Jun 16, 2017

Jun 9, 2017

Happy Friday

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”  ~Isaac Asimov

There is wisdom in celebrating every Happy Friday!

Quote


Wordology, Cornicione

The outer edge of pizza is called the cornicione, pronounced - "cor-nee-cho-nay", which means cornice or molding. The crust is the name for the base that the toppings are added to.

Care by the Numbers

Medicaid and Medicare are similar programs that are publicly run. They cover 62 million and 43 million Americans, respectively. They each use their large membership to negotiate lower prices with hospitals and doctors. Medicaid tends to have the lowest payment rates. On average, Medicaid pays 66 percent of what Medicare pays doctors.

Incidentally, US Census Bureau as of 2015 shows population of about 318 million Americans, including 23 million non-citizens.

Origins of Golf Terms

The website ScottishGolfHistory.org cites a golf glossary published in 1857 that included the word fore. Historians at the British Golf Museum have surmised that the term 'fore', as a warning in golf, evolved from forecaddie. A forecaddie is a person who accompanies a grouping of golfers around the golf course, going forward on each hole to be in a position to pinpoint the locations of the group members' shots.

Mary Queen of Scots was likely the first woman to play golf. It was during her reign that the famous golf course at St. Andrews was built, in 1552. Mary coined the term caddie by calling her assistants cadets. Of course, le cadet is French for youngster of the family. Some argue French military 'cadets' carried clubs for golfing royalty and this practice came to Scotland when Queen Mary Stuart returned in 1561.

One of the most common misconceptions is that the word GOLF is an acronym for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. The first documented mention of the word 'golf' is in Edinburgh on 6th March 1457, when King James II banned 'ye golf', in an attempt to encourage archery practice, which was being neglected. During 1460, Sir Gilbert Hay translated an old French poem into the Scottish language. It uses the word 'golf' twice. "Therefore I am sending you a ball to play with and a 'golf staff' to hit it with, as children do round the streets."

Also, according to Grammarist the most correct spelling is caddie (an attendant who carries the golf clubs for a player), not caddy (a can for storing tea). Although the word caddy is currently loosely accepted for caddie

Joys of Golf

Here is a fun quickie of someone who adds insult to injury while taking a shot and losing a wedge. LINK

Pounds and Ounces

These words must seem weird to those who follow the metric system, so a bit of history might help explain. The Latin word Libra is abbreviated to 'lb'. Libra is widely known as the astrological sign for balance, but it was also part of the Roman unit of weight, libra pond, which translates to “pound weight." Britain derived pound from that expression as its unit of measurement and also as a term for its currency because centuries ago, a pound in money was considered equal to the value of a pound of silver.

Ounces - The Spanish ounce (Onza) was 1⁄16 of a pound. It is a unit of mass used in most British systems of measurement. It is most pervasive in the retail sale of groceries in the United States, but is also used in many other matters of domestic and international trade between imperial or customary measurement driven countries.

Organic Food

Multi-ingredient agricultural products in the US “Made with organic” category must contain at least 70 percent certified organic ingredients (not including salt or water). These products may contain up to 30 percent of allowed non-organic ingredients. All ingredients – including the 30 percent non-organic ingredients – must be produced without GMOs.