Today, on April 30, 1789 it was a beautiful spring day…

The day started with a thirteen gun salute before dawn.

Throngs of people had gathered in Lower Manhattan.

People were screaming and cheering from every window and roof in the area.

General George Washington was brought to the inauguration in a four-horse coach.

Chancellor Robert Livingston swore him in.

Washington kissed the Bible, and said “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, after which he spontaneously said “So help me God”, starting a tradition kept ever since.

Livingston proclaimed aloud “Long live President George Washington!”.

What a site it must have been to watch the first president of our nation being sworn in. I can visit the site, a mere two blocks from my office, but will never be able to witness the grandeur of that day.

Quartet Of ‘NCIS’ Co-Stars In CBS Limbo

Actual story courtesy of Deadline. My comments below the article.

EXCLUSIVE: CBS’ top drama series, NCIS, will no doubt be back for an eighth season, but what about the cast? While star Mark Harmon, who is also a producer on the show, is locked in, the four other original cast members, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, David McCallum and Sean Murray (he started off as a recurring in season 1), have no deals beyond the current seventh season. And from what I hear, talks between the actors and CBS TV Studios, which produces the hit procedural, have slowed down with the two sides far apart on the money. My understanding is that the studio went to the cast members with pretty low-ball offers, leading to the impasse.

At least a couple of the quartet are making well under $100,000 per episode, which is low for a hit seven-year-old series. I hear co-star Cote de Pablo, whose deal is up after next season, also has been approached with a similar low offer to extend her contract. In addition to Harmon and de Pablo, also set to return is regular Rocky Carroll, who also has a deal in place for next season. He joined the show in Season 5 as a recurring and was upped to regular the following year.

This is one of television’s most popular shows, and perhaps my favorite. For seven seasons I’ve watched the “team” evolve into one of the most charming shows in recent TV history. While I don’t think this will end up being a REAL problem, and expect it to be rectified before the beginning of filming for the eighth season, the idea of having the show without any of Tony, Tim, Ducky, or Abbey is just tough to imagine. They need to get them resigned.

NYC Drivers, ever want to know if alternate side parking is in effect without having to call 311?

There’s  a new way through Twitter! By following them here, you get updates daily as to whether they’re in effect or not.

From the Twitter page:

Tweeting NYC alternate side parking information daily at 8am & 4pm.

Three reasons Droid fans should be psyched

There are three new apps/functions that are in the works for Android phones that I’m really excited about. All of this information is courtesy of Mashable. Click on the links below for the articles.

1) Google Confirms Android 2.2 Will Support Flash

2) Google Search Unveils Upcoming Hulu App for Android

3) Firefox for Android Pre-Alpha Released

Granted, these are all “in the works”, which means I have no idea when they’ll be available, but Flash would be sweet, Hulu would be tons of fun, and I’m a big fan of Firefox.

Origins #9: The proof is in the pudding

This common expression means to fully test something you need to experience it yourself or that the true value or quality of something can only be judged when it’s put to use.

But what the blazes does pudding have to do with anything?

The original (read: full or correct) expression is “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. Now it makes much more sense. You can talk about how amazing the pudding is all day, but until you actually eat it, it doesn’t mean much. This expression is actually very old. There is actually a report of it being used as far back as the 14th century.

What of the word ‘proof’ though? We currently use the word proof as ‘the evidence that demonstrates a truth’, but this seems odd here. A little interesting fact is that a common usage of the word ‘proof’ was to test something. This clears up our little issue. We still see this usage in a few cases, as with ‘the exception that proves the rule’, ‘proofread’, ‘proving ground’, etc.

‘People’ or ‘Persons’? What’s correct?

I have always been under the impression that people was the plural of person. Hence, when two individuals are doing something, they are referred to as people. “Those two people look alike.”

And yet, periodically I see the word ‘persons’ appearing here and there. I (erroneously) thought that ‘persons’ was allowed based on some prescriptivist rule, and was just there to annoy people.

As it turns out, I’m wrong. I shall quote from Daily Writing Tips:

There is some confusion regarding the two terms, especially because their meaning and usage suffered a mutation along the centuries. Both derive from Latin, but from different words.

Person derives from persona, which refers to an individual. People, on the other hand, derives from populum, and it refers to a group of persons sharing a culture or social environment.

Person is a singular form, and its plural is persons. Over the time, however, many writers started to adopt people as the plural form of person, and nowadays it is widely accepted. Notice that legal and very formal texts still use persons as the plural form.

One distinction that was proposed was to use persons as long as there was a countable number of individuals (e.g., 67 persons left the school) and people when such a number was large and indefinite (e.g., the people left the stadium quickly). The rule did not catch on, though, and some writers still use people even when there is a definite or small number of individuals.

Finally, people can also be used in the plural form (e.g., the peoples of Asia) when it refers to the different cultural groups that live in a certain region.

OK, so not only have I been wrong, but I’ve been completely wrong. In some ways I’m very traditional in my English usage, and get annoyed when people misuse or distort the meaning of certain words and expressions. In this instance, what’s actually “right”, i.e. the original way, is to use persons, as people and person don’t even have the same root word. This is somewhat troubling to me.

The rule of when to use less versus fewer seems similar in that it depends on whether it’s “countable” or not.

It’s “widely accepted” to use ‘people’ for the plural of person. I get that. Isn’t it actually wrong though? I think we end up in the same debate I was having yesterday with unlike/dislike and how the English language evolves, and for something to be “wrong”, is completely relative.

I’m torn on this.

I unlike this about Facebook

On Facebook, you have the option to click “Like”, to indicate your approval of just about everything. However, as soon as you do so, the option to “Unlike” pops up. As anybody who has ever spoken English with any proficiency will tell you, the opposite of like, is dislike.

This was rather irksome to me for quite some time. NBC NewYork decided to pursue this issue with Facebook. Feel free to read the article, and I will allow you to decide whether the conclusion is satisfactory to you, or not.

Facebook “Unlikes” Grammar Critiques

New “unlike” button doesn’t belong
By SCOTT MCGREW

AFP/Getty Images

An astute viewer pointed out to us that Facebook‘s push to spread its “like” button across the Web is also spreading the mangling of the English language. Once you click “like,” the button changes to “unlike.”

But Merriam-Webster says “unlike” is defined as “a marked by lack of resemblance.” As in “one of these things is not like the other.”

What Facebook should have used if they were looking to please the proper grammar-conscious is “dislike.”

We contacted Facebook to ask about this egregious attack on English, fully expecting them not to comment. Or in Facebook-ese “uncomment.”

But to our surprise, they did comment. Pointing out that their concept of “friending” and “unfriending” had been accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary  — THE definitive record of the English Language,  a spokesperson for Facebook said:

The Oxford Dictionary is constantly adding new words to reflect the changes in language and culture. Just last year, it picked another unconventional use of the “un” prefix as its 2009 Word of the Year: “unfriend.”  There was much debate between “defriend” and “unfriend,” but Oxford stood by its choice. We’re not ones to question Oxford’s methodology for additions like “muggle,”, “mini-me” and “bootylicious.”  Perhaps a new meaning for “unlike” will be included soon.

So there’s your answer. Facebook says it has the Oxford English Dictionary on its side. And any corporate statement that involves the world “bootylicious” gets our nod of approval.

You can read the article here. As I’ve learned more about the origin and development of the English language, I’ve tried to be less troubled by “new words”, because the language evolves so quickly that we speak differently than we did one hundred years ago, and as you go father back, the difference in speech is actually rather vast. I’m sure if you had Chaucer in a room with even the most educated person nowadays, he would shudder at the words we use regularly. The English language keeps evolving. That doesn’t mean I have to be pleased with the specific examples of new words, right? RIGHT?

New smart phone. Newly dumb user.

I bought a Droid a few days ago, and it’s a completely 180-degree turn from the Blackberry I had before.

I’ve been enjoying the Droid in just about every way (the battery power is terrible), I realize that with so many applications and functions the phone can serve, I have to actually ‘know’ even less.

Twas much to my delight when I got this email from the Dry Bones blog, which once again nails the point home quite well.

These phones do everything for you, and bring the world to your fingertips. What’s next?

New York Giants 2010 Schedule!

Sept. 12 CAROLINA 1:00 PM (FOX)

Sept. 19 at Indianapolis 8:20 PM (NBC)

Sept. 26 TENNESSEE 1:00 PM (CBS)

Oct. 3 CHICAGO 8:20 PM (NBC)

Oct. 10 at Houston 1:00 PM (FOX)

Oct. 17 DETROIT 1:00 PM (FOX)

Oct. 25 (Mon.) at Dallas 8:30 PM (ESPN)

Oct. 31 BYE

Nov. 7 at Seattle 4:05 PM (FOX)

Nov. 14 DALLAS 4:15PM (FOX)

Nov. 21 at Philadelphia 8:20PM* (NBC)

Nov. 28 JACKSONVILLE 1:00PM* (CBS)

Dec. 5 WASHINGTON 1:00PM* (FOX)

Dec. 12 at Minnesota 1:00 PM* (FOX)

Dec. 19 PHILADELPHIA 1:00 PM* (FOX)

Dec. 26 at Green Bay 4:15 PM* (FOX)

Jan. 2 at Washington 1:00PM* (FOX)

Schedule courtesy of Mike Garafolo.

Site of the Week: Historical Tweets

Historical Tweets: The Completely Unabridged and Ridiculously Brief History of the World

From their site:

In the history of history, nothing has been more historic than Historical Tweets.

Most people think Twitter was “created” in 2006.  These are same people who think Richard Gere created Buddhism in the 1990’s.  Just before Madonna created yoga.  Folks, like the sun, moon, and stars, Twitter has always been.  This site proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Books have been ruining history. So many unnecessary words.  Now, with Historical Tweets, history’s most amazing men and women can be fully understood, a mere 140 characters at a time.

Check back daily (or subscribe!) if you care at all about understanding history.

I just found this site today, and think it’s hilarious. They actually have a book coming out. Should be a real thigh-slapper for history fans.

I’ll shamelessly paste a few of my favorites from the site.

Enjoy! I intend to make this site a regular on my sites-to-visit list. As with most sites, you can follow them on Twitter.

This week’s site: Historical Tweets