Today George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief, and showed us his character

General George Washington Resigning His Commission by John Trumbull, 1824

In reality, the big emotional scene took place nineteen days earlier in Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan when General Washington met with his officers to say goodbye. Apparently, this was one of the few times as an adult that Washington was ever seen crying. It must have been a really powerful scene, watching the hero, the bringer of Freedom, THE Founding Father, breaking down as he wished the people he trusted his life with farewell.

On December 23, 1783, Washington appeared before the Congress meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, and surrendered his commission as general and commander in chief. This was one of the times when he earned the title of a modern-day Cincinnatus. As he also did when he stepped down after his second term as President, Washington did something that many of us would not.

He said goodbye. He was the hero and the toast of the country. While not as popular as he used to be by the end of his second term as President, when the war had just ended there was nobody on his level. Similarly, as in 1797, he could have parlayed his unparalleled fame into something more, perhaps even into a King. At this point, the war is over. He appears to really have treated his role as general and commander-in-chief as just that – the leader during the war. Now that the war was over, he was more than happy to step down and go back to Mount Vernon and spend time on his property. Throughout the war and his Presidency, Washington had frequent correspondence back home, micromanaging the farming and renovations to his home, down to the types of curtains he wanted.

There are historians who really believe that he didn’t want to be President at all, let alone for a second term. However, some questions arise as to whether he was just being humble when he had to “be convinced” by close friends, like Knox, Madison, Hamilton and Jefferson.

Would I have had the willpower and patriotism to do what was best for the country? Would I have stepped down and went home to my farm when I could have become a monarch, or something similar? Would you?

Origins #2: Expressions from the sea

Instead of explaining just one term, I’m going to let everyone in on a fact not so commonly known – that many common, everyday terms have nautical origins. There are actually hundreds of terms that we use every day that were originally used only on the open seas that we now would never think were associated that way.

A few examples:

1. Black Book
From the 1300’s – a collection of maritime laws and conduct that became known as the Black Book of the Admiralty. The punishments for offenses was harsh, to say the least. Drowning, starvation, and marooning were punishments for serious offenses such as repeatedly sleeping on watch. As used today, if you’re listed in someone’s black book, you have offended them in some way. Luckily for you, physical punishments no longer apply.

2. Blind Eye
In 1801, during the Battle of Copenhagen, Admiral Nelson deliberately held his telescope to his blind eye, in order not to see the flag signal from the commander to stop the bombardment. He won. Turning a blind eye means to ignore intentionally.

3. Boot Camp
During the Spanish-American War, sailors wore leggings called boots, which came to mean a Navy (or Marine) recruit. These recruits trained in ‘boot’ camps.

4. Chewing the Fat
Literally, eating the seaman’s daily ration of tough, salt-cured pork or beef. Long before refrigeration, cured meats were tough but durable and it took a lot of chewing to make them edible. Has come to mean a friendly conversation (or talking too much, depending who’s talking).

5. Clean Slate
Prior to GPS and onboard computers, courses and distances were recorded on a slate. At the end of each watch these were transcribed into the ship’s log and the slate wiped clean for the next watch. Has come to mean starting anew.

6. Colors, True Colors, False Colors, Flying Colors
The flag flown by a vessel indicating its nationality was referred to as her colors. Long before radios, you can imagine how important this might have been, especially when engaged in battle. False colors were sometimes flown to avoid capture or to approach unsuspiciously (see bamboozle above). This was frowned upon in International Law, wherein it is accepted as a ‘ruse of war’ only if the ship is in immediate danger.

7. Cranky
Possibly from the Dutch krengd, a crank was an unstable sailing vessel. Due to a faulty design, the imbalance of her cargo, or a lack of ballast, a crank would heel too far to the wind. Has come to mean irritable.

8. Haze
Long before fraternal organizations, hazing was the practice of keeping the crew working all hours of the day or night, whether necessary or not, in order to deprive them of sleep and to make them generally miserable. In the 19th century, many captains used this practice to assert their authority. Hazing has come to mean the initiation of a newcomer to a group by humiliating and harassing him or her, thereby asserting the authority of the group.

9. Hulk, Hulking
A large and unwieldy ship of simple construction and dubious seaworthiness. On shore, it means big and clumsy.

10. Idler, Idle
Idler was the name for those members of a ship’s crew that did not stand night watch because of their work. Carpenters, sailmakers, cooks, etc. worked during the day and were excused from watch duty at night. They were called idlers, but not because they had nothing to do, simply because they were off duty at night.

11.Show his true colors
Early warships often carried flags from many nations on board in order to elude or deceive the enemy. The rules of civilized warfare called for all ships to hoist their true national ensigns before firing a shot. Someone who finally “shows his true colors” is acting like a man-of-war which hailed another ship flying one flag, but then hoisted their own when they got in firing range.

OK, so I just gave you eleven terms that at first glance don’t have nautical origins, but actually do. There are literally HUNDREDS of these terms in every person’s daily lexicon. I took these terms and definitions from here. Please feel free to visit them and check out the rest of them.

New York Giants Dominate Washington Redskins

What a game! You can watch the highlights here. Granted, it was against the Redskins, who aren’t exactly the greatest team around, but for a team like the Giants who have been struggling so mightily, a tremendous performance can do amazing things for confidence, to say nothing of giving us fans a huge smash-mouth game to go nuts over. Worth mentioning is the fact that both teams are suffering pretty badly from injuries.

This win will not mean much if they don’t win the last two games also. Hopefully that will be enough to get us into the playoffs.

SO many positives to enjoy here. You’ll get em as I think of em.

New York Giants LB Jonathan Goff

1. Jonathan Goff looked really comfortable calling the plays at Middle Linebacker. As a second-year 5th round pick, he’s taking advantage of the injury to Antonio Pierce and filling the role quite nicely. He also celebrated his first sack last night. Keep an eye on him.

New York Giants OL William Beatty

2. William Beatty looked really solid last night at Right Tackle filling in for injured Kareem McKenzie. As a rookie 2nd round pick, the Giants may need to rely on him going forward to fill in on the Offensive Line for now. If Beatty continues to play well, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him stick around on the Giants for a very long time.

New York Giants WR Derek Hagan Touchdown

3. You didn’t see gaudy numbers out of Eli Manning or any of his receivers, but Eli spread the ball around tremendously, throwing to ten different players. Could not have been fun for the Redskins knowing the ball could go anywhere. You even got to see some of the lesser-used receivers like Derek Hagan get in on the action, catching a 23-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

New York Giants QB Eli Manning

4. Speaking of Eli, you really got to see him out there looking completely in control, looking like the Manning he is. That’s General Manning to you. It seems like he’s always calm and collected no matter how much pressure is headed his way. To see what helped this tremendously see note 6. Oh, and by the way, he’s now thrown for a career high 26 touchdowns, so far.

New York Giants RB Ahmad Bradshaw

5. Ahmad Bradshaw, playing despite two ankle/foot injuries, risking further damage, played spectacularly, rushing 9 times for 61 yards and two touchdowns. This guy is crazy fast and finds holes so well. Again, see note 6 for more details.

New York Giants Offensive Line

6. The offensive line of the New York Giants played tremendously. The ability of these five guys to both block for Eli and open huge holes for the running backs was just so fun to watch. The Giants love pulling their linemen for run plays, and last night it worked to perfection. As mentioned, William Beatty performed really well in Kareem McKenzie’s absence, and Kevin Boothe filled in nicely for Rich Seubert when Seubert got hurt. When your o-line is playing like the Giants’ did last night, it makes the job of your QB and RB much easier.

New York Giants CB Terrell Thomas

New York Giants DT Barry Cofield

7. 5 sacks, 3 interceptions, 1 forced fumble. The Giants defense had played rather poorly over the past few weeks. They hadn’t been putting much pressure on the opposing team’s quarterback, and the injury-depleted defensive backs have been giving up big plays over and over. This week that changed. Redskins QB Jason Campbell seemed to get hit every time he dropped back to pass, and when your quarterback is your leading rusher, you didn’t have a great day. Defensive Coordinator Bill Sheridan may be fighting for his job, and this game sure helps.

New York Giants TE Kevin Boss

8. Let the league take note – TE Kevin Boss is a monster. He’s actually excelled both as receiver and blocker, much like maligned former Giants TE Jeremy Shockey. The way Boss seems to catch just about everything nearby, and then run fearlessly into whomever is unwise enough to get in the way, makes him really fun to watch. He won’t always have a huge statistical day (3 catches for 57 yards), but his presence will continue to be felt going forward.

New York Giants WR Hakeem Nicks

9. Some injury chat here for a minute. CB Aaron Ross, who has missed ten games of this season with hamstring issues, isn’t looking too hot. He’s getting another MRI done today. Can’t be good. WR Hakeem Nicks, who is emerging as a star at wide receiver, said that said his hamstring is fine and that there was no pull. G Rich Seubert said he’s OK after having to leave in the middle of the game. Hopefully they’ll all be ready for next week, including McKenzie.

New York Giants RB Brandon Jacobs

10. Last but not least. Brandon Jacobs acted really stupid by throwing punches at the end of a blowout victory. If I was Coach Coughlin, I would have told him to sit down for the rest of the game. Maybe even wear a dunce cap. Even more stupid was that he was aiming for DT Albert Haynesworth, who is a small mountain. I imagine a fine is coming Jacobs’ way. I would love to see the two of them square off and see who ends up on top.

Origins #1: Tit for Tat

Every once in a while I’m going to remark on the origin of a word, phrase, or expression. Hope you enjoy.

Today’s phrase is tit for tat.

First, let’s define it:

An equivalent given in return (as for an injury) : retaliation in kind Merriam-Webster

A phrase used when someone pays back one wrong or injury with another Yourdictionary.com

As to the origin of the phrase, it goes back to 1556. The original phrase was actually ‘tip for tap’, an even older expression that evolved into tit for tat in the mid-16th century. In those days ‘tip’ meant a hit, or shove. ‘Tap’ was the retaliatory hit. You hit me, I hit you, tit for tat.

In case you’re interested, tit for tat turns out to be a great strategy in game theory. If you’re so inclined, you may read about game theory, and how tit for tat plays a huge role, here.

The reason for blogging – a comment like this

In November of 2007, now over two full years ago, I wrote a mildy humorous bit about how once the ice age started, fat people would rule the earth as the skinny would be too cold to rule. You can read it by clicking here. I’ll paste it for those who aren’t inclined to click:

People are MEAN to fat people. We’re just preparing for the ice age that everyone’s talking about. Some people are afraid. You know who’s afraid? Skinny people. All that global warming stuff will make it real cold and all you skinny-minny’s will be DONE and we fat folks will rule the roost! How’s that diet going now? Soon fat people will be writing diet books for skinny people. How’s about that for a change? I’m already working on my ice age cookbook called 5 Ways to Last the Winter Season without Eating Your Neighbors. Of course, at that point winter will be the ONLY season so it will sell year round. Hurray for marketing genius! Goodbye stick figures, hello oblong figures! So everyone, when you get home tonight, draw a picture of a stick figure and run to the nearest mirror. If you see any resemblance to the picture in your hand I am talking to you.

OK, so clearly, this “piece” was written with tongue firmly placed in cheek, as large people are already the superior breed – but I digress. That this was meant in a snarky, off-the-cuff, silly blurb about total nonsense that I thought might be enjoyable for others to read, should have been rather obvious.

In over two full years, nobody commented on it. Curiously, it’s gotten many, many hits due to the shocking number of times a day that people Google “fat people”. As to why that is, I leave it to someone else to determine. If you ask me, jealousy is the most likely culprit.

Last week, something totally unexpected happened. As one who writes on the internet, comments are important and tell you what people think of your writing. Even if someone vehemently disagrees with you, feedback is fun and can be really informative.

I got an email that a comment had come through, and was waiting for moderation. I clicked, hoping that someone had an opinion regarding something I’d taken the time to write and post. When I started reading, a chuckle escaped from my mouth. By the time I finished reading, I was laughing out loud, and felt kind of confused/sad at the same time. The comment, courtesy of “Savannaq” goes as follows:

OMG you are just a fat person that probaly took months to talk to your self and make yourself belive that this iss true. you made an excuse to make yourself feel bette about your fattness!! get over your self, skinny people are better than fat, tub o lard people!!

OK, I’ve got a number of things to remark about this, so I’ve numbered them.

1. Note approximately ten errors, between punctuation, capitalization, spelling, et cetera, in just two lines. Please note the ‘tub o lard’ usage; are we to assume that this person did this intentionally in an attempt to make use of a cheekier choice of words?

2. Can we try to pin an age on this unknown person? Does the writing suggest a teenager? I can hardly picture someone with more than a tenth-grade education writing this and clicking send without being horrified at his or her self. Could this person have written this poorly because they were in an unprecedented rush? Did they just NEED to comment before they went out to fight a forest fire? Vote on a health care plan? Join Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee on their next epic journey? I think not.

3. How did this person read this and come away with the impression that…

a) I believe an ice age is going to occur in the first place

b) an ice age would be beneficial for fat people

c) a group of “fatties” gets together regularly and plots this amazing coup while the lighter humans are busy shivering in a corner

d) that this would make us feel better about ourselves

e) book sales would be on our minds when the temperature is similar to that of the interior of a glacier

f) this could actually be real in any meaningful way

A big part of me wants to meet this “Savannaq” individual and see what he/she is like. The kicker of all this is that the IP the comment was made from traces to the West Virginia Department of Education in Charleston! Draw whatever conclusions you prefer from that.

Site of the Week: The Pedant’s Revolt

There are many sites on the internet that collect and chronicle mistakes in English grammar/punctuation/usage, but I’ve decided to highlight this one this week, mostly because I only stumbled upon it recently.

Some of the errors are subtle, and MIGHT be attributable to someone just not catching an error, but some of them, like the one above, are just putrid in the abuse of the language.

I hope you all enjoy! (or try not to cry)

This week’s site: The Pedant’s Revolt

Some of the Jersey Shore geniuses on Jay Leno last night

A few of the people from the new MTV show that everyone loves or vehemently hates, Jersey Shore, were on Jay Leno’s show last night. Pauly D, Snooki, and Mike “The Situation” made an appearance on a fake game show called Battle of the Celebrity All-Stars.

Now, from the Jersey Shore show, you don’t get the idea that between the three of them you have a single functioning brain (or moral compass), but from watching last night, I sincerely hope there was a wholeeeeee lot of acting going on. First, bask in the glory that is the three of them:

Mike "The Situation" from MTV's Jersey Shore

Nicole "Snooki" from MTV's Jersey Shore

Pauly D from MTV's Jersey Shore

The degree to which the lack of intelligence was displayed last night was hilarious, if not tragic. I’m pretty sure it was fake, because if not, well, oy.

You can find a few clips from last night here.

Please watch it. It’s great stuff.

If you were in Boston 236 years ago, and wanted tea, you’d have to have swum for it

That’s right, ladies and gents, on this day in 1773, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor in protest of the Tea Tax. For more information about the Boston Tea Party, click here.

Learning what the world is thinking via the word definitions people look up

For those who are on Twitter, the information you can learn is overwhelming. There are hundreds of celebrities, athletes, news agencies, sportswriters, et cetera, bombarding you with information. Besides being the first to know with whom Tiger slept, or which baseball player signed with which team, you can find someone doing something pretty cool on Twitter. Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large for Merriam-Webster, has an account. On it, he “offers up daily dispatches on new words, etymology and more. Read his tweets about the latest happenings at Merriam-Webster and the wider world of lexicography and linguistics.”

I have enjoyed following him tremendously. One of my favorite things he posts is the words that people are searching for most frequently on Merriam-Webster’s website. For example, he posted this today:

Huge lookups for ‘indefinite’ since Friday. http://tinyurl.com/y9y2z8b All Tiger, all the time.

Tiger Woods says he’s taking an indefinite leave from golf to get his life and marriage back together. As a result, people flock to m-w.com to look up the word they aren’t sure about.

Another example:

‘Infamy’ most looked-up word yesterday http://tinyurl.com/yd3bnpm Pearl Harbor Day.

On December 7, 1941 the terrible attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a famous speech which included one of the more famous lines spoken by a U.S. president – “a date which will life in infamy”. Lo and behold, in 2009, on Pearl Harbor Day, many flock to the dictionary to look up the word infamy.

It’s really cool to me that you can see what’s going on in the world, or popular culture, or just what’s on people’s minds by the words they search for.

For those that are interested, you can “follow” Peter Sokolowski by clicking here. I would very much recommend it.

The New York Giants’ giant win over the Dallas Cowboys

New York Giants RB Brandon Jacobs

New York Giants WR Domenik Hixon

Very nice game by the Giants yesterday. Everyone considered it a must-win. It was to be a “statement game”, if the Giants wanted any real chance at making the playoffs, and that’s exactly what it was. The game wasn’t a blowout by any means, but the Giants played pretty well on all three sides of the ball, highlighted by the two longest plays for the Giants all year. As seen in the pictures above, the first RB Brandon Jacobs taking a screen pass in the third quarter from Eli Manning 74 yards for a touchdown. I loved seeing that truck of a man barreling down the field all the way in for the score. The other huge play was Domenik Hixon’s 79-yard punt return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the score that was the nail-in-the-coffin, providing the Giants with a vital win.

The win puts the Giants just one game back from the Cowboys and Eagles (Giants 7-5 v. Cowboys/Eagles 8-4). It’s a whole new division now. Six more catches for Steve Smith, giving him second place in WR catches this year. It was great to see Mathius Kiwanuka knock the ball loose and see Osi Umenyiora scoop it up, especially after Osi had all the bad press this past week.

Seeing those guys celebrate just warms the cockles of my heart.

Next up – Philadelphia Eagles

You may click here for a highlights video of the game from Giants.com.