SNIPPETS

MARCH 23,  2009

Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerts us to a telling story about American values.  It begins this way:  "The challenge issued by a flight attendant during a recent commercial air flight seemed innocuous enough: 'Name just one of the five Medal of Honor recipients from the current engagements in Afghanistan or Iraq, and get a free drink coupon.'"

The test might be a bit unfair, but it does remind us that today's military heroes are largely anonymous, thanks to the social conditioning applied by the media and the educational establishment during the last 40 years.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- If you don't know a stone toter from Adam's off ox, or aren't sure what a grinder shop sells, the Dictionary of American Regional English is for you.  The collection of regional words and phrases is beloved by linguists and authors and used as a reference in professions as diverse as acting and police work. And now, after five decades of wide-ranging research that sometimes got word-gatherers run out of suspicious small towns, the job is almost finished.

Suggestion for our New York region:  "retention bonus."

From Britain's Telegraph: Barack Obama will refuse to let Tim Geithner quit
President Barack Obama has insisted he would refuse to accept the resignation of Tim Geithner, the embattled Treasury Secretary, and instead tell him: "Sorry buddy, you've still got the job."

How does that work?  What do you mean, he won't let Geithner quit?  Would he force him to go to his office?  Send work home?  Have the Army come and get him?  We have a 13th Amendment, which bans involuntary servitude.  Someone tell the president.
 

MARCH 22,  2009

We reported on this yesterday.  See the Snippets of March 21st, below.  NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York gallery says a 150-million-year-old complete skeleton of a dinosaur has failed to sell at auction.  Josh Chait (CHATE') of I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers says two museums interested in the fossil failed to meet the minimum price of nearly $300,000 during the auction Saturday. He declined to identify the two parties.

Money is so tight these days.  Everyone's dinosaur fund is exhausted.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be honored by the University of Notre Dame with its Laetare Medal.  The school announced Sunday it will present Glendon with the medal -- considered the most prestigious honor for American Catholics -- during its May 17 commencement, at which President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address.

A well-deserved honor.  Mary Ann Glendon is a professor at the Harvard Law School, and has maintained her faith, and done so with dignity and scholarship, in an environment not always friendly.

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