letter_trainer_1_2 Flashcards
(500 cards)
1
Q
IK_
A
IKE. When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhower family used the nickname ‘Ike’ for all seven boys in the family, as ‘Ike’ was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. ‘Big Ike’ was Edgar, the second oldest boy. ‘Little/Young Ike’ was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.
2
Q
_VA
A
EVA. Nowadays, President Juan Perón of Argentina is perhaps less well-known than his second wife, Eva Perón of “Evita” fame. Juan and Eva Perón were overthrown in a military coup in 1955, although Juan Perón was returned to power in 1973 when he served for only nine months before he passed away. Juan was succeeded in office by his third wife, Isabel Perón.
3
Q
NE_
A
NED. Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Ned is voiced by actor Harry Shearer, and has been around since the very first episode aired on Fox in 1989.
4
Q
E_O
A
EMO. The musical genre of “emo” originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from “emotional hardcore”. ‘Emo’ is also the name given to the associated subculture. Not my cup of tea …
5
Q
_TIS
A
OTIS. Shuggie Otis is the son of R7B musician Johnny Otis.
6
Q
_EL
A
EEL. Electrophorus electricus is the biological name for the electric eel. Despite its name, the electric “eel” isn’t an eel at all, but rather what is called a knifefish, a fish with an elongated body related to the catfish. The electric eel has three pairs of organs along its abdomen, each capable of generating an electric discharge. The shock can go as high as 500 volts with 1 ampere of current (that’s 500 watts), and that could perhaps kill a human.
7
Q
SO_
A
SOS. The combination of three dots - three dashes - three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots - pause - three dashes - pause - three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are also mnemonics, introduced after the “SOS” signal was adopted.
8
Q
O_CA
A
ORCA. The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name “orca” is becoming more and more common in English. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.
9
Q
NE_O
A
NERO. The Roman Emperor Nero has a large (30m tall) statue made of himself in bronze, which he located outside of his palace. After he died, the bronze was altered and renamed the Colossus Solis, after the Roman sun god. It was later moved and located near the huge amphitheater that became known as the Colosseum. It is likely that the amphitheater actually took its name from the Colossus statue.
10
Q
OR_A
A
ORCA. ‘Jaws’ is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. ‘Jaws’ was perhaps the first ‘summer blockbuster’ with the highest box office take in history, a record that stood until ‘Star Wars’ was released two years later.
11
Q
IR_
A
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.
12
Q
RE_E
A
RENE. René Lacoste was a French tennis player who went into the clothing business, and came up with a more comfortable shirt that players could use. This became known as a ‘tennis shirt’. When it was adopted for use in the sport of polo, the shirts also became known as ‘polo shirts’. And a ‘golf shirt’ is basically the same thing.
13
Q
_EL
A
EEL. Electrophorus electricus is the biological name for the electric eel. Despite its name, the electric “eel” isn’t an eel at all, but rather what is called a knifefish, a fish with an elongated body that is related to the catfish. The electric eel has three pairs of organs along its abdomen, each capable of generating an electric discharge. The shock can go as high as 500 volts with 1 ampere of current (that’s 500 watts), and that could perhaps kill a human.
14
Q
_SA
A
NSA. The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization’s nickname … “No Such Agency”.
15
Q
TA_
A
TAO. The Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
16
Q
UM_
A
UMA. Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”.
17
Q
_NN
A
ANN. Cape Ann is 30 miles north of Boston and is on the northernmost edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Cape was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. Early in his adventurous life Smith had been captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. His “owner” in his days of slavery was a woman called Tragabigzanda, and apparently the slave and owner fell in love. Smith originally called Cape Tragabigzanda in her memory, but King Charles I changed the name to Cape Ann in honor of his own mother, Anne of Denmark.
18
Q
SS_
A
SSN. The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation although, given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an “identity number” to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. There was concern that a lot of people were claiming children as dependents on their tax returns who did not really exist, so from 1986 onwards it was a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in the following year’s returns, seven million dependents “disappeared”.
19
Q
_VA
A
EVA. Eva is the heroine in Richard Wagner’s (long!) opera titled ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’ (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg).
20
Q
_IA
A
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII, and was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.
21
Q
OM_N
A
OMAN. The town of Bahla in Oman is famous for it’s old fort, pottery and a surrounding oasis.
22
Q
I_E
A
IKE. President Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas and given the name David Dwight Eisenhower, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE). Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when “Ike” enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.
23
Q
OMA_
A
OMAN. The coalition forces that engaged in the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 comprised mainly US military personnel. The next largest contributors of forces were Saudi Arabia, the UK and Egypt, in that order.
24
Q
N_D
A
NED. Ned Beatty is probably best remembered for the rather disturbing “squeal like a pig” scene in the movie “Deliverance”.
25
AO_
AOL. Even though instant messaging (sending IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term 'instant message' in the eighties and nineties. The 'AOL Instant Message' service was known as AIM.
26
IOT_
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use "iota" to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.
27
_SR
SSR. Estonia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics. It is located in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea, due south of Finland. Estonia has been overrun and ruled by various empires over the centuries. Estonia did enjoy a few years of freedom at the beginning of the 20th century after a war of independence against the Russian Empire. However, the country was occupied again during WWII, first by the Russians and then the Germans, and reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Estonia has flourished as an independent country again since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
28
NER_
NERO. The 2009 movie "Star Trek" is in effect a prequel to the original "Star Trek" series. The film features a young James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) and a young Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) battling Romulan named Nero (played by Eric Bana) who comes back in time. As always, there's an appearance by the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy, of course) who does a bit of time travel himself.
29
E_K
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were used to seeing the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct term then is "wapiti", the Shawnee name for the animal, which means "white rump". It's all very confusing ...
30
EE_
EEL. A dragon roll is a sushi dish made from eel, cucumber, seaweed, rice and avocado. Without the eel, I am sure it's delicious!
31
N_RO
NERO. The 2009 movie "Star Trek" is in effect a prequel to the original "Star Trek" series. The film features a young James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) and a young Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) battling Romulan named Nero (played by Eric Bana) who comes back in time. As always, there's an appearance by the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy, of course) who does a bit of time travel himself.
32
_SP
ASP. The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp's bite was therefore her chosen method.
33
AL_
A LA. In French "à la mode" simply means "fashionable". In America it has come to describe a way of serving pie, usually with ice cream, or as I recall from when I lived in Upstate New York, with cheese.
34
_LK
ELK. Male elks are called bulls, and females are known as cows. Bull elks are known for their very loud screaming, which is called bugling. Cow elks are attracted to bulls that bugle more often and most loudly.
35
ERI_
ERIC. Eric Trump is the second son of Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Zelníčková. Eric works for his father, and in particular manages Donald's golf courses and the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia. Eric also appears in the boardroom alongside his Dad on the reality show 'The Apprentice'.
36
E_K
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct name for the beast is "wapiti", which means "white rump" in Shawnee. It's all very confusing ...
37
_EO
LEO. Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio is from Los Angeles, California. DiCaprio's mother was visiting a museum in Italy when she was pregnant and felt the first kick of her unborn child. At the moment of that first kick, Mama DiCaprio was looking at a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and so named her son Leonardo.
38
L_O
LEO. There has been a lion in the logo of the MGM studio since 1924. The original was an Irishman (!), a lion named Slats who was born in Dublin Zoo in 1919. However, it wasn't until Jackie took over from Slats in 1928 that the roar was heard, as the era of silent movies was coming to an end. The current lion is called Leo, and he has been around since 1957.
39
EV_
EVA. Eva Gabor was the youngest of the Gabor sisters all three of whom were celebrated Holywood actresses and socialites (her siblings were Zsa-Zsa and Magda). The Gabor sisters were born in Budapest and immigrated to the United States separately, with Eva being the first to arrive. Eva broke into movies, but her most famous role was on the TV sitcom "Green Acres" in which she played the lovely character Lisa Douglas opposite Eddie Albert. One of Eva's claims to fame is the unwitting promotion of the game called "Twister", the sales of which was languishing in 1996. In an appearance on "The Tonight Show" she got on all fours and played the game with Johnny Carson. Sales took off immediately, and Twister became a huge hit.
40
ANN_
ANNE. Tradition states that Mary, Mother of Jesus was the daughter of Joachim and Anne.
41
OB_
OBI. The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.
42
RH_
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
43
O_IS
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
44
NS_
NSA. Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked several top secret NSA documents to the media beginning in June 2013. After disclosing his name as the source of the leaks, Snowden tried to seek asylum in Ecuador. While travelling to Ecuador he had a layover in Moscow. While in Moscow, the US government revoked his passport, which effectively left him stranded in the transit area of Moscow Airport. The Russian government eventually granted his an annually renewable temporary asylum.
45
ES_U
ESAU. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. He is portrayed as being very different from his brother, a hunter, someone who loves the outdoor life.
46
NS_
NSA. The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization's nickname ... "No Such Agency".
47
_OL
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the "America-centric" sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL's success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users referred to AOL as "Always Off-Line".
48
UM_
UMA. Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma". Uma's big break in movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit 'Pulp Fiction'. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs'.
49
_NCA
INCA. (5D. See 21-Across : EMPIRE)
50
A_ARI
ATARI. At one point Atari was the fastest growing company in US history, but it never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.
51
OR_O
OREO. The Oreo cookie was first introduced in 1912. The Oreo was intended to be a competitor to the very similar Hydrox cookie which had debuted four years earlier. The Oreo won the resulting battle on the grocery store shelves ...
52
ET_A
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-guage railway, and two ski resorts.
53
CS_
CSI. The 'CSI' franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, but seems to be winding down. 'CSI: Miami' (the 'worst' of the franchise, I think) was cancelled in 2012 after ten seasons. 'CSI: NY' (the 'best' of the franchise) was cancelled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', set in Las Vegas, hung in there until 2015 when it ended with a two-hour TV movie. The youngest show in the series is 'CSI: Cyber', and it's still on the air.
54
I_S
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.
55
LE_
LEO. 48. 6-Down preceder : CANCER
56
_OTA
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word "iota" to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.
57
_TIS
OTIS. Elevators (simple hoists) have been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the "safety elevator", a design that he showcased at the 1853 World's Fair in New York. At the Fair, Otis would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration, the orders came rolling in.
58
_LO
ELO. The Elo rating system is used to compare the skill levels of competing chess players. The system is named for a Hungarian-born professor of physics called Arpad Elo, who was also a master-level chess player active in the US Chess Federation.
59
EE_
EEL. Anyone going to a sushi restaurant can order all types of raw fish (known collectively as 'sashimi'). However, eel is always served cooked, and that's because the blood of eels contains a protein that cramps muscles if eaten. If the heart muscle 'cramps', the result can be death. The protein is easily rendered harmless by applying heat, i.e. cooking.
60
A_A
A LA. The French for 'spit-roasted, on a skewer' is 'à la broche'.
61
_TNA
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt Vesuvius. The Roman poet Virgil described an eruption of Mt. Etna in his epic poem the "Aeneid".
62
EL_
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. Their manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
63
T_D
TED. Ted Stevens was a US Senator from Alaska. He first became a senator on Christmas Eve in 1968, and served continuously in that office until he was killed in a plane crash in 2009. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican US Senator in history.
64
_TON
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders, including David Cameron who took power in the recent UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming.
65
ER_C
ERIC. According to Icelandic tradition, Erik the Red was the man responsible for founding the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. Erik had a famous son, the explorer Leif Ericson.
66
ORC_
ORCA. The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name "orca", rather than "killer whale", is becoming more and more common. The Latin word "Orcinus" means "belonging to Orcus", with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.
67
OB_
OBI. The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.
68
NE_
NED. Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV's "The Simpsons". Ned is voiced by actor Harry Shearer and has been around since the very first episode aired in 1989.
69
_HO
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
70
O_E
ONE. The game of Scrabble has been produced in many international versions, and each of these editions has its own tile distribution to suit the local language. For example, in English we have two tiles worth ten points: one 'Q' and one 'Z'. If you play the game in French then there are five tiles worth ten points: one 'K', one 'W', one 'X', one 'Y' and one 'Z'.
71
S_S
SOS. The combination of three dots - three dashes - three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots - pause - three dashes - pause - three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases "Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship" are simply mnemonics, introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.
72
AD_
ADA. The reference here is to the 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov called "Ada". The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a United States, but the country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called "Canady", and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province "Estody". The plot-line is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.
73
E_IC
ERIC. Eric Holder is the Attorney General of the United States, and is the first African American to hold the position. Holder was close to President Obama during the presidential campaign. He was the campaign's legal advisor, and was also one of the three members on the Obama vice-presidential selection committee, which of course opted for Vice-President Joe Biden.
74
_RS
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.
75
ATA_I
ATARI. At one point Atari was the fastest growing company in US history, but it never really recovered from the video game crash of 1983.
76
TE_
TED. Better Off Ted' was a comedy series that aired for two seasons on ABC. Never saw it ...
77
IN_A
INCA. The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire of course fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.
78
_TIS
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
79
CI_
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII. The CIA was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.
80
E_NA
ETNA. Michelangelo Antonioni was a film director from Italy. Antonioni's most famous movies are the trilogy 'L'Avventura' (1960), 'La Notte' (1961) and 'Eclipse' (1962). He died in 2007, coincidentally on the same day that famed director Ingmar Bergman also passed away.
81
_AU
EAU. In French, fish (poissons) need water (eau) to survive.
82
O_E
ONE. On a keyboard, the exclamation point shares the one key.
83
L_S
LES. Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a Hungarian composer, and a fabulous pianist. Particularly towards the end of his life, he gained a tremendous reputation as a teacher. While he was in his sixties, his teaching profession demanded that he commute regularly between the cities of Rome, Weimar and Budapest. It is quite remarkable that a man of such advanced age, in the 1870s could do so much annual travel, estimated to be at least 4,000 miles every year.
84
_TON
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).
85
_OTA
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word "iota" to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.
86
_ED
NED. "Waking Ned Devine" is an entertaining comedy film from 1998, set in Ireland. It's all about Ned Devine who wins a fortune from the National Lottery, but who dies before he can claim the prize. The whole village conspires to "keep him alive" so that the winnings will be delivered and the locals can share the loot. Worth a rental ...
87
_MO
EMO. The musical genre of "emo" originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from "emotional hardcore". Not my cup of tea ...
88
_SA
NSA. The National Security Agency was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The agency has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that set up the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the nickname given to the NSA: "No Such Agency" ...
89
A_A
ADA. Back in 1889, Jeff Reed was hired to carry the mail between the two communities of Stonewall and Center in what was then called the Indian Territory. Reed had moved to the area from Texas and he bought some land in between the two limits of his mail route and built himself a log cabin. Pretty soon other settlers built homes nearby and in 1891 the settlement got its own post office. As postman, Reed got to name the new post office and he called it Ada, after his oldest daughter. Ada is now a county seat in Oklahoma and has over 17,000 residents. One of the sons of the city of Ada was the televangelist Oral Roberts.
90
CI_
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII. The CIA was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947. The organization has been nicknamed 'the Company' at least since 1972. The nickname became popular with the public following the release of the book 'Inside the Company' by former case officer Philip Agee in 1975.
91
E_IC
ERIC. According to Icelandic tradition, Erik the Red was the man responsible for founding the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. Erik had a famous son, the explorer Leif Ericson.
92
AD_
ADA. "Ada" is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a United States, but that country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called "Canady", and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called "Estody". The storyline is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.
93
A_A
ADA. The Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) was set up in 1947, with founding members including Hubert Humphrey and Eleanor Roosevelt. The ADA's mission is to advocate progressive policies and is well known for rating politicians on a scale of 0-100 depending on the degree of agreement with the group's policies.
94
N_D
NED. Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV's "The Simpsons". Ned is voiced by actor Harry Shearer and has been around since the very first episode aired in 1989.
95
E_O
EMO. The musical genre of "emo" originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from "emotional hardcore". Not my cup of tea ...
96
A_TI
ASTI. Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.
97
CS_
CSI. The TV show "CSI" gets a lot of criticism from law enforcement agencies for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though, as I just think it's fun television. The original "CSI" set in Las Vegas seems to have "gone off the boil" lately, but the addition of Sela Ward to the cast of "CSI: NY" has really, really raised the level of the sister show set in New York City.
98
_SA
NSA. Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked several top secret NSA documents to the media beginning in June 2013. After disclosing his name as the source of the leaks, Snowden tried to seek asylum in Ecuador. While travelling to Ecuador he had a layover in Moscow. While in Moscow, the US government revoked his passport, which effectively left him stranded in the transit area of Moscow Airport. The Russian government eventually granted him annually renewable temporary asylum.
99
_LO
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. Their manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy). "Ole ELO" is a compilation album the band released in 1976.
100
I_N
IAN. The name 'John' translates into Scottish as 'Ian', into Russian as 'Ivan', and into Irish as 'Seán'.
101
LE_
LEI. May 1 is Lei Day in Hawaii, a celebration of Hawaiian culture that started in 1927 in Honolulu. There is a traditional song from the islands called 'May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i'.
102
_NNE
ANNE. Anne Klein was a fashion designer from Brooklyn, New York.
103
A_A
ABA. American Bar Association (ABA)
104
CI_
CIA. CIA-gate is an alternative name for the Plame affair.
105
L_S
LES. The 1980 musical "Les Miserables" is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London's West End. My wife and I saw "Les Miz" in the Queen's Theatre in London quite a few years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even having a cigarette. On cue they would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor that had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn't really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the storyline just didn't seem to hang together for me.
106
REN_
RENE. Belgian artist Rene Magritte was a surrealist. His most recognized work maybe is "The Son of Man", a painting he created as a self-portrait. It is the one that shows a man in a bowler hat with his face covered by an apple. It features prominently in the great movie, the 1999 remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair".
107
AS_
ASP. The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.
108
_SA
NSA. The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization's nickname ... "No Such Agency".
109
_MAN
OMAN. Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula, neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a Sultanate, headed by a hereditary sultan. The current head of state is Qaboos bin Said Al Said, and he rules with the help of an elected advisory council (instituted in the early nineties). There are no legal, political parties however.
110
_AN
IAN. Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage and Magneto in an X-Men movie. On the big screen he is very famous for playing Gandalf in "The Lord of Rings". In the UK Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.
111
A_N
ANN. Barack Obama, Sr. was first married at the age of 18 in his home country of Kenya, and had two children during that marriage. He left his wife and children back in Kenya when he enrolled in the University of Hawaii in 1959 as the school's first African foreign student. There Obama met Ann Dunham in a Russian language course. The two entered into a romantic relationship and Dunham became pregnant. Obama told Dunham that he was divorced from his first wife (not true), and the pair were married on Maui in 1961. Six months later, Barack Obama II was born, destined to become the 44th President of the United States. The couple divorced in 1964. After the divorce, Dunham was able to marry Lalo Soetoro, a Javanese surveyor who she met while he was studying for a masters degree at the university. Soetoro returned to Indonesia in 1966, and Dunham joined him there the following year with her 6-year-old son. Barack Obama spent four years in Indonesia before returning to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.
112
OTI_
OTIS. The singing group known as the Temptations used to be known as the Elgins, and was formed in 1960 in Detroit. The group is still performing today, although only the second tenor, Otis Williams, was part of the original quintet. The Temptations were very much associated with their 'sister group', the Supremes.
113
I_E
IKE. When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhower family used the nickname 'Ike' for all seven boys in the family, as 'Ike' was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. 'Big Ike' was Edgar, the second oldest boy. 'Little/Young Ike' was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.
114
_RR
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
115
_OL
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name to America Online in 1989. As the company went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake of the "America-centric" sound to the name. During heady days of AOL's success, the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users called AOL "Always Off-Line".
116
_KE
IKE. There doesn't seem to be any good reason why President Eisenhower was called "Ike". It is known however, that the nickname dates back to his childhood as that is what his parents called him.
117
OB_
OBI. The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.
118
_NNE
ANNE. The young actress Anne Hathaway is a favorite of mine, I must say. She starred in 'The Devil Wears Prada' in 2006 and in 2007's 'Becoming Jane', a film I particularly enjoyed.
119
ANN_
ANNE. The Glorious Revolution took place in 1688, resulting in the overthrow of the Catholic King James II of England. English Parliamentarians had been looking to the Protestant daughter of the king, Mary, to ascend to the throne along with her husband William of Orange. These plans were jeopardized with the birth of a son to King James II. And so, William of Orange led an invasion of England, and then seizing the throne as William III beside his wife Mary II. Mary II died before her husband, and so William III ruled alone for the last six years of his life. When William passed away in 1702, his wife's sister ascended to the throne as Anne, Queen of Great Britain. Anne, was the last British monarch from the House of Stuart, as she died without issue. Anne's successor was her nearest Protestant relative, as a law had been passed preventing Roman Catholics from occupying the throne. So, George I succeeded Anne, marking the transition from the House of Stuart to the House of Hanover.
120
E_NA
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt Vesuvius.
121
LE_
LES. The 1980 musical "Les Misérables" is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London's West End. My wife and I saw "Les Miz" in the Queen's Theatre in London quite a few years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The old theater's seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even smoking cigarettes. On cue, the stagehands would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor that had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn't really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the musical version of the storyline just didn't seem to hang together for me.
122
_NE
ONE. In motor racing, the designation "formula" is a set of rules that all participants and cars must abide by. The definition of "Formula One" was agreed back in 1946, with the "one" designating that it is the most advanced of the "formulae", and the most competitive.
123
ER_C
ERIC. Eric Lindros is a retired Canadian hockey player. During his NHL career he played for the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Rangers, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Dallas Stars.
124
N_A
NSA. The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization's nickname ... "No Such Agency".
125
AN_
ANN. The television journalist Ann Curry is perhaps best known for the time she spent as co-host on NBC's 'Today' show. NBC executives asked Curry to resign from the 'Today' show because ratings were low. I just read online that Curry was also pushed out because of the way she insisted on dressing and because she refused to dye her gray hair. I hope that isn't true ...
126
_TON
ETON. Captain Hook is the bad guy in 'Peter Pan', the famous play by J. M. Barrie. Hook is Peter Pan's sworn enemy, as Pan cut off Hook's hand causing it to be replaced by a 'hook'. It is implied in the play that Hook attended Eton College, just outside London. Hook's last words are 'Floreat Etona', which is Eton College's motto.
127
L_I
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.
128
O_E
ONE. Three, two, one, blastoff!
129
S_N
SSN. Prior to the June 2011, the first three digits of the Social Security Number (SSN) was designated as an Area Number. In recent decades this Area Number reflects the ZIP code in the mailing address of the person for which the SSN was applied. From June 2011, all SSNs issued have been assigned randomly. I always think that’s a good idea …
130
RH_
RHO. I think the idea is that the letter rho is a character in the name Aristophanes, when written in Greek.
131
OTI_
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
132
ON_
ONE. One World Trade Center (One WTC) is the legal name for the tallest building in the US that is known colloquially as 'Freedom Tower'. The building stands at the symbolic height of 1776 feet.
133
_RIC
ERIC. Eric Roberts is an actor from Biloxi, Mississippi. Eric is the older brother of actress Julia Roberts.
134
ON_
ONE. Time to remember our math classes. f(x) = x + 10 is the equation or function describing a straight line. The '10' in the equation tells us that the line crosses the y-axis at 10. As there is a '1' (implied) before the 'x', then the slope of the line is said to be 1. Another way to arrive at the value of the slope is to take the derivative of the function with respect to x, and that turns out to be 1 as well.
135
_AU
EAU. Eau Claire, Wisconsin is named for the Eau Claire River, which in turn was named by French explorers. The explorers had been travelling down the muddy Chippewa River and diverted into the clear water of what is now called the Eau Claire River. They exclaimed 'Voici l'eau claire!' meaning 'Here is clear water!' The French phrase 'Voici l'eau claire' is now the city's motto that appears on the city seal.
136
ET_A
ETNA. Vulcan is the Roman god of fire, including the fire coming out of volcanoes. He was an iron-smith, and manufactured the arms, armor and jewelry for other gods. His smithy was believed to be underneath Mount Etna in Sicily.
137
AO_
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the "America-centric" sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL's success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users referred to AOL as "Always Off-Line".
138
_ENE
RENE. The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, 'Cogito ergo sum'. This translates into French as 'Je pense, donc je suis' and into English as 'I think, therefore I am'.
139
I_S
IRS. April 15th wasn't always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.
140
O_AN
OMAN. Muscat is the capital of Oman, and lies on the northeast coast of the state on the Gulf of Oman, a branch of the Persian Gulf.
141
E_IC
ERIC. Eric Ambler was a British author of spy novels, an author that I read voraciously for relaxation as I worked my way through college. One of his books was 'The Light of Day', which provided inspiration for the comic movie adaption called 'The Pink Panther'. Ambler also wrote the screenplay for the excellent film 'A Night to Remember' which told the story of the fateful maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic.
142
AD_
ADA. The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists and it now has more than 152,000 members.
143
I_N
IAN. Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an 'X-Men' movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in "The Lord of Rings". In the UK Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.
144
A_NE
ANNE. Queen Anne was the last of the Stuarts to rule in the British Isles, and the first sovereign of the Kingdom of Great Britain (after England and Scotland united). Anne was the last of the Stuart line because she died without any surviving children, despite having been pregnant seventeen times.
145
REN_
RENE. Rene Auberjonois is an American actor. His most famous role on the big screen was that of Father Mulcahy in "M*A*S*H".
146
_ED
TED. The acronym TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as 'TED Talks'.
147
INC_
INCA. Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro discovered the Incas in 1526, the beginning of the end for the ancient civilization, ravaged by force and by imported smallpox.
148
EV_
EVA. Little Eva is a character in the novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', whose full name is Evangeline St. Clare.
149
_TIS
OTIS. Elevators (simple hoists) had been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the "safety elevator", a design that he showcased at the 1853 World's Fair in New York. He would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration at the fair, the orders came rolling in.
150
_NCA
INCA. Machu Picchu is known as "The Lost City of the Incas", and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means "old peak".
151
OD_
ODE. A Horatian Ode is an ode with a specific structure, designed to resemble the odes of the Roman poet, Horace.
152
_RCA
ORCA. 'Orca' was a 1977 horror movie, starring Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling. It is often compared (unfavorably) with 'Jaws', which was released just two years earlier.
153
E_NA
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius.
154
TA_
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
155
_RR
ORR. The bomber pilot in Joseph Heller's novel "Catch 22" is called Orr, and he has no other name, just "Orr".
156
E_U
EAU. 'Eau de toilette' (toilet water) is a diluted perfume. A French person when dressing is said to be attending to his or her "toilette".
157
I_S
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) came into being during the Civil War, to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.
158
EM_
EMO. The musical genre of "emo" originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from "emotional hardcore". Not my cup of tea ...
159
A_A
A LA. Chicken à la King is a dish made with diced chicken in a cream sauce served over rice or pasta. There are several claims about the origin of the dish, but the most credible (to me) is that it was created in the 1890s in the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia by the hotel's chef William King.
160
_EL
EEL. "Kabayaki" is a specific way of preparing fish in Japanese cuisine, and in particular refers to the preparation of eel.
161
_SA
NSA. The National Security Agency was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The agency has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that set up the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the nickname given to the NSA: "No Such Agency" ...
162
_AU
EAU. Eau Claire, Wisconsin is named for the Eau Claire River, which in turn was named by French explorers. The explorers had been travelling down the muddy Chippewa River and diverted into the clear water of what is now called the Eau Claire River. They exclaimed 'Voici l'eau claire!' meaning 'Here is clear water!' The French phrase 'Voici l'eau claire' is now the city's motto that appears on the city seal.
163
TA_
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
164
O_R
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
165
L_O
LEO. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation of Leo. Regulus is a multiple star and what we see as one entity is actually made up of four stars rotating around a common center of mass. 'Regulus' is Latin for 'prince'.
166
IN_A
INCA. Machu Piccho was probably a luxurious estate built for Incan emperor Pachacuti. It is way off the the beaten track high up n the Andes, and is accessed by trekking for 3-4 days along what's called the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu.
167
L_S
LES. 'Les Amants' ('The Lovers') is a 1958 French movie directed by Louis Malle when he was just 25 years old. The film was a great success in France but when it was first shown here in the US, a theater manager was convicted of distributing obscene material.
168
E_A
EVA. Eva Longoria is a fashion model and an actress with a regular role on "Desperate Housewives", playing Gabrielle Solis.
169
E_U
EAU. 'Eau' is the French word for 'water'; 'Mer' is the French word for 'sea'.
170
EE_
EEL. Eel Pie Island is in the River Thames, in the western side of Greater London. It is privately owned, and is home to about 50 houses and a few small businesses. It can only be accessed by footbridge or boat. Peter Townshend of The Who had a recording studio nearby on the mainland, one that he called Eel Pie Studios.
171
_LA
A LA. The phrase 'in the style of' can be translated in 'alla' in Italian and 'à la' in French.
172
UM_
UMA. Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma". Uma's big break in movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit 'Pulp Fiction'. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs'.
173
_EI
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.
174
E_K
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the 'huge' wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely 'elk'. The more correct name for the beast is 'wapiti', which means 'white rump' in Shawnee. It's all very confusing ...
175
A_A
A LA. A dish prepared "a la king" (usually chicken or turkey), is food prepared in a cream sauce, with mushrooms, pimentos, green peppers and sherry.
176
_NNE
ANNE. Anne, Princess Royal was born in 1950 and is the only daughter of British Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Anne has been in the public spotlight for many things, including her success as an equestrian. Princess Anne was the first member of the British Royal Family to have competed in an Olympic Games. Her daughter Zara Phillips continued the tradition and competed as a member of the British equestrian team in the 2012 Olympic Games. Zara's medal was presented to her by her own mother, Princess Anne.
177
_AO
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
178
_SR
SSR. The former Soviet Union (USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and was comprised of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).
179
A_ARI
ATARI. Centipede is an arcade game from Atari (it was my favorite!). The game was designed by Ed Logg and Dona Bailey, with Bailey being one of the few female game designers back then (it was released in 1980). Perhaps due to her influence, Centipede was the first arcade game to garner a significant female following.
180
AS_I
ASTI. The Palio di Asti is an Italian festival dating back to medieval times, with the highlight being a bareback horse race. The name of the race comes from its location, Asti, and "palio", the name of a rectangular sheet of cloth awarded to the winner of the race. Yoo hoo! Rectangular cloth ...
181
_OL
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As the company went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the "America-centric" sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL's success, the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users called AOL "Always Off-Line".
182
E_AU
ESAU. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins "the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)". As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father's wealth (it was his "birthright"). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a "mess of pottage" (a meal of lentils).
183
_SI
CSI. I'm told that the TV show "CSI" gets a lot of razzing by law enforcement professionals for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though, as I just think it's fun television. The original "CSI" set in Las Vegas seems to have "gone off the boil", but the addition of Sela Ward to the cast of "CSI: NY" has really, really raised the level of the sister show centered around New York City.
184
LE_
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.
185
R_O
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
186
_EI
LEI. "Fantasy Island" was a fun television series that aired from 1978 to 1984, starring the dashing Ricardo Montalban as Mr. Roarke and Herve Villechaize as Tattoo. Tattoo is Roarke's colorful sidekick, famous for shouting out, "The plane! The plane!" as the guests arrived on the island at the beginning of each episode. There were lots of celebrity guest stars that appeared over the years, such as Sonny Bono, Tom Jones, Victoria Principal and Heather Locklear.
187
LE_
LES. 'Les' is French for 'the', and is used with a plural noun.
188
SO_
SOS. The combination of three dots - three dashes - three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots - pause - three dashes - pause - three dots), but in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases "Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship" are simply mnemonics, introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.
189
OMA_
OMAN. 'Oman' sounds like 'oh, man!'
190
EA_
EAU. 'Eau de Lourdes' is water from Lourdes, said to have healing power.
191
A_A
ADA. Many tubes of toothpaste contain an endorsement from the American Dental Association (ADA).
192
I_CA
INCA. Quechua was the existing Native American language that was adopted and by the Incan Empire and favored over other dialects. Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro discovered the Incas in 1526, the beginning of the end for the ancient civilization, ravaged by force and by imported smallpox.
193
ANN_
ANNE. Katherine Anne Porter was a journalist, novelist and political activist from Indian Creek, Texas. One of Porter's most famous works is her one and only novel 'Ship of Fools', which was the best-selling novel in the US in 1962.
194
E_K
ELK. Elk Mountain Ski Area is located about 30 miles north of Scranton, in the Endless Mountain region of Pennsylvania.
195
O_R
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
196
_SAU
ESAU. 'The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau' is a painting by Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
197
_EL
EEL. "Kabayaki" is a specific way of preparing fish in Japanese cuisine, and in particular refers to the preparation of eel.
198
AB_
ABA. The American Bar Association.
199
UM_
UMA. Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma". Uma's big break in movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit 'Pulp Fiction'. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs'.
200
_MA
UMA. Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma". Uma's big break in movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit 'Pulp Fiction'. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy 'The Truth About Cats and Dogs'.
201
_RR
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
202
_NCA
INCA. The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire of course fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.
203
_SI
CSI. CSI gets a lot of criticism from the law enforcement agencies for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though. It's a fun show to watch.
204
IA_
IAN. Ian McEwan is an English novelist with a track record of writing well-received novels. His most famous work at the moment I would say is "Atonement" which has benefited from the success of the fabulous movie adaptation released in 2007.
205
E_A
EVA. Eva Longoria is a fashion model and an actress who had a regular role on TV's 'Desperate Housewives', playing Gabrielle Solis.
206
_SI
CSI. I'm told that the TV show "CSI" gets a lot of razzing by law enforcement professionals for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though, as I just think it's fun television.
207
L_S
LES. Les Paul was a guitarist, songwriter and inventor. When he was 33 years old, Paul was involved in a near-fatal car crash that left his right arm and elbow shattered. Surgeons offered him the choice of amputation or a rebuilding of the limb that would leave him unable to bend his elbow. He told them to set his arm at just under 90 degrees so that he could at least hold his guitar and perhaps play it.
208
_SP
ASP. Snake charmers don't actually hypnotize their cobras, but they do train them. The snake is trained to 'follow' the movement of end of the pungi, the instrument that the charmer uses in the act. The snake presents no danger to the charmer or the audience, as it is typically defanged or has it's mouth partially stitched up so that only the tongue can be moved in and out. Not a very nice practice ...
209
OM_N
OMAN. Oman is lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula, neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The city of Muscat, with its strategic location, has a history of invasion and occupation. Centuries of occupation by the Persians ended in 1507 when the Portuguese took the city in a bloody invasion. The Portuguese held the city for much of the next century until finally ousted by local Omani forces in 1648.
210
S_R
SSR. The Soviet Socialist Republics were part of the USSR.
211
_DA
ADA. The American Dental Association members at times have to build bridges between teeth.
212
_ERO
NERO. Nero was Emperor of Rome from 54 to 68 CE, and he had quite the family life. When he was just 16-years-old Nero married his step-sister Claudia Octavia. He also had his mother and step-brother executed.
213
AS_
ASP. In William Shakespeare's play 'Antony and Cleopatra', the heroine of the piece addresses the asp as she uses the snake to commit suicide:
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TE_
TED. The acronym TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as 'TED Talks'.
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N_A
NSA. The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization's nickname ... "No Such Agency".
216
SS_
SSR. The former Soviet Union was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. The new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent geographically to the old Russian Empire, and was made up of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics.
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ORCA. The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name "orca", rather than "killer whale", is becoming more and more common. The Latin word "Orcinus" means "belonging to Orcus", with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.
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ESAU. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins "the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)". As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father's wealth (it was his "birthright"). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a "mess of pottage" (a meal of lentils).
219
_BI
OBI. An obi is a sash worn in from dress in Japan, both by men and women, although there tend to be many different ornate versions for women.
220
OT_S
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
221
T_D
TED. 'How I Met Your Mother' is a sitcom that CBS has been airing since 2005. The main character is Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor. Mosby is also the narrator for the show, looking back from the year 2030 (the live action is set in the present). As narrator, the older Mosby character is voiced by Bob Saget.
222
R_O
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
223
_MA
UMA. Uma Thurman's father, Robert Thurman, was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and called his daughter Uma as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name, Dbuma.
224
ORC_
ORCA. 'Orca' is a 1977 horror movie based on an Arthur Herzog novel of the same name. The film stars Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling. 'Orca' is often compared to 'Jaws', which was released just two years earlier. 'Orca' tends to lose out in that comparison.
225
N_RO
NERO. Nero was Emperor of Rome from 54 to 68 CE. Nero had quite the family life. When he was just 16-years-old he married his step-sister Claudia Octavia. He also had his mother and step-brother executed.
226
_OS
SOS. The ABBA song "S.O.S." was originally titled "Turn Me On". In the movie "Mama Mia!", it is performed by Meryl Streep (brilliantly) and by Pierce Brosnan (terribly).
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IA_
IAN. Ian Fleming is most famous of course for writing the "James Bond" series of spy novels. You might also know that he wrote the children's story "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", which was made into a cute movie released in 1968 and even a stage musical that opened in 2002.
228
RH_
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter 'p'.
229
O_IS
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Only three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
230
TE_
TED. Ted Healy had a successful stage and film career of his own, but now is best remembered as the creator of the Three Stooges. Healy hired Moe Howard as a 'stooge' for his vaudeville act in 1922, and then his brother Shemp Howard as a heckler in 1923. He pulled in Larry Fine in 1925. The trio of Moe, Shemp and Larry parted ways with Healy in 1931 over a contract dispute, and the three eventually evolved into the Three Stooges.
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ETO_
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).
232
OM_N
OMAN. The Arabian Peninsula is shaped like a boot, with the Sultanate of Oman occupying the toe of that boot.
233
_RR
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
234
OM_N
OMAN. Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The capital city of Muscat has a strategic location on the Gulf of Oman and has a history of invasion and unrest. Centuries of occupation by the Persians ended in 1507 when the Portuguese took the city in a bloody attack. The Portuguese held Muscat for much of the next one hundred years until finally being ousted by local Omani forces in 1648. A Yemeni tribe invaded the area in 1741 and set up a monarchy that has been in place in Oman ever since.
235
NE_O
NERO. AD 69 was a year of civil war in ancient Rome. The unrest started with the death of emperor Nero in AD 68, after which followed the brief rule of Galba, of Otho, of Vitellius, and of Vespasian all in the same year. As a result, AD 69 became known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
236
_SP
ASP. The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in Ancient Egypt.
237
LE_
LEI. What's known as May Day around the world is also called Lei Day in Hawaii. Lei Day started in the twenties and is a celebration of native Hawaiian culture.
238
_SA
NSA. National Security Agency (NSA)
239
NS_
NSA. The National Security Agency was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organizations nickname ... "No Such Agency".
240
_NNE
ANNE. Famously, King Henry VIII had six queens consort. There is a rhyme that is commonly used to help remember the fates of each of his wives, which goes:
241
T_O
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
242
O_I
OBI. The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.
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EL_
ELK. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a "club" in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren't welcome.
244
_ED
TED. The complete quotation from Ted Kennedy is 'Frankly, I don't mind not being president. I just mind that someone else is.'
245
OD_
ODE. Joseph Addison was an English man of letters and a politician. Most famously, Addison is remembered for publishing "The Spectator" magazine from 1711-12 along with his friend Richard Steele. In fact, Addison's famous poem "Ode to Creation" first appeared in "The Spectator". Back in my home country, Addison is noted for holding the political post of Chief Secretary for Ireland in the early 1700s.
246
S_R
SSR. The former Soviet Union (USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and was comprised of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).
247
_NE
ONE. The XBox line of video game consoles is made by Microsoft. The original XBox platform was followed by XBox 360 and most recently by XBox One. Microsoft's XBox competes directly with Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Wii.
248
_HO
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
249
I_TA
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word "iota" to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.
250
_BA
ABA. The Pittsburgh Condors (originally the Pittsburgh Pipers) were a pro basketball team in the American Basketball Association (ABA). The Condors folded in 1972.
251
AD_
ADA. The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists and now has more than 152,000 members.
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ATA_I
ATARI. Centipede is an arcade game from Atari (it was my favorite!). The game was designed by Ed Logg and Dona Bailey, with Bailey being one of the few female game designers back then (it was released in 1980). Perhaps due to her influence, Centipede was the first arcade game to garner a significant female following.
253
EE_
EEL. 'Sashimi' is thinly sliced raw fish, although it can also be raw meat. The word 'sashimi' translates literally as 'pierced body', which may be a reference to the practice of sticking the tail and fin to sliced fish to identify it.
254
AN_E
ANNE. Anne Meara has been married to fellow comedic actor Ben Stiller since 1954. Anne and Ben are the parents of actors Ben and Amy Stiller.
255
_HO
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
256
E_AU
ESAU. Esau, was the grandson of Abraham and the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When Esau was born to Isaac and Rebekah, the event was described, 'Now the first came forth, red all over like a hairy garment'. Esau is portrayed later in life as being very different from his brother, as a hunter and someone who loves the outdoor life.
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TAO. The 'Tao Te Ching'is a classical Chinese text, fundamental to the philosophy of Taoism.
258
O_AN
OMAN. O, man! It's Oman!
259
_NE
ONE. The nation's first president, George Washington, is on the US one-dollar bills produced today. However, when the first one-dollar bill was issued in 1863, it featured a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury.
260
RE_E
RENE. Rene Descartes made the famous statement, in Latin, "Cogito ergo sum" ... "I think, therefore I am". Anything pertaining the philosophy of the great Descartes can be given the adjective "Cartesian".
261
_MAN
OMAN. The Gulf of Oman isn't actually a gulf, and rather is a strait, connecting the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz and onto the Persian Gulf.
262
E_O
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. Their manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
263
NE_O
NERO. 'Quo Vadis' is an epic drama made in 1951, an adaptation of the 1896 novel of the same name written by Henryk Sienkiewicz. At the top of the bill were Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr, with Peter Ustinov playing the Emperor Nero. There was also an uncredited extra making her first appearance on the screen, a young lady by the name of Sophia Loren.
264
EM_
EMO. Emo Philips is a stand-up comedian from Chicago. He's had a long and successful career, and listed on his resume is a small part in the 1992 hit movie "Meet the Parents" starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. Philips was also the executive producer for that very same film. So, I'd say that movie made him a few pennies ...
265
_VA
EVA. Little Eva is a character in the 1852 novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Eva's full name is Evangeline St. Clare.
266
_KE
IKE. 'Alibi Ike" is a short story by Ring Lardner that was made into a romantic comedy film in 1935 starring Joe E. Brown and Olivia de Havilland. Brown plays the title character, a baseball player who is always making excuses, hence his nickname. 'Alibi Ike" was actually the first film to be released featuring Olivia de Havilland.
267
_ED
NED. Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV's "The Simpsons".
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OR_O
OREO. The Oreo cookie was first introduced in 1912. The Oreo was intended to be a competitor to the very similar Hydrox cookie which had debuted four years earlier. The Oreo won the resulting battle on the grocery store shelves ...
269
EL_
ELK. Yellowstone was the first National Park to be established in the world, when it was designated as such by President Grant in 1872. What a great tradition it started! The American National Parks truly are a treasure.
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EL_
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. Their manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
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O_EO
OREO. The Oreo cookie was first introduced in 1912. The Oreo was intended to be a competitor to the very similar Hydrox cookie which had debuted four years earlier. The Oreo won the resulting battle on the grocery store shelves ...
272
UM_
UMA. Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma".
273
ORC_
ORCA. The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name "orca", rather than "killer whale", is becoming more and more common. The Latin word "Orcinus" means "belonging to Orcus", with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.
274
_SA
NSA. Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked several top secret NSA documents to the media beginning in June 2013. After disclosing his name as the source of the leaks, Snowden tried to seek asylum in Ecuador. While travelling to Ecuador he had a layover in Moscow. While in Moscow, the US government revoked his passport, which effectively left him stranded in the transit area of Moscow Airport. The Russian government eventually granted his an annually renewable temporary asylum.
275
_RR
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
276
S_R
SSR. The Republic of Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located east of Poland and north of Ukraine. Belarus didn’t exist as an entity until the Russian Revolution when it was created as one of the Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) that made up the USSR. The Republic of Belarus was formed soon after the USSR dissolved in 1990, but unlike many of the former Soviet Republics, Belarus has largely retained the old Soviet policies. Alexander Lukashenko is the country’s president and he believes in state ownership of the economy. Belarus and Russia have formal agreements in place that pledge cooperation.
277
_HO
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
278
NS_
NSA. The National Security Agency was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The agency has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that set up the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the nickname given to the NSA: "No Such Agency" ...
279
EE_
EEL. The Eel River in California was named in 1850 by an explorer Josiah Gregg after he made a trade with some Native Americans, swapping a frying pan for a large catch of eels.
280
_TON
ETON. An Eton jacket is usually black, cut square at the hips and with wide lapels. It is named for the design of jacket that is worn by the younger students at Eton College just outside London.
281
ETO_
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders, including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself, in the Fleming novels).
282
EL_
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct name for the beast is "wapiti", which means "white rump" in Shawnee. It's all very confusing ...
283
EV_
EVA. Despite the English-sounding name, Eva Green is a French actress. Green played Bond girl Vesper Lynd in the 2006 movie "Casino Royale", opposite Daniel Craig.
284
_NNE
ANNE. Anne, Princess Royal was born in 1950 and is the only daughter of British Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Anne has been in the public spotlight for many things, including her success as an equestrian. Princess Anne was the first member of the British Royal Family to have competed in an Olympic Games. Her daughter Zara Phillips continued the tradition and competed as a member of the British equestrian team in the 2012 Olympic Games. Zara's medal was presented to her by her own mother, Princess Anne.
285
_ED
NED. Ned Land was one of the protagonists in Jules Verne's classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". In the famous movie adaptation from 1955, Ned Land was played by Kirk Douglas.
286
NER_
NERO. The Great Fire of Rome raged for five and a half days in 64 AD. Of the fourteen districts of Rome, three were completely destroyed, and seven more suffered serious damage. The emperor at the time was of course Nero, although reports that he fiddled, played his lyre or sang while the city burned, those accounts are probably not true. In fact, Nero was staying outside of Rome when the fire started, and rushed home on hearing the news. He organized a massive relief effort, throwing open his own home to house many of the citizens who were left living on the street.
287
SS_
SSN. The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an "identity number" to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, a SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 years of age had no number assigned. There was concern that a lot of people were claiming children as dependents on their tax forms who did not exist, so from 1986 onwards it was a requirement to get a SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in the following year's tax returns, seven million dependents "disappeared".
288
_SP
ASP. In William Shakespeare's play 'Antony and Cleopatra', the heroine of the piece addresses the asp as she uses the snake to commit suicide:
289
C_I
CSI. The Who's hit "Who Are You" is used as the theme song for the TV show "CSI". Old hits from the Who are also used as theme songs for the CSI spin-off shows, "CSI: New York" (theme: "Baba O'Riley") and "CSI: Miami" (theme: "Won't Get Fooled Again"). The Who played all three "CSI" songs during the half-time show at the 2010 Super Bowl.
290
A_TI
ASTI. Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.
291
_AN
IAN. Ian McShane is an English actor, famous in his homeland (and to PBS viewers in the US) for playing the title role in "Lovejoy". In this country he is perhaps better known for playing the conniving saloon owner on the HBO western drama "Deadwood".
292
E_K
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct name for the beast is "wapiti", which means "white rump" in Shawnee. It's all very confusing ...
293
_TNA
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius.
294
_EL
EEL. Jellied eels are a traditional British dish associated with the working class East End of London. Historically, the eels used were caught in the River Thames. The dish is prepared by boiling up eels that have been chopped into rounds in a seasoned stock and then allowing it to set. The eel contains a lot of gelatinous protein so the stock forms a jelly as it cools.
295
E_NA
ETNA. When the healthcare management and insurance company known as Aetna was founded, the name was chosen to evoke images of Mt. Etna, the European volcano.
296
L_I
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment intended to be worn.
297
IO_A
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use it to portray something very small, as it is the smallest letter in the alphabet.
298
EA_
EAU. Évian-les-Bains (or simply Évian) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva, directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As you might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. I can't stand the taste of Évian water ...
299
SS_
SSR. Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe, a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English we often call the country 'the" Ukraine, but I am told that we should just say "Ukraine".
300
_SA
NSA. The National Security Agency was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization's nickname ... "No Such Agency".
301
OMA_
OMAN. Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula, neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The capital city of Muscat has a strategic location on the Gulf of Oman, and has a history of invasion and unrest. Centuries of occupation by the Persians ended in 1507 when the Portuguese took the city in a bloody attack. The Portuguese held Muscat for much of the next century until they were finally ousted by local Omani forces in 1648. A Yemeni tribe invaded the area in 1741 and set up a monarchy that has been in place ever since.
302
A_A
ADA. 'Ada' is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a United States, but that country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called 'Canady', and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called 'Estody'. The storyline is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.
303
R_NE
RENE. Belgian artist René Magritte was a surrealist. His most recognized work maybe is 'The Son of Man', a painting he created as a self-portrait. It is the work that shows a man in a bowler hat with his face covered by an apple. The image features prominently in the great movie, the 1999 remake of 'The Thomas Crown Affair'.
304
NE_O
NERO. "I, Claudius" is a 1934 novel penned by Robert Graves, written in the form of an autobiography of Emperor Claudius of Rome. Graves wrote a sequel in 1935 called "Claudius the God". Both books were adapted by the BBC into a fabulous television series that went by the name of the first book "I, Claudius".
305
E_AU
ESAU. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother, Rebekah gave birth to the twins, "the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)". Levi was the third son of Esau's brother, Jacob.
306
ON_
ONE. Pepsi ONE is so called as it has one calorie per eight-ounce serving. The artificial sweetener known as Ace-K was approved by the FDA for use in our food in 1998, and one hour after the approval was given, PepsiCo announced the introduction of Pepsi ONE ...
307
OM_N
OMAN. Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, lying just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office.
308
_IA
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII. The CIA was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.
309
N_A
NSA. The NSA are famous as code crackers.
310
_LO
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. Their manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
311
_AO
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
312
ES_U
ESAU. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother, Rebekah, gave birth to the twins "the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)". As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father's wealth (it was his "birthright"). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a "mess of pottage" (a meal of lentils).
313
_STI
ASTI. Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.
314
L_I
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment intended to be worn.
315
_AN
IAN. Ian Ziering is an actor best-known for playing Steve Sanders on the TV show 'Beverly Hills, 90210'.
316
_STI
ASTI. Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.
317
_RS
IRS. The IRS came into being during the Civil War, to raise money to pay for war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, taxation was limited to levies on trade and property.
318
CI_
CIA. 'Homeland' is a psychological drama shown on Showtime about a CIA officer who is convinced that a certain US Marine is a threat to the security of the United States. The show is based on a series from Israeli television called 'Hatufim' (Prisoners of War'). I saw the first series of this show, and highly recommend it ...
319
ETN_
ETNA. Cyclops was a one-eyed giant in Greek and Roman mythology. Cyclops lived in Mount Etna, the Sicilian volcano.
320
E_IC
ERIC. Eric Holder was the Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015, the first African American to hold the position. Holder was close to President Obama during the presidential campaign. Holder was the campaign's legal advisor and was also one of the three members on the Obama vice-presidential selection committee that recommended future Vice President Joe Biden.
321
_OS
SOS. The Police were a trio formed in London in 1977, with Sting being the most famous member and lead singer. The band released "Message in a Bottle" in 1979, a song telling of a castaway "sending out an SOS" by sending off a "message in a bottle".
322
_ERO
NERO. The Roman emperor Nero had quite the family life. When Nero was just 16-years-old he married his stepsister, Claudia Octavia. He also had his mother and stepbrother executed.
323
_RR
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
324
_NNE
ANNE. James I of England was also James VI of Scotland, until he died in 1625. He became king of Scotland when he was just 13 months old after his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate. He inherited the title of James I of England when Elizabeth I died in 1603 without issue. That marked the end of the Tudor monarchy, and the beginning of the House of Stuart reign (Mary was James's mother, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was his father). A suitable marriage was arranged for James, to 14-year-old Anne of Denmark. The couple had three children, two boys and a girl. the eldest boy died as a teenager, so the youngest son inherited the throne from his father, as Charles I.
325
RE_E
RENE. Belgian artist René Magritte was a surrealist. His most recognized work maybe is "The Son of Man", a painting he created as a self-portrait. It is the work that shows a man in a bowler hat with his face covered by an apple. The image features prominently in the great movie, the 1999 remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair".
326
ETN_
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 2013.
327
EE_
EEL. Morays are a large group of about 200 species of eel found across the world's oceans. They are carnivorous and look pretty scary, but they're pretty shy when confronted by humans and present no threat. The interesting thing about morays is that they will sometimes work in cooperation with the grouper fish found in reefs, helping each other hunt for food, a unique, cross-species relationship.
328
A_TI
ASTI. Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. It is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.
329
AST_
ASTI. Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.
330
N_D
NED. Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV's "The Simpsons". Ned is voiced by the actor Harry Shearer, and has been around since the very first episode, aired on Fox in 1989.
331
O_EO
OREO. Dirt cake is a dessert usually made by breaking up Oreo cookies and scattering the pieces over chocolate pudding, and then adding gummy worms on top. Sounds delicious ...
332
T_D
TED. 'TrusTED' is the logo used by the campaign to elect Ted Cruz for president.
333
R_NE
RENE. René Coty was the President of France from 1954 to 1959 (succeeding Vincent Auriol), and notably presided over the Algerian War. Coty resigned after five years, making way for the 7-year term of Charles de Gaulle.
334
TA_
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
335
R_O
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
336
TA_
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
337
E_IC
ERIC. Eric Holder is the Attorney General of the United States, and is the first African American to hold the position. Holder was close to President Obama during the presidential campaign. Holder was the campaign's legal advisor and was also one of the three members on the Obama vice-presidential selection committee, which of course opted for Vice-President Joe Biden.
338
EA_
EAU. 'Eau' is the French word for 'water'; 'Mer' is the French word for 'sea'.
339
E_NA
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius.
340
_RS
IRS. The IRS came into being during the Civil War, to raise money to pay for war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, taxation was limited to levies on trade and property.
341
IN_A
INCA. Inti was the sun god worshiped by the Incas. Images depicting Inti are featured on the national flags of several nations, including Argentina and Uruguay.
342
_MA
UMA. Kill Bill' is a 3-part Quentin Tarantino movie (so I haven't seen it!). 'Kill Bill' started off as one film, but as the running time was over four hours, it was split into two 'volumes', released several months apart in 2003 and 2004. There has been a lot of talk about making 'Kill Bill: Volume 3'.
343
_NCA
INCA. The Inca Empire was known as the Tawantinsuyu, which translates as 'land of the four quarters'. The Inca Empire was a federal organization having a central government that sat above four 'suyu' or 'quarters', four administrative regions.
344
_RR
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
345
C_I
CSI. 'CSI: NY' is the best of the CSI franchise of television shows, in my humble opinion, since the original 'CSI' set in Las Vegas went off the boil a few years ago. Stars of the New York show are Gary Sinise and Sela Ward.
346
SS_
SSN. The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an "identity number" to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So, from 1986 onward, it is a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in 1987 seven million dependents "disappeared".
347
I_S
IRS. The Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution gives the US Congress the right to levy a personal income tax without the need to reapportion the funds collected to the States proportionally based on Census results. Prior to the amendment, taxes collected had to be returned to the States based on population.
348
E_ON
ETON. Dorney Lake is a man-made lake used for rowing competition. It is located near the village of Dorney in Buckinghamshire, England and is owned by the famous Eton College. Eton Dorney featured prominently in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
349
A_L
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, America Online changed its name in 1989. As the company went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the "US-centric" sound to "America Online". During the heady days of AOL's success, the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users called AOL "Always Off-Line".
350
ON_
ONE. A valediction is an act of taking one's leave, from the Latin "vale dicere", to say farewell. An example of a valediction would be the words "yours truly" at the end of a letter. And of course, the valedictorian (here in the US anyway) is the student in a graduating class that is chosen to say the final words at the graduation ceremony, a farewell to his or her classmates.
351
_ED
TED. 'How I Met Your Mother' is a sitcom that CBS has been airing since 2005. The main character is Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor. Mosby is also the narrator for the show looking back from the year 2030 (the live action is set in the present). As narrator, the older Mosby character is voiced by Bob Saget.
352
_OTA
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word "iota" to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.
353
INC_
INCA. The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century in part of South America that today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of the continent. The Empire of course fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.
354
_AN
IAN. The name 'John' translates into Scottish as 'Ian', and into Irish as 'Seán'.
355
LE_
LEO. The actor Leo Gorcey's most remembered role was that of the leader of the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys.
356
_NCA
INCA. The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire of course fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.
357
EL_
ELO. The Elo rating system is used to compare the skill levels of competing chess players. The system is named for a Hungarian-born professor of physics called Arpad Elo, who was also a master-level chess player active in the US Chess Federation.
358
_SA
NSA. The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization's nickname ... "No Such Agency".
359
_LK
ELK. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members these days. It started out as a group of men getting together in a "club" in order to avoid the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren't welcome.
360
AD_
ADA. The novel "Cold Mountain" was written in 1997 by Charles Frazier. It's the tale of a deserter in the Civil War and his trek home to his beloved Ada Monroe, who is living the rural community of Cold Mountain in North Carolina. The plot has been compared with Homer's "The Odyssey", which tells of the long journey home of Odysseus to Ithaca after the Trojan War. In the 2003 film adaptation of the same name, Ada Monroe is played by Nicole Kidman.
361
OB_
OBI. Sir Alec Guinness played many great roles over a long and distinguished career, but nowadays is best remembered for playing the original Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars".
362
_BI
OBI. The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.
363
ERI_
ERIC. According to Icelandic tradition, Erik the Red was the man responsible for founding the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. Erik had a famous son, the explorer Leif Ericson.
364
_AN
IAN. Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing Macbeth on stage and Magneto in an X-Men movie. On the big screen he is very famous for playing Gandalf in "The Lord of Rings". In the UK Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.
365
S_N
SSN. Social Security Number (SSN)
366
O_E
ONE. The game of Scrabble has been produced in many international versions, and each of these editions has its own tile distribution to suit the local language. For example, in English we have two tiles worth ten points: one 'Q' and one 'Z'. If you play the game in French then there are five tiles worth ten points: one 'K', one 'W', one 'X', one 'Y' and one 'Z'.
367
_OL
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the "America-centric" sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL's success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users referred to AOL as "Always Off-Line".
368
_LK
ELK. 'Venison' is the meat of a deer. In days of yore, the term applied not just to deer, but to any large game. The word 'venison' ultimately derives from the Latin 'venare' meaning 'to hunt'.
369
REN_
RENE. Belgian artist Rene Magritte was a surrealist. His most recognized work maybe is "The Son of Man", a painting he created as a self-portrait. It is the work that shows a man in a bowler hat with his face covered by an apple. The image features prominently in the great movie, the 1999 remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair".
370
_SP
ASP. The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It was so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.
371
L_I
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.
372
CI_
CIA. Zero Dark Thirty' is a film directed by Kathryn Bigelow that tells of the long but ultimately successful hunt for Osama bin Laden. I found one aspect of this film to be particularly uplifting, namely the central role played by a remarkable CIA officer who was a woman operating against the odds in a man's world.
373
E_O
ELO. The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) is a symphonic rock group from the north of England. The band's manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
374
IK_
IKE. I Like Ike' was a political slogan that originated with the grassroots movement to get Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for president in the 1952 presidential election. The slogan was modified in the president's reelection campaign four years later to 'Ike in '56'.
375
_VA
EVA. Carole King and her longtime partner Gerry Goffin have been writing hit songs since the early sixties. Carole and Gerry had a babysitter, one Eva Narcissus Boyd, who was always bopping around the house in an unusual dance style. They wrote a song about her dance and they called it "The Loco-Motion". Then they gave it to the babysitter to record. Ms. Boyd chose as a stage name a character in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" called Little Eva ...
376
ES_U
ESAU. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother, Rebekah, gave birth to the twins "the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)". As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father's wealth (it was his "birthright"). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a "mess of pottage" (a meal of lentils).
377
SO_
SOS. The combination of three dots - three dashes - three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots - pause - three dashes - pause - three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases "Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship" are also mnemonics, introduced after the "SOS" signal was adopted.
378
A_N
ANN. 'Ann Vickers' is a novel by Sinclair Lewis, first published in 1933. That same year, 'Ann Vickers' was adapted into a movie with Irene Dunne in the title role.
379
C_A
CIA. Zero Dark Thirty' is a film directed by Kathryn Bigelow that tells of the long but ultimately successful hunt for Osama bin Laden. I found one aspect of this film to be particularly uplifting, namely the central role played by a remarkable CIA officer who was a woman operating against the odds in a man's world.
380
_EL
EEL. A dragon roll is a sushi dish made from eel, cucumber, seaweed, rice and avocado. Without the eel, I am sure it's delicious!
381
S_R
SSR. Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR)
382
AO_
AOL. The iconic phrase 'You've got mail' was first used by AOL in 1989. The greeting was recorded by voice actor Elwood Edwards. Edwards has parlayed his gig with AOL into some other work. He appears in an episode of 'The Simpsons' as a doctor who says the line 'You've got leprosy'. Edwards also worked as a weatherman for a while and got to use the line 'You've got hail' ...
383
TA_
TAO. The Chinese character "tao" translates as "path", but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
384
CI_
CIA. "American Dad!" is an adult-oriented animated sitcom. Famously, one of the show's creators is Seth MacFarlane, who also created 'Family Guy'. Personally, I cannot stand either show ...
385
_ED
TED. As well as playing for the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams served as a pilot in the Marine Corps in World War II and the Korean War.
386
T_D
TED. As well as playing for the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams served as a pilot in the Marine Corps in World War II and the Korean War.
387
CS_
CSI. 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' is apparently the most-watched television show worldwide.
388
_OL
AOL. Patch Media (owned by AOL) is the company that operates the website Patch.com, which uses a concept the company calls 'hyperlocal journalism'. Patch.com employs a network of local community news editors that manage local community news websites. There are over 500 such websites available on Patch.com today.
389
T_D
TED. 'Ted' is a movie written, directed, produced and starring Seth MacFarlane. In the story, MacFarlane voices a teddy bear who is the best friend of a character played by Mark Wahlberg.
390
_RS
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) came into being during the Civil War, to raise money to pay for war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.
391
A_NE
ANNE. Anne was the youngest of the three sisters in the literary Brontë family. Her older sisters wrote novels that are more recognized, but Anne's two novels do have a following. "Agnes Grey" is based on her own experiences working as a governess. Her other novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is written as a long letter from a young man describing the events leading up to his first meeting with his wife-to-be. Anne Brontë's writing career was cut short in 1849, when she died of pulmonary tuberculosis, at only 29 years of age.
392
RH_
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
393
_TNA
ETNA. Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-guage railway, and two ski resorts.
394
SS_
SSN. A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot, as since 2011 SSn’s are assigned randomly.
395
_ES
LES. The definite article in French can be 'le' (with masculine nouns), 'la' (with feminine nouns), and 'les' (with plurals of either gender).
396
_DE
ODE. The 'Classic of Poetry' ('Shijing' in Chinese) is the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry. Comprising 305 odes that date from the 11th to 7th centuries BCE, tradition holds that the collection was compiled by Confucius.
397
_LA
A LA. A dish prepared "à la king" (usually chicken or turkey), is food prepared in a cream sauce, with mushrooms, pimentos, green peppers and sherry.
398
AB_
ABA. American Bar Association (ABA)
399
OR_
ORR. Orr has no other name, just "Orr", in Joseph Heller's novel "Catch 22".
400
ORE_
OREO. The Oreo was the best-selling cookie in the 20th century, and almost 500 billion of them have been sold since they were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco. In those early days the creme filling was made with pork fat, but today vegetable oils are used instead. If you take a bite out of an Oreo sold outside of America you might notice a difference from the homegrown cookie, as coconut oil is added in the overseas version to give a different taste.
401
IK_
IKE. When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhower family used the nickname 'Ike' for all seven boys in the family, as 'Ike' was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. 'Big Ike' was Edgar, the second oldest boy. 'Little/Young Ike' was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.
402
NE_
NED. Ned Jarrett is retired now, a two-time NASCAR champion and father NASCAR drivers Dale and Glenn Jarrett.
403
_VA
EVA. "Deliver Us From Eva" is a film released in 2003 starring LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union (as 'Eva'). The movie is based on Shakespeare's play 'The Taming of the Shrew'.
404
E_O
EMO. The musical genre of "emo" originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from "emotional hardcore". 'Emo' is also the name given to the associated subculture. Not my cup of tea ...
405
N_D
NED. Ned Stark is the protagonist in George R. R. Martin's fantasy novel 'A Game of Thrones', although his character doesn't exactly come out on top by the end of the story. Stark is played by actor Sean Bean in the HBO television adaptation of the novel.
406
E_O
EMO. The musical genre of "emo" originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from "emotional hardcore". Not my cup of tea ...
407
OT_S
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
408
NS_
NSA. Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked several top secret NSA documents to the media beginning in June 2013. After disclosing his name as the source of the leaks, Snowden tried to seek asylum in Ecuador. While travelling to Ecuador he had a layover in Moscow. While in Moscow, the US government revoked his passport, which effectively left him stranded in the transit area of Moscow Airport. The Russian government eventually granted his an annually renewable temporary asylum.
409
LE_
LEO. In 'The West Wing', Leo McGarry was played very ably by John Spencer. If you haven't seen them, the early series' of "The West Wing" are just fabulous. I think I learned so much about the workings of the American government through this TV show.
410
SS_
SSR. The former Soviet Union (USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and was comprised of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).
411
_LO
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. The band's manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
412
I_CA
INCA. The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire of course fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.
413
ESA_
ESAU.
414
I_TA
IOTA. Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word "iota" to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.
415
EL_
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct name for the beast is "wapiti", which means "white rump" in Shawnee. It's all very confusing ...
416
_LO
ELO. Jeff Lynne is a singer-songwriter best known as the leader of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). Lynne went on to form the Traveling Wilburys supergroup, along with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.
417
S_S
SOS. The combination of three dots - three dashes - three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots - pause - three dashes - pause - three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases "Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship" are also mnemonics, introduced after the "SOS" signal was adopted.
418
O_E
ONE. The current recruiting slogan used by the US Army is "Army Strong", replacing "Army of One" in 2006. Prior to that, "Be All You Can Be" was the army's slogan for more than twenty years.
419
_DA
ADA. Ada Lovelace's real name was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the poet. Lovelace was fascinated by mathematics and wrote about the the work done by Charles Babbage in building his groundbreaking mechanical computer. In some of her notes she proposed an algorithm for Babbage's machine to compute Bernouli numbers. This algorithm is recognized by many as the world's first computer program and so Lovelace is sometimes called the first 'computer programmer'.
420
EA_
EAU. Jean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose work spanned the Baroque and Rococo periods.
421
EL_
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were used to seeing the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct term then is "wapiti", the Shawnee name for the animal, which means "white rump". It's all very confusing ...
422
_RS
IRS. "Many Unhappy Returns" is a 2005 book subtitled "One Man's Quest to Turn Around the Most Unpopular Organization in America". The book was written by Charles O. Rossotti, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service from 1997 to 2002. It actually sounds like a good read, to be honest ...
423
UM_
UMA. Uma Thurman's father, Robert Thurman, was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma".
424
OT_S
OTIS. Miss Otis Regrets' is a Cole Porter composition written in 1934 that is usually sung in a blues style. Porter wrote the song as a friendly bet. He had boasted that he could write a song about any subject, so the challenge from some friends was to create something using the next words they should hear. Porter and friends were at lunch in a restaurant, and they heard a waiter at an adjoining table say 'Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today'. And that became a classic song ...
425
A_P
ASP. The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.
426
TE_
TED. I have no idea who Ted Leo is quite frankly ...
427
L_S
LES. Évian-les-Bains (or simply Évian) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva, directly across the Lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As you might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town.
428
OT_S
OTIS. Miss Otis Regrets' is a Cole Porter composition written in 1934 that is usually sung in a blues style. Porter wrote the song as a friendly bet. He had boasted that he could write a song about any subject, so the challenge from some friends was to create something using the next words they should hear. Porter and friends were at lunch in a restaurant, and they heard a waiter at an adjoining table say 'Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today'. And that became a classic song ...
429
_EO
LEO. Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.
430
O_I
OBI. The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.
431
_HO
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter 'p', although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.
432
LE_
LEI. What's known as May Day around the world is also called Lei Day in Hawaii. Lei Day started in the twenties and is a celebration of native Hawaiian culture.
433
IR_
IRS. IRS Records is a label that was founded in 1979, with the name standing for International Record Syndicate.
434
I_E
IKE. 'I Like Ike' was a political slogan that originated with the grassroots movement to get Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for president in the 1952 presidential election.
435
ET_N
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders, including David Cameron who took power in the recent UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell and Soviet spy, Guy Burgess.
436
A_ARI
ATARI. At one point, the electronics and video game manufacturer Atari was the fastest growing company in US history. However, Atari never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.
437
A_A
ADA. The reference here is to the 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. "Ada". The story is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.
438
OD_
ODE. 'To a Skylark' is an 1820 poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The opening line 'Hail to thee, blithe Spirit' is the inspiration used by Noel Coward for the title of his famous comic play called 'Blithe Spirit'.
439
A_N
ANN. Actress Ann Blyth is best known for her supporting role as Veda Pierce in the 1945 film 'Mildred Pierce'.
440
TE_
TED. 'Ted' is a movie written, directed, produced and starring Seth MacFarlane. In the story, MacFarlane voices a teddy bear who is the best friend of a character played by Mark Wahlberg.
441
_SI
CSI. The 'CSI' franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, but seems to be winding down. 'CSI: Miami' (the 'worst' of the franchise, I think) was cancelled in 2012 after ten seasons. 'CSI: NY' (the 'best' of the franchise) was cancelled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', set in Las Vegas, hung in there until 2015 when it ended with a two-hour TV movie. The youngest show in the series is 'CSI: Cyber', and it's still on the air.
442
_NE
ONE. The first transcontinental telephone call was made in 1915 by Alexander Graham Bell, from New York City to San Francisco. The call took 23 minutes to connect as five telephone operators were involved.
443
_SAU
ESAU. Esau, was the grandson of Abraham and the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When Esau was born to Isaac and Rebekah, the event was described, 'Now the first came forth, red all over like a hairy garment'. Esau is portrayed later in life as being very different from his brother, as a hunter and someone who loves the outdoor life.
444
NE_O
NERO. Nero is of course famous for "fiddling while Rome burned", so they say ...
445
AS_I
ASTI. Asti is a sparkling white wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, and is named for the town of Asti around which the wine is produced. The wine used to be called Asti Spumante, and it had a very bad reputation as a 'poor man's champagne'. The 'Spumante' was dropped in a marketing attempt at rebranding associated with a reduction in the amount of residual sugar in the wine.
446
_IA
CIA. "The Bourne Identity" is a great spy novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1980. It has been ranked as the second best spy novel of all time, just behind the even more enjoyable "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" by John le Carre. Ludlum wrote two sequels, and all three parts of the Bourne Trilogy have been made into very successful movies. Ludlum died before he could write more than three novels featuring Jason Bourne, but five more titles in the series have been published, written by Eric Van Lustbader. I must check them out ...
447
O_E
ONE. The game of Scrabble has been around since 1938, the invention of an architect named Alfred Moshoer Butts. Butts determined the optimum number of tiles of each letter and the appropriate point value of each tile by analyzing letter distributions in publications like ... "The New York Times" ...
448
R_O
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
449
_SI
CSI. The TV show "CSI" gets a lot of criticism from law enforcement agencies for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though, as I just think it's a fun show to watch. The original CSI set in Las Vegas seems to have "gone off the boil" lately, but the addition of Sela Ward to the cast of CSI: NY has really, really raised the level of the sister show set in New York City.
450
CS_
CSI. The 'CSI' franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, but seems to be winding down. 'CSI: Miami' (the 'worst' of the franchise, I think) was cancelled in 2012 after ten seasons. 'CSI: NY' (the 'best' of the franchise) was cancelled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', set in Las Vegas, hung in there until 2015 when it ended with a two-hour TV movie. The youngest show in the series is 'CSI: Cyber', and it's still on the air.
451
E_ON
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders, including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself, in the Fleming novels).
452
I_S
IRS. April 15th wasn't always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.
453
_RS
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service does lots of audits, everyone's nightmare!. The IRS came into being during the Civil War, to raise money to pay for war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, taxation was limited to levies on trade and property.
454
_OL
AOL. AOL's "first" Initial Public Offering was in 1992. Years later the company was picked up by Time Warner (not a great investment for Time Warner, it turned out). AOL was spun off as a separate entity again in 2009 and the new company had a "second" IPO that same year.
455
O_I
OBI. An obi is a sash worn in some formal of dress in Japan, both by men and women, although the styles for women tend to be more ornate.
456
_RR
ORR. Captain John Yossarian is the protagonist in Joseph Heller's novel 'Catch 22'. Yossarian's story is based on the author's own experiences when stationed in Italy during World War II.
457
A_N
ANN. The television journalist Ann Curry is perhaps best known for the time she spent as co-host on NBC's 'Today' show. NBC executives asked Curry to resign from the 'Today' show because ratings were low. I just read online that Curry was also pushed out because of the way she insisted on dressing and because she refused to dye her gray hair. I hope that isn't true ...
458
A_A
ADA. Bleak House' is a Charles Dickens novel that was originally published as a serial from 1852 to 1853. The novel's storyline highlights injustices in the English Legal system in the 19th century.
459
AO_
AOL. My advice is to stick with gmail. It is has great features for a free email service ...
460
A_L
AOL. 'The Huffington Post' is a news website founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington. It is a very active site, with 3,000 people contributing blog posts (including many celebrities and politicians), and readers leaving over one million comments every month. 'The Huffington Post' was sold to AOL in 2011 for $315 million, with Arianna Huffington staying on as editor-in-chief.
461
EM_
EMO. Jimmy Eat World is an alternative rock band from Mesa, Arizona.
462
_LK
ELK. The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the "huge" wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely "elk". The more correct name for the beast is "wapiti", which means "white rump" in Shawnee. It's all very confusing ...
463
E_ON
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).
464
_SR
SSR. The former Soviet Union (USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and was comprised of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).
465
EA_
EAU. In France, one can find 'eau' (water) in a 'rivière' (river).
466
_LK
ELK. Buckskin is the skin of a male deer, moose or elk.
467
LE_
LEI. "Lei" is the Hawaiian word for "garland, wreath", although in more general terms a "lei" is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.
468
ANN_
ANNE. Anne Rice is an American author of erotic and Gothic novels. She was born Howard Allen O'Brien (no wonder she changed her name!). Her famous series of novels, "The Vampire Chronicles", centers on her character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman who was turned into a vampire in the 18th century. One of the stories, "Interview with the Vampire", was adapted for the big screen in 1994 and features Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and others in a star-studded cast. Not my kind of movie though, as I don't do vampires ...
469
OR_
ORR. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn't skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking ...
470
_IA
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII. The CIA was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.
471
_RS
IRS. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.
472
_IA
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII. The CIA was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.
473
OTI_
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
474
O_E
ONE. I'm not going to tell you ...
475
_ENE
RENE. M. Butterfly' is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang, which was made into a film in 1993 starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone. The storyline is inspired by Puccini's opera 'Madama Butterfly'.
476
O_CA
ORCA. 'Jaws' is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. 'Jaws' was perhaps the first 'summer blockbuster' with the highest box office take in history, a record that stood until 'Star Wars' was released two years later.
477
U_A
UMA. Uma Thurman's father, Robert Thurman, was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and gave his daughter Uma her name as it is a phonetic spelling of a Buddhist name, Dbuma.
478
O_EO
OREO. For those of us counting calories, Oreo Thins were introduced in 2015. There are only 40 calories in each thin cookie, compared to 53 calories in the real deal.
479
IK_
IKE. Mike and Ike is a brandname of fruit-flavored candy made by Just Born starting in 1940. Just Born launched quite a clever marketing campaign in 2012 asserting that Mike and Ike had 'split up due to creative differences'. The campaign involved production of two different boxes for the candy showing one or the other name scratched out. Clever ...
480
E_A
EVA. Carole King, and her long-time partner Gerry Goffin, have been writing hit songs since the early sixties, and not just those performed by Carole King herself. Carole and Gerry had a babysitter, one Eva Narcissus Boyd, who was always bopping around the house in an unusual dance style, so they wrote a song about her dance and they called it "The Loco-Motion". Then, they gave it to the babysitter to record. Ms. Boyd chose as a stage name a character in "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Little Eva ...
481
SS_
SSN. A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot, as since 2011 SSN's are assigned randomly.
482
E_O
ELO. ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. ELO's manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).
483
ON_
ONE. 'One Love' is a classic reggae song from 1977 recorded by Bob Marley and the Wailers. A ska version of 'One Love' had been released by the Wailers as early as 1965, but it is the 1977 release that we all remember, I am sure.
484
RH_
RHO. Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter "p".
485
ETO_
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).
486
TE_
TED. The acronym TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as 'TED Talks'.
487
ET_N
ETON. The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).
488
AO_
AOL. The iconic phrase 'You've got mail' was first used by AOL in 1989. The greeting was recorded by voice actor Elwood Edwards. Edwards has parlayed his gig with AOL into some other work. He appears in an episode of 'The Simpsons' as a doctor who says the line 'You've got leprosy'. Edwards also worked as a weatherman for a while and got to use the line 'You've got hail' ...
489
SS_
SSN. The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, the SSN is looking more and more like an "universal identity number" to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, a SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. There was concern that a lot of people were claiming children as dependents on their tax forms who did not exist, so from 1986 onwards it was a requirement to get a SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in the following year's tax returns, seven million dependents "disappeared".
490
_ERO
NERO. The Roman emperor Nero had quite the family life. When Nero was just 16-years-old he married his step-sister Claudia Octavia. He also had his mother Agrippina and step-brother Britannicus executed.
491
_OS
SOS. The combination of three dots - three dashes - three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots - pause - three dashes - pause - three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases "Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship" are also mnemonics, introduced after the "SOS" signal was adopted.
492
OT_S
OTIS. Otis Redding is often referred to as the "King of Soul", and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay".
493
EA_
EAU. 'Eau' is the French word for 'water'.
494
TE_
TED. The acronym TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. TED is a set of conferences held around the world (the main event held in Vancouver) by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as 'TED Talks'.
495
AN_
ANN. There was no such woman as "Ann Taylor" associated with the Ann Taylor line of clothes. The name was chosen by the marketing professionals because "Ann" was considered to be "very New England" back in 1954 when the stores first opened, and "Taylor" suggested that clothes were carefully "tailored".
496
AS_
ASP. The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It was so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When she opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.
497
E_ON
ETON. "A Yank at Eton" was released in 1942, and is a sequel to the 1938 comedy "A Yank at Oxford". The film had some use as "propaganda" as the movie's message was that "Yanks" and "Limeys" could get along. This was helpful as American forces were pouring into the UK in preparation for the invasion of Europe during WWII.
498
A_L
AOL. Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the "America-centric" sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL's success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That's when users referred to AOL as "Always Off-Line".
499
AB_
ABA. American Bar Association (ABA)
500
OT_S
OTIS. The first moving walkway was installed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
