Cape Cod

Cape Cod (or simply the Cape) is an arm-shaped peninsula nearly coextensive with Barnstable County, Massachusetts and forming the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States.

Although the Cape was originally connected to the mainland, the Cape Cod Canal, which opened in 1914, effectively transformed Cape Cod into a large island (though it is not normally referred to as such). Three bridges span the canal from the Massachusetts mainland to the Cape. Vehicles can cross onto the Cape via the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge; the other is a railroad bridge.

Go to source web page: Cape Cod - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod

 

The Immortal Memory

Toasting the Greatest Naval Hero in the United Kingdom

The Immortal Memory Toast for Lord Admiral Nelson occurs every year on the Royal Navy Trafalgar Night. Trafalgar Night is celebrated around the anniversary of Nelson's death on October 21, 1805.

The toast has been proposed in memory of Admiral Lord Nelson since his death in 1805, for over 200 years.

In 2006 Trafalgar Night was held on October 17.

Earlier Version
The Toast to Admiral Nelson has always been short, but earlier versions were a few words longer. Captain John Pasco proposed a toast to

• The immortal memory of Nelson and those who fell with him.

Another early versions of the toast is recalled as:

• The Immortal Memory of Lord Nelson and then of those whom 'England expected (not in vain) that they would do their duty.'

Current Version
Those who fell with Nelson have not done too well with the later version.

The current version of the toast has been shortened further to just:

• The Immortal Memory

The Immortal Memory Toast is drunk in total silence, out of respect to the memory of the Admiral.

See http://dying.about.com/od/toaststoremember/a/immortal_mem_2.htm

Words with alternating vowels and consonants

honorificabilitudinitatibus, overimaginative, parasitological and verisimilitudes

Peg or Dowel?

Q: Could someone explain me, just simply, the difference between words "peg" and "dowel"?

A: In the usages which I'm familiar with, a dowel is a uniform-diameter rod, and it fits closely into its hole along all its length. Pegs fit into their holes loosely, or partly, or are tapered, or do not fit at all but just protrude to hang things on.

But in carpentry, a "pegged joint" is one which is made stronger by a perforation through both parts of the joint, into which there is put a close-fitting peg. Maybe that was originally tapered, but modern ones are straight, and they still call it a peg, not a dowel.

from alt.usage.english

Librarians Top 30 Books

To Kill A Mockingbird was published over 40 years ago and its American author has lived as a virtual recluse ever since, but according to Britain's librarians, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird is the book that everyone should read. The Pulitzer prize-winning classic has topped a World Book Day poll conducted by the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), in which librarians around the country were asked the question, "Which book should every adult read before they die?" The book, which has been a staple of schoolroom reading lists for many years, also came second in another poll released today on our favourite happy endings. It explores issues of race and class in 1930s deep south America, through the dramatic court case of a black man charged with the rape of white girl.

The list in full
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bible
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
All Quite on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D'urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

From http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1721526,00.htm

More on isograms

isogram - a word in which the letters turn up an equal number of times.

first-order isogram

• each letter appears just once
• as in dialogue, lexicography, ambidextrously and uncopyrightable.

second-order isogram

• each letter appears twice only
• as in deed, Vivienne, Caucasus and intestines

third-order isogram

• each letter appears three times only
• as in deeded and geggee

Seasons Greetings

To all my readers