DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ESPERANZA AQUINO
Founded: December 2000 Created By: Esther Aquino & Joseph Garcia
Thursday April 14th, 2005
In Today's Edition
San Diego's Petco Park has announced they are going to start selling organic hot dogs. So now when you go to a baseball game, the hot dogs are clean -- it's just the players that are packed with artificial fillers. - Jay Leno
Born On April 14th
Click here for your horoscope for today
Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977)
Robert Carlyle (1961)
Ritchie Blackmore (1945)
Julie Christie (1941)
Pete Rose (1941)
Loretta Lynn (1935)
Rod Steiger (1925)
John Gielgud (1904)
Born On April 17th
Roni Aquino
In Good Hands
All the good knights were leaving for the Crusades. One knight told his best friend, "My bride is without doubt one of the most beautiful women in the world. It would be a terrible waste if no man could have her. Therefore, as my best and most trusted friend, I am leaving you the key to her chastity belt to use should I not return from the Crusade."
The company of knights were only a mile or so out of town when they noticed a cloud of dust approaching.
Thinking it might be an important message from the town the column halted.
A horseman approached. It was the knight's best friend.
He yells, "Hey, you gave me the wrong key!"
Today's useless fact - Who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance and when was it written?
As we learned from the links in the Pledge of Allegiance category, the Baptist Minister Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. He was forced to leave his Boston church the previous year because of the socialist bent of his sermons. (He shared the political sentiments of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, who wrote two socialist utopian novels, "Looking Backward" and "Equality".) Francis Bellamy was later hired by the "The Youth's Companion", a popular family magazine at the time. His writings reflected a Christian Socialist vision of a government-managed economy with "political, social and economic equality for all."
While writing for the journal, he was also on the Massachusetts State Education Board and was charged with organizing the state's Columbus Day celebrations in 1892. He decided to craft a pledge that school children would say aloud in front of the flag -- a pledge that would reflect his socialist beliefs. As published in "Youth's Companion", the first version read, "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Mr. Bellamy considered using the word "equality" as well, but was aware that several members of his education committee were firmly against equal rights for women and African Americans. The phrase "under God," which was added by President Eisenhower in 1954, would not have met with Mr. Bellamy's approval. In his later years, Mr. Bellamy stopped attending services, dismayed by the openly racist sentiments of his church.
The Buzzword For April 14th
glitch \GLITCH\ noun
What does it mean?
: an unexpected usually minor problem
How do you use it?
When Joey tried to run his computer program, a glitch caused
it to give some very odd results.
Are you a word wiz?
The earliest known use of the word "glitch" in print appears
in a book by someone famous. Who do you think wrote that
book?
A. archaeologist Mary Leakey
B. artist Georgia O'Keefe
C. astronaut John Glenn
D. author Mark Twain
Answer:
The first documented use of "glitch" in print in English
appears in astronaut John Glenn's 1962 book _Into Orbit_. In
it he wrote, "Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in
voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the
circuit suddenly has a new load put on it." The origins of
the word are uncertain, though it may derive from the Yiddish
word "glitsh," meaning "slippery place." We do know that
"glitch" began as a technical term, and then quickly acquired
a more general sense of "minor malfunction." Later, it came to
be used technically once again for problems in computer
programs.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
Click Here
Ladybug
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend.
The following is what appeared in Wednesday's edition.
In Today's Edition
Did any of you get to visit that "text to speech" website link I put up yesterday? I tried to access it last night and it was gone. I thought, wow, all of the Tribune readers must've jumped on it and hit it so many times that it exceeded it's bandwidth and the owners of that site were forced to shut it down. Well, that's what I would like to think.
It had probably already run it's course. Sorry.
Born On April 13th
Jonathan Brandis (1976)
Rick Schroder (1970)
Garry Kasparov (1963)
Al Green (1946)
Tony Dow (1945)
Jack Casady (1944)
Lyle Waggoner (1935)
Don Adams (1926)
Howard Keel (1919)
Eudora Welty (1909)
Samuel Beckett (1906)
Thomas Jefferson (1743)
Blonde Diet
A blonde woman was terribly overweight, so her doctor put her on a diet. "I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for 2 weeks. The next time I see you, you will have lost at least 5 pounds."
When the woman returned, she shocked the doctor by losing nearly 20 pounds.
"Why, that's amazing!" the doctor said, "Did you follow my instructions?"
The woman nodded. "I'll tell you though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day."
"From hunger, you mean?"
"No, from skipping on the third day."
Today's useless fact - I read that Seabiscuit won the Santa Anita handicap. Why is a horse race called a handicap?
Not all horse races are handicaps. The term "handicapping" has two distinct meanings. Handicapping is the art using a number of factors (past performances, track conditions, current health of the horse, etc.) to predict which horse will win a race, and it is also a particular type of horse race. In a handicap horse race, varying amounts of weight are added to the horse saddles. This is an attempt to even out the competition, in case some horses are clearly more dominant than others. It makes the outcome more difficult to predict, which means the track makes more money.
Seabiscuit often raced in handicaps with an absurdly heavy load of 130 pounds. An extra weight of two to three pounds is usually enough to slow a horse by a length. Seabiscuit won the 1940 Santa Anita handicap on his third try.
The Buzzword For April 13th
mascot \MASS-kaht\ noun
What does it mean?
: a person, animal, or object supposed to bring good luck
How do you use it?
In his role as team mascot, Jeremy wears a badger costume and
dances around on the sidelines during games, trying to rally
school spirit.
Are you a word wiz?
Who do you think first personified a "mascot" as a "good luck
charm?"
A. a Roman god of gambling
B. a character in a French operetta
C. a sailor who survived many shipwrecks
D. a kindly elf who granted wishes
Answer:
You're in luck if you picked B. "Mascot" was borrowed into
English from the French "mascotte." The word "mascotte" was
popularized by an 1880 French operetta called "La Mascotte,"
the title character of which is a young woman named Bettina
whose influence brings victory to the army of the prince of
Pisa. French "mascotte" traces back to "masca," meaning
"witch" in Latin, and to "masco," meaning "sorceress" or
"witch" in the Romance languages of southern France. From
"masco" derived "mascoto," which meant "enchantment" or
"charm," and which was borrowed into French as "mascotte." In
modern French, "mascotte" narrowed in meaning to good luck
charm.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
Click Here
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
The following is what appeared in Tuesday's edition.
In Today's Edition
I found this really cool website. You've got to check it out. It's a text to speech page where you type a sentence or even paragraphs and it "talks" what you wrote in. You can choose any of 13 languages. Male or female. American or British accents. I spent hours on this site. No words are censored either. Give it a try. Just click on the link below.
Born On April 12th
Claire Danes (1979)
Shannen Doherty (1971)
Art Alexakis (1962)
Vince Gill (1957)
Andy Garcia (1956)
David Cassidy (1950)
Tom Clancy (1947)
David Letterman (1947)
Herbie Hancock (1940)
Tiny Tim (1930)
Ann Miller (1923)
Lionel Hampton (1913)
Mass
At the start of every Mass, the priest would make the sign of the cross, followed as usual by the entrance song and the blessing, after which the congregation responded, "And also with you."
One Sunday, after making the sign of the cross, our priest appeared to be having difficulty with the sound system during the singing of the entrance hymn. At the conclusion of the song, the priest said, "There seems to be something wrong with the mike."
The congregation automatically responded, "And also with you."
Today's useless fact - Who said, "Let them eat cake"?
After we visited the links in the Lukol Quotations category, we're not entirely sure who said "Let them eat cake," but we can tell you that it WASN'T Marie Antoinette. This flippant phrase about consuming pastry is commonly attributed to the frivolous queen in the days leading up to the French Revolution. Supposedly, she spoke these words upon hearing how the peasantry had no bread to eat. But biographers and historians have found no evidence that Marie uttered these words or anything like them. Our old pal Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope explains the quotation was first written by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in "Confessions". Actually, Rousseau wrote "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," which essentially means "let them eat a type of egg-based bread" (not quite cake, but still a bit extravagant). Rousseau claimed that "a great princess" told the peasants to eat cake/brioche when she heard they had no bread.
But Rousseau wrote this in early 1766, when Marie Antoinette was only 10 years old, still living in her native Austria and not yet married to King Louis XVI. So it's highly unlikely that Marie uttered the pompous phrase. Perhaps Rousseau invented them to illustrate the divide between royalty and the poor -- which is certainly how the phrase has been used ever since.
However, "Let them eat brioche" isn't quite as cold a sentiment as you might imagine. At the time, French law required bakers to sell fancy breads at the same low price as the plain breads if they ran out of the latter. The goal was to prevent bakers from making very little cheap bread and then profiting off the fancy, expensive bread. Whoever really said "Let them eat brioche" may have meant that the bakery laws should be enforced so the poor could eat the fancy bread if there wasn't enough plain bread to go around.
A recent biographer claims that "Let them eat cake" was actually spoken by Marie-Therese, wife of France's Louis XIV, 100 years before Marie Antoinette, but we couldn't find anything online to corroborate this. Ultimately, we will probably never know who uttered this infamous phrase.
Incognito
The Buzzword For April 12th
vast \VAST\ adjective
What does it mean?
: very great in extent, size, amount, degree, or intensity
How do you use it?
"The creative sun shone glorious on the vast expanse of
cloudland; hill and dale, mountain and valley springing into
existence responsive to his rays and steadily developing in
beauty and individuality." (John Muir, _Steep Trails_)
Are you a word wiz?
"Vast" comes from the Latin word "vastus," which is akin to
the Old High German word "wuosti." Which answer do you think
gives the correct meaning of "wuosti"?
A. quiet, hushed
B. bright, brilliant
C. tough, difficult
D. empty, desolate
Answer:
If you think there's a vast difference between D and the other
answers, you're right. The meaning of "wuosti" is "empty,
desolate." Although "vast" is used to describe lots of things
from knowledge to numbers, the word most commonly describes
areas or regions that people also sometimes describe as
"empty" or "desolate." Deserts, oceans, plains--all are
frequently described as vast. Another word that comes from
"vastus" is "waste." When "waste" was first used, it referred
to a region that has few people or is empty of most signs of
life, and specifically to a desert.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
Click Here
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
The following is what appeared in Monday's edition.
In Today's Edition
First of all, I want to thank all of you who entered the contest. I know it was on short notice but I knew all of the faithful would see it .
Here is the final list of entrants and their numbers:
Esther Aquino....................................................................................513 & 463
Larry Aquino......................................................................................118 & 528
Roni Aquino...........................................................................................3 & 333
Patrick Aquino....................................................................................311 & 222
Alanah Aquino....................................................................................543 & 217
Virginia Ruth......................................................................................248 & 448
Stephanie Ruth..................................................................................698 & 683
Nicole Aquino.....................................................................................189 & 897
Barbara Daste...................................................................................333 & 727
Nekia Daste......................................................................................1000 & 603
Reco Daste........................................................................................710 & 985
Erika Aquino........................................................................................17 & 228
Dylan Aquino.........................................................................................2 & 999
Joseph Garcia......................................................................................65 & 444
The winning number was 629. Nekia Daste is the winner. Congratulations Nekia!
Nekia, get a hold of me and we'll figure out a way to get your mug to you.
Thanks again to all of you who participated.
Born On April 11th
Meshach Taylor (1947)
Louise Lasser (1939)
Joel Grey (1932)
Ethel Kennedy (1928)
Oleg Cassini (1913)
Government Workers
One day a boy and his father were at the dining room table working on the boy's Social Studies homework, the chapter about government.
The boy turns to his father and asks, "Dad, how many people work in the U.S. government?"
The father replies without hesitating, "Oh, about half of them."
Today's useless fact - Will drinking coffee really stunt the growth of children?
There is no compelling evidence that coffee stunts the growth of children, but as the links in the Lukol Coffee category point out, it's generally a bad idea to give kids caffeine. It can interfere with sleep habits, exacerbate hyperactivity, and contribute to dehydration. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means it causes the body to eliminate water.
Kids get most of their caffeine through soft drinks. By opting for these fizzy drinks over milk, vegetable, or fruit juices, children can miss out on nutrients. Also, both caffeinated drinks and many juices can contain hefty helpings of sugar, and excessive sugar consumption is a big contributing factor to childhood obesity.
Not surprisingly, coffee and caffeine are a constant subject of health studies. Recent health studies claim that caffeine is a contributing factor in heartburn, high blood pressure, and even still-births.
Still, the general consensus is that moderate consumption of caffeine (200-300 mg, or two cups of coffee, a day) doesn't pose a health risk. Which is good news for us here at the Neen Tribune.
1040 EZ 2 DO TAX FORM
The Buzzword For April 11th
zydeco \ZYE-duh-koh\ noun
What does it mean?
: popular music of southern Louisiana that combines tunes of
French origin with elements of Caribbean music and the blues
and that features guitar, washboard, and accordion
How do you use it?
My family attended a three-day long zydeco festival and we
danced so much we were sore at the end of the weekend.
Are you a word wiz?
No one is entirely sure where the word "zydeco" comes from,
but word scholars have theories. One of the answers below is
the most likely origin; we made the rest up. Which answer do
you think is really considered the likely origin of "zydeco"?
A. It comes from the title of a Cajun dance tune.
B. It comes from the name of a spicy French dish.
C. It comes from a Caribbean name for the washboard.
D. It comes from the name of a famous accordion player.
Answer:
Dance for joy if you picked A! The word "zydeco" first entered
English in the very early 1960s, and is probably a shortening
of the French words "les haricots," or "the snap beans." What
do snap beans have to do with zydeco music? A popular dance
tune among certain Louisianans in the 1940s and '50s was "Les
Haricots Sont Pas Salis," or "The Snap Beans Don't Have Salt."
As this type of music became more popular and more well-known,
it became known by the Cajun pronunciation of the first words
of that title, which sounds something like "zydeco."
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
Click Here
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
