24/7
Every Hour of Every Day
I wondered how long the phrase “24-7” had been around. I found a citation from one of our "English cousins" on a UK web-site (http://www.phrases.org.uk) for this “American Term” :
This American term was coined as black street-slang in the early 1980s and soon became adopted as a noun by various sectors of society. The earliest example that I can find of it in print is the November 1983 edition of Sports Illustrated:
“Jerry (Ice) Reynolds, one of the SEC's two best freshmen by the end of last season, calls his jump shot '24-7-365', because 'It's good 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year'.”
I am reminded that the word “scientist” was once branded as an “ignoble Americanism” by a British newspaper, in spite of its English origins, and have this note on my web site:
Although science has been around for a long time, the related term for one who practices science, scientist, was only created in the early 19th century. Prior to this time a person who practiced science was addressed as a man of science, or a natural philosopher (see below). In 1833, William Whewell, a Master of Trinity College at Cambridge, was aproached by William Wordsworth, the poet, for a single better term. The term scientist was the response. [Whewell was also frequently in correspondence with Michael Faraday, and created the scientific terms anode, cathode, and ion. A letter between the two discussing these three terms is on display in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge.]
In spite of its creation at such a high academic level, the word scientist was not well accepted for a long time. Its eventual acceptance came first in America, but it seems even there it encountered fierce opposition to its formal use well into the Twentieth Century. In The American Language in 1921, H. L. Mencken wrote :
“scientist was coined by William Whewell, an Englishman, in 1840, but was first adopted in America. Despite the fact that Fitzedward Hall and other eminent philologists used it.
Despite this fact an academic and ineffective opposition to it still goes on. On the Style Sheet of the Century Magazine it is listed among the "words and phrases to be avoided." It was prohibited by the famous Index Expurgatorius prepared by William Cullen Bryant for the New York Evening Post, and his prohibition is still theoretically in force, but the word is now actually permitted by the Post. The Chicago Daily News Style Book, dated July 1, 1908, also bans it. The use of the word aroused almost incredible opposition in England. So recently as 1890 it was denounced by the London Daily News as "an ignoble Americanism," and according to William Archer it was finally accepted by the English only "at the point of the bayonet."
The term Natural Philosopher which scientist replaced had not been around long itself. Prior to the time of Galileo a Philosopher was indifferent to the observed facts, and dealt only with moral and logical theory. Galileo thought that,"The proper object of Philosophy is the great book of nature..." and not the words of other men. Eventually these new students of the "book of nature" became the "Natural Philosophers".
Despite several common assertions to the fact that Whewell coined the term in 1840, the OED lists an earlier use in print, "1834 Q. Rev. LI. 59 Science..loses all traces of unity. A curious illustration of this result may be observed in the want of any name by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively. We are informed that this difficulty was felt very oppressively by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at their meetings..in the last three summers... Philosophers was felt to be too wide and too lofty a term,..; savans was rather assuming,..; some ingenious gentleman proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this termination when we have such words as sociolist, economist, and atheist, but this was not generally palatable."
July seems to be the month for celbrating 24-7 if you want to get to all of them. From a list at the web site “Holidays for Everyday” (http://www.holidaysforeveryday.com/) I found that July is
National Picnic Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Blueberry Month
National Ice Cream Month
(OK, the ice cream cone was introduced to the world by an enterprising vendor at the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904.. Here is the story from http://www.ideafinder.com/ In its purest form an ice cream cone should be of conical shape. The first true edible conical shaped cone for serving ice cream was created at the St. Louis Worlds Fair by Ernest Hamwi in 1904. His waffle booth was next to an ice cream vendor who ran short of dishes. Hamwi rolled a waffle to contain ice cream and the cone was born.)
National Anti Boredom Month (how could you be bored with all these holidays, eat an ice cream cone.)
National Recreation and Park Month
National Tennis Month (ahh…. speaking of boredom…)
Read a Almanac Month (zzzzzzz....)
National Purposeful Parenting Month ???? "purposful??"
National Outdoor Month (Don't you wonder if January is National INDOOR month?)
National Bison Month (you say tomatoe and I say .. Buffalo)
California Salmon Month
National Mobility Month
Tahiti and Her Islands Awareness Month (Ok, I admit, I don’t spend enough time thinking about Tahiti and Her Islands… Oh, hell, I’ll admit it, I thought Tahiti was an island???)
Eye Exam Month ( tee hee)
Fireworks Safety Month
July Belongs To Berries Month
American Independence Month
Blackberry Month
Cell Phone Courtesy Month (“Nah, its ok, I can talk. I’m at the movies, but I’ve seen this one before.”)
National Doghouse Repairs Month (given the time I spend there, I should take this one seriously)
National Peach Month
Raspberry Month
Red, White, and Blue Month
Wild About Wildlife Month (not gonna touch that one!)
National Hay Month (HONEST!!! I am not making these up!)
National Culinary Arts Month
National Get Along with Your Ex Month
National Foreign Language Month (these last two can be combined if your ex is from a another country)
And in case you STILL have some free time, the 24th is Instant Coffee Birthday Day. From a site at http://www.coffeebeatcafe.com I found:
Instant Coffee - a Brief History 2003/02/10
by Mike Nachaj
While preparations of pulverized coffee have existed since at least the eighteenth century and have been commercially available since their use as rations in the Civil War, modern soluble "instant" coffee was created in the 1930s by Nestlé technicians in Brazil.
Their invention called Nescafé, was introduced to the market in 1938 and remains the world's leading instant coffee brand. Using a process of spray-drying (liquid concentrated coffee dehydrated by spray drying in a hot air medium) adapted from their powdered milk facilities, Nestlé technicians were able to create a product that became the emblem for the consumer convenience movement that dominated the consumer industry in the eras that followed.
The 24th is also :
Marvin The Martian's B'day From the Warner Bros. Loony Tunes cartoons, he has been around since 1948.
Pioneer Day –Ok, didn’t know this one, but the folks at Wikipedia helped out. “Pioneer Day (also archaically called the Day of Deliverance) is a holiday celebrated on July 24 in the state of Utah, with some celebrations in regions of surrounding states originally settled by Mormon pioneers. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois and other locations in the eastern United States. around July 24 in remembrance of the pioneer era.”
Amelia Earhart Day, The first lady of flight would have been 110 today... Happy Birthday wherever you are.
And finally, I started off with a comment from one of our English Cousin’s so I should remind you that today is Cousin's Day. Call or go see your cousins, especially if you are “kissing-cousins”. My family just had one of those summer reunions and over the celebration the question of what exactly a 2nd cousin once removed, and such related terms meant. Well, lucky you, I looked it up so now you can have the official word, direct from http://genealogy.about.com: If someone walked up to you and said "Hi, I'm your third cousin, once removed," would you know what they meant? Most of us don't think about our relationships in such exact terms ("cousin" seems good enough), so many of us aren't very familiar with what these words mean. When working on your family history, however, it's important to understand the various types of cousin relationships.
- First cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you.
- Second cousins have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.
- Third cousins have in common two great-great-grandparents and their ancestors.
When cousins descend from common ancestors by a different number of generations they are called “removed.”
- Once removed means there is a difference of one generation. Your mother's first cousin would be your first cousin, once removed. She is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents.
- Twice removed means that there is a two-generation difference. Your grandmother's first cousin would be your first cousin, twice removed because you are separated by two generations.
Just to complicate matters, there are also many cases of double cousins. This situation usually occurs when siblings from one family marry siblings from another family. The resulting children, grandchildren, etc. are double cousins, because they share all four ancestors in common. These types of relationships can be difficult to determine and it is usually easiest to chart them one at a time (through one family line and then through the other line).
Now aren’t you glad you asked? Now you can start working on that family tree 24/7, and I think this is where I came in, so “See ya, cousin.”
