growing up? Did you have brothers and sisters, and where do you fall, age-wise, in the list of your parents’ children? Are you still the responsible one because you were the oldest? Or are you the forgotten middle child, or the spoiled youngest one?

• Did you have pets as a child? If you could choose just one pet, would you turn out to be a cat-person (independent) or a dog-person (eager and friendly)?

• Do you have a large circle of companions, or only a couple of close friends? Have you moved in the same small circle all your life, or have you reached out to meet new people? And how do you choose your friends?

• What is your greatest strength? Your greatest weakness?

• What do you dream of doing? If you could be someone else, who would you choose?

What's the Secret?

05/08/2012 13:40:00

I'm gearing up for a five-hour smiley marathon this afternoon. Our local Jason's Deli is running a fund-raiser for a 501 (c) (3) with which I'm involved. Actually I'm the incoming president, so I guess that's more than "involved!" Anyway, the organization is Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service--a four state (TN, MS, AR, MO) organization. Lions Clubs in those four states raise money and then provide FREE eye care and hearing aids for indigent patients. Each potential recipient must be sponsored by a Lions Club, who checks eligibility (at or below federal poverty line, no other insurance) and provides transportation to and from one of our satellite clinics or the Hamilton Eye Institute here in Memphis. Then the doctors who work with us, many of whom teach at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, provide all necessary medical treatments, at no cost to the patient. Our own Mid-South organization pays for hospital time, equipment, disposables, etc.

We operate on a budget of over million dollars and treat hundreds of patients a year. We used to say we performed "a miracle a day," but we've already exceeded that 365 number for this fiscal year and have some 200 other patients on a waiting list. Per patient costs average out at around $1000 per patient, but I've seen costs go up to as high as $40,000 for a single person.

Where does our money come from? Well, we have a booster club of well-wishers who make individual contributions every year. We have some corporate support, particularly from Walmart. Individual Lions Clubs make yearly donations. And beyond that, we have to raise the money through fund-raisers like the one we're doing tonight.

Starting at 4:00 PM and running until 9:00 PM, Jason's Deli (two locations) is donating 10% of its gross profits to Mid-South. Local Lions will be hosting the event-- greeting customers, informing them that 10% of their total check will support our efforts (so please eat a lot!), and passing out information and brochures to anyone interested. I'll be at their suburban location for the whole five hours (abdominal brace and all), while our CEO and Program Director handle the other site.

Will we make a lot of money? Probably not. I have no idea of how many customers we'll have, but most two-person checks will be for under $20.00, which means $2.00 for us. It'll take at least 1000 customers to pay for a single surgery. But that will be one more person who will have sight restored -- one child whose eyes will no longer be crossed, one grandmother who will see her grandchild for the first time, one person whose catastrophic accident will be reversed.

These are the "before and after" photos of one of our patients, a little girl attacked by her grandmother's dog.

It's worth it. But I have to admit, I often wonder at the amount of work we put in to keep this non-profit afloat. What does it take to convince people to help those who are so very much in need of help? How many people will actually make the effort to come out tonight to support us? What would it take to convince you to write a check? To make a regular monthly donation of $10.00?

If you've had experience with raising money for a non-profit organization, I'd love to hear about your projects.

If you'd like to read more about Mid-South, I invite you to visit our website: http://www.midsouthlions.org/

An Election Without Candidates, A Cross-Dresser, and Burned Cotton

05/07/2012 14:58:00

In recognition of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, "Civil War-Era Memories" features excerpts from The Memphis Daily Appeal of 150 years ago.

May 1, 1862

BY TELEGRAPH / Corinth - Forrest's cavalry met the enemy just between Monterey and Purdy roads. After a conflict in the commencement of which our cavalry had been partially surprised, losing a few men . . . two pieces of the Washington artillery came to their relief and drove the enemy to the rear with loss to them.

May 4, 1862

Municipal Election - On the 26th of June, seven weeks from Thursday next, our regular annual city election takes place. Up to this time, not a single person has announced himself as a candidate for the place of Mayor, or for any other office.

The fall of New Orleans has virtually opened the navigation of the Mississippi river to the enemy's gunboats, from its mouth to its source. Forts Pillow and Wright can now serve only as temporary defenses to delay and not altogether impede the approach of the enemy from above.

May 5, 1862

In Pants. -- Among the parties introduced in court yesterday to the Recorder was Miss Lydia Angela, who, having become disgusted with crinoline, and especially with the frightful outspreading, skyscraping, flower-bed-containing fashionable bonnet, had put on a neat coat and pants, a tidy white stand up collar and a felt hat, and was parading the town unencumbered by flowing garments or head covering monstrosity. For thus indulging her dislikes, and entering her practical protest against the fashionable bonnet she repudiates, Lydia was compelled to pay six dollars to the city treasury.

May 6, 1862

Federal Intelligence from Memphis -- There are 5000 bales of cotton, 7000 bbls. sugar and 20,000 bbls. molasses, now lying upon the levee, of which the cotton will be burned, and the sugar and molasses rolled into the river on the approach of the Federal forces. The citizens and newspapers are opposed to burning the city, but soldiers and country people favor it.