January 2009
London Sun editor Rebekah Wade's Cudlipp lecture
Thank you for inviting me to give this fifth Cudlipp lecture. My special thanks also to Lady Cudlipp and to Paul Charman, Director of Journalism here, for organising this event.
The challenging future of national and regional newspapers is now the staple diet of media commentators.
If you have been reading the press writing about the press you’d all be forgiven for questioning your choice...
The French language
The language of the French nation. With the arrival of the 18th and 19th centuries came the rise of the “nation” in a sense not previously seen in Europe. This nationalism—which was to be achieved through a common language and a common sense of identity and purpose—was needed in part as a replacement for the divine right of kings and the unifying influence that it...
Walt Whitman and war
Walt Whitman in the American Civil War. Because his adored brother George was an officer in the Union army, Walt —who many consider to be America’s most original poet—was drawn to the war as a hospital volunteer: “Working as a government copyist to pay the rent, and ‘hacking on the press’ [for extra funds] whenever he could, Walt Whitman nursed and gave...
Washington's inauguration
George Washington arrived for his New York inauguration in 1789 in triumph, Abraham Lincoln arrived for his Washington inauguration in 1861 in fear of assassins and civil war: George Washington “The public reverence accorded to royalty was put on display during [George] Washington’s weeklong trip from Mount Vernon to New York [for the inauguration], which became one prolonged...
“The Coliban Water Works System as a whole provides one of the most...”
– Commissioner Lewis East, 1939
A tiny piece of land
Seventy per cent of the world’s population resides on just 7% of the world’s land: “Today, there are just over 6 billion people on earth. Six hundred years ago, in 1400, humankind was just 6 percent of that, or about 350 million, slightly more than the current population of the United States. … The 350 million people living in 1400 were not uniformly distributed...
Les Carlyon on Barack Obama
CLIVE James knows about George Bush and Paul Keating wrote the book on Barack Obama.
James said a few years ago that when Bush searched for a word he felt fear and his face showed it.
When he found one he felt triumph and his face showed that too. “Almost always, the word he finds is the wrong one, but his look of relief arouses sympathy in the audience, as when a child, sent to fetch a...
The man who made Hitler
Fritz Haber, whose 1909 development of a process to synthetically manufacture nitrogen was perhaps the most important invention of the twentieth century, since it enabled the synthetic manufacture of gunpowder, thus enabling wars of the unprecedented scope of World Wars I and II, and also allowed the manufacture of artificial fertilizers, thus enabling the growth of world population from under two...
Cannabis myths
Cannabis is probably the world’s most popular casual use drug that is illegal in most nations. It has become so widespread that many people wouldn’t think twice about asking to light up at a friend’s or to smoke in public places. It is an ancient drug that has been used throughout history for medical, magical, and pleasurable purposes. Thanks to the scare-tactics of propaganda in the 1960s and...
The concept of good taste
As a larger merchant class and middle-class began to emerge in England and Western Europe, money alone was no longer a sufficient way for the wealthy to distinguish themselves from the lesser classes. So the concept of “taste” emerged as a means for the “elite” to assert superiority over those whose wealth was beginning to ascend: “‘Taste’ is a...
Big Bamboo Lounge, Kissimmee →
10 debunked scientific myths
10 Rain Follows the Plow
“Rain Follows the Plow” is the name given to a climatology concept which is now completely debunked. The theory said that human settlement caused a permanent increase in rainfall - thus enabling man to move to areas previously considered arid. It is this 19th century theory that brought about the settlement of the Great Plains (previously known as the Great American...
10 fascinating historical meetings
10 Charles Rolls & Frederick Royce
When Fredrick Henry Royce purchased his first two-cylinder car (a French Decauville) he was very dissatisfied with its performance. He decided to build a car of his own by “taking an existing part and making it better and eventually started successfully building his own two-cylinder, 10-horsepower cars that were known for their silent and vibration-free...
Words
Derring-do
Heroic daring.
Origin
We now use ‘derring-do’ as a rather curious and archaic sounding two-part noun to describe ‘ye olde’ swordplay and the like. Use of the phrase was almost obligatory in any review of films starring the late Errol Flynn, who was surely the most audacious actor ever to swash a buckle. The fact that we come to have the word at all is...
10 top MLB pitchers
10 Satchel Paige
Played For: Numerous Negro League and MLB teams.
This list is arguably somewhat tainted because of a shameful segregation policy that kept many great black ball players out of the major leagues. There is little discussion as to who was the greatest of them all. Paige was as dominant as they come. It’s impossible to list his records either because they simply don’t exist or...
No mas
One of the most famous boxing matches in the history of the sport, the 1980 rematch between Olympic champion Sugar Ray Leonard and the Panamanian legend Roberto Duran. Duran, who was perhaps boxing’s fiercest fighter, and who had bested Leonard in their first fight, stunned Leonard and the sporting world when he simply quit mid-fight, declaring “No mas” (no more): ...
US Presidential powers
“According to James Madison’s Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, the [powers of the president] received surprisingly little attention at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. … “In the end, the Framers were artfully vague about the extent and limits of the president’s powers. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which empowers ...
Slavery
Slavery has been a part of human society since its beginning - and it continues to thrive today. This list looks at some facts about slavery that should (for the most part) be unknown to most of our readers. This is a look through history at how slavery has existed and survived through time.
10 Established In Virginia
Slavery was officially established in Virginia in 1654, when Anthony Johnson,...
Words
At loggerheads
In dispute with.
Origin
‘At loggerheads’ is of UK origin. The singular ‘loggerhead’ occurs as a name in several contexts - as a species of turtle, a bird and as a place name. Originally, a loggerhead was none of these but was first used with the meaning of ‘a stupid person - a blockhead’. Shakespeare used it that way in Love’s Labours...
Words
This year, the American Dialect Society selected “bailout” as its word of 2008. That means it was the one which the society’s members felt was the most relevant to the events of the year. Earlier in the year, the editors and lexicographers at Merriam-Webster, one of the most well-known dictionary publishers in the US, made the same choice. It was also the second most-nominated word of the year...
10 worst plagues
History is dotted with epidemics and plagues, but a certain number of them stand out as unique for their severity and impact on future generations. This is a list of the worst plagues in man’s recorded history.
10 Moscow Plague and Riot 1771
The first signs of plague in Moscow appeared in late 1770, which would turn into a major epidemic in the spring of 1771. The measures undertaken by the...
Bush-isms
1. “The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.” 2. “If you say you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.” 3. “Justice ought to be fair.” 4. “If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow.” 5. “Reading is the basics for all...
Andrew Jackson's inauguration
on Andrew Jackson’s Inauguration Day in 1829, crowds of well-wishers overwhelmed the White House, reinforcing the idea that—for better or worse—the United States was truly becoming a democracy. The Founding Fathers had intentionally crafted the Constitution to be a republic, but not a complete democracy, with only members of the House of Representatives directly elected...
Photographic firsts
I love photography, and while I am not a particularly talented artist behind the lens, I get many hours of enjoyment out of it. Combine that with my love of history and we were bound to eventually have a list of incredibly historical firsts in the realms of photography. This list works in reverse chronological order and focuses mainly on the earliest years and most significant breakthroughs in...
Words
Shoot one’s cuffs
Q. Would you explain “shot his cuffs”? I think I know what this means but can find no printed explanation. [Don Richardson] A. It’s a phrase that’s relatively easy to find in dictionaries and books on idioms. All will tell you the obvious, that to shoot your cuffs is to pull or jerk your shirt cuffs out so that they project beyond the cuffs of...