Friday, March 30, 2007

Fancy job descriptions

I thought I had heard all the euphemisms for job descriptions--just a few are:"ingress/egress engineer" for a doorman, "roofing technician" for a guy who replaces shingles, "transportation director" for a person who waves taxicabs forward in a cab rank and puts waiting passengers in them, "cosmetic counselor" for a person (usually a woman) who works in the cosmetics section of a department store. But I recently learned of another one.

For some time, as a volunteer, I have been tutoring men at the Helping Up Mission in Baltimore. I tutor some one-on-one and others in a group; they are all men who have been addicted to drugs and/or alcohol and are in the Mission's recovery program. I tutor them in the "three R's"; some want to become able to pass the GED tests to get a high school diploma, while others just want to improve their life skills in order to get more out of life and to improve their job prospects.

One man with whom I am working told me that he is job hunting. He showed me one lead that he was working on: it was described in a bulletin from an employment agency as openings for "floor technicians" in local hospitals and government buildings. When I asked him what "floor technicians" do, he told me that they clean the floors, empty trash, and clean bathrooms. Didn't we used to call them "janitors?"

Sunday, March 25, 2007

My apologies to Presidents Coolidge and Hoover

Recently during a conversation with a man probably 15-20 years my junior, that gentleman commented, "George Bush is the worst president in my lifetime," whereupon I responded, "The same for me." But then I remembered that, during the first two years of my life, Calvin Cooolidge was president and, over the next four years, it was Herbert Hoover; history has generally characterized those two men as less than great presidents. So, I added, "But maybe Bush is not as bad as those two."

Somewhat later, I checked Presidential Leadership*, a book which contains a review of each of the 42 presidents who preceded George Bush by one of a selected university professor in the fields of political science, history, and law; in addition to these reviews, 78 individuals in those fields rated each president, from best to worst. (George Bush was reviewed based on his accomplishments during the first three years of his presidency, shortly after which time the book was published, but was not rated because of the lack of his full tenure at that time. Likewise, two of the presidents who died shortly after taking office were not rated: William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia on April 4, 1841, exactly one month after taking office, and James Abram Garfield was assassinated on September 19, 1881, after just six months in office. Thus, 39 of the presidents were rated.)

* published by Dow Jones & Co., New York 2004, edited by James Taranto, of The Wall Street Journal, and and Leonard Leo, of The Federalist Society, 291 pages.

In reading the review of Coolidge by John O. McGinnis, a professor of law at Northwestern University, I found the the following comments:

Historical evaluations of presidents consistently underrate Calvin Coolidge...The reason for such slights is wholly ideological: Coolidge provided (at least until Ronald Reagan) the most effective presidential defense of limited government in the twentieth century.

The harsh ideological judgment of Coolidge has also relied on a false stereotype of his political views and ignored his many virtues that transcend partisan politics.

Coolidge provides a model for the kind of leader needed in a republic: honest, modest, and shrewd.

Coolidge was ranked 25th from the top of the 39 who were rated.

Likewise, Hoover was also spoken of kindly by Robert H. Ferrell, history professor at Indiana University. Some of that reviewer's comments are:

We should expect Herbert Hoover to get a heavy amount of criticism. After all, the Great Depression started on his watch...President Hoover deserves better. Consider his philosophy of government, which is largely accepted today...Alas, most scholars of the presidency have chosen to remember the gibes about Hoover, who was in fact a great public servant whose service spanned five decades. He deserves better from history.

Hoover was ranked 29th of the 39.

I have a faint recollection of "Hoover carts." That name was applied to automobiles which had been converted into mule-drawn vehicles by their owners who were supposedly so destitute during the Great Depression of the 1930s that they were unable to buy gasoline for them or to maintain them. I don't recall exactly how the conversion took place--did the owners just hook up a mule to the front bumper, or was some kind of surgery done to the hood? I don't remember, but I do remember a "Hoover cart" parade passing my house in the small North Carolina town where I grew up. That event was probably during the 1932 presidential campaign and was likely the effort of Democratic strategists in support of Franklin Roosevelt. I imagine the "Hoover cart" term itself was dreamed up by those political operatives.

So, after reading the reviews of Presidents Coolidge and Hoover--even though realizing that each represented the opinion of just one individual reviewer--I feel that I do owe an apology to the memory of those two men in thinking that they might have been worse than George Bush.

The three highest-rated presidents were George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, in that order. The three lowest were Franklin Pierce and Warren Harding, tied for 37-38, and James Buchanan, the worst at 39th.

If the book Presidential Leadership is updated some time after January 20, 2009, it will be interesting to see whether James Buchanan or George W. Bush gets the 40th spot.

However, a higher power will eventually have to rank Bush. I quote from my blog posting "The Worst President in History?" of 5/20/06, in which I wrote about a magazine article with that title, written by a Princeton professor. I added the following comment in that posting.

Since he professes to be a faithful believer in the Divinity, when he passes on to meet his Maker, Bush had better be prepared to explain away his personal responsibility for the tens of thousands of American military personnel and Iraqi civilians killed and gravely wounded, as well as the thousands more of ordinary Iraqis whose lives have been made miserable during the war and its aftermath.

Something gets lost in translation

Below are three translations of a paragraph from a front-page story in the 3/25/07 issue of The New York Times–one translation each by"Systran," "GoogleTranslate," (http://translate.google.com/translate) and "Free2Professional Translation" (http://www.freetranslation.com) ( In each, I translated first from the English text to French, and then from that French translation back into English. ("Systran" is a program which I bought–it sits in my browser and translates,upon command, any text that I have on the monitor screen from a newspaper, magazine, or other source that I have accessed on the Internet from one designated language to another; the other two are free programs in which the user copies and pastes whatever is on his screen and then designates another language that he wants it translated into.)

Something indeed did get lost in each translation.

The original text

An international regulatory system created after the war has prevented diamonds from fueling conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even so, diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains a grim business that brings the government far too little revenue to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation of some of the world’s poorest people. "The process is more to sanitize the industry from the market side rather than the supply side," said John Kanu, a policy adviser to the Integrated Diamond Management Program, a United States-backed effort to improve the government’s handling of diamond money. "To make it so people could go to buy a diamond ring and to say, ‘Yes, because of this system, there are no longer any blood diamonds. So my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily.’’’

So that anyone who knows French can see the translation from the English into the French, I am reproducing below that from "GoogleTranslate." (The repetition of the accented vowels wasn’t in the translation itself, but it only happened when I pasted it below.) The other two translations were approximately the same.

Un systèème de normalisation international créééé aprèès que la guerre ait empêêchéé des diamants de remplir de combustible des conflits et de financer des rééseaux de terroriste. Nééanmoins, le diamant extrayant en Sierra Leone reste des affaires sinistres qui apportent au gouvernement loin trop peu de revenu vers la droite le pays déévastéé, pourtant alimente outre du déésespoir de certaines des plus pauvres personnes du monde. «« Le processus est plus pour aseptiser l'industrie du côôtéé du marchéé plutôôt que le côôtéé de l'offre, »» a dit John Kanu, un conseiller de politique au programme intéégréé de gestion de diamant, un effort ÉÉtat-soutenu uni d'amééliorer la manipulation du gouvernement de l'argent de diamant. «« Lui faire ainsi des personnes pourrait aller acheter un anneau de diamant et pour dire, le `oui, en raison de ce systèème, làà ne sont plus aucun diamant de sang. Ainsi mon amour, et ma conscience, peuvent dormir facilement. '''

Just look at the screwups above in the French translation:

–"fueling conflicts" gets translated as combustible, the kind of fuel that you put in your car or in your furnace at home.

–"to right the devastated country" gets translated as vers la droite le pays dévasté, "toward the right (the right-hand side) the devastated country."

–"feeds off the desperation..." gets translated as alimente outre du..., "feeds besides..."

–"a United States-backed effort" gets translated as État-soutenu uni, "State-supported united."

Translation by "Google Translate."

An international system of standardization created after the war prevented diamonds from filling of fuel of the conflicts and to finance networks of terrorist. Nevertheless, diamond extracting in Sierra Leone however remains sinister businesses which bring to the government far not enough income towards the line the devastated country, feeds in addition to despair of some of the poorest people of the world. ""The process is more to asepticize the industry on the side of the market rather than the side of the offer,"" said John Kanu, an adviser of policy to the integrated programme of diamond management, a plain State-constant effort to improve handling of the government of the diamond money. ""To make Him people thus could go to buy a ring of diamond and for saying, the `yes, because of this system, there are not any more any diamond of blood. Thus my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily. '''

Translation by "Systran"

International year regulatory system created after the war has prevented diamonds from fueling conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even so, diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains has grim business that brings the government far too little returned to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation off nap off the world' S poorest people. ""The process is more to sanitize the industry from the market side rather than the supply side,"" said John Kanu, has policy adviser to the Integrated Diamond Management Program, has United States-backed effort to improve the government' S handling off diamond money. ""To make it so people could go to buy has diamond boxing ring and to say, ""Yes, because off this system, there are No to skirt any blood diamonds. So my coils, and my conscience, edge sleep easily.""

Translation by "Free2Profesioinal Translation."

A regulating international created system after the war prevented from diamonds of supplies conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even if, the diamond extracts in Sierra leone remains a threatening matters that brings the government returned it far too small to the right the devastated country, nourishes nevertheless despair of certain ones of the people of the poorest world. "The procedure is more to disinfect the industry of the side of the market instead of the provision side," John Kanu says, a counselor of political one to the Direction Program of Integrated Diamond, an United States Supported the effort to improve the government checks diamond money. "To do it if the people could go to buy a diamond ring and say, 'Yes, because of this system, there is longer more any blood diamonds. Therefore my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily'.

With the amazing progress that has been made in synthesized voice and other digitized communication tools, it would not be surprising one day to see idiomatic translations between languages by websites such as those above, just as those made by human interpreters. But that day is not yet here.

It's Rudy again

Back in 2000 I received a message from Rudy Giuliani, mailed to my home in Maryland, urging me to contribute money to his planned campaign against Hillary Clinton for a Senate seat from New York state. That campaign never happened because he later found that he had prostate cancer, which forced him to abandon it.

At the time, I wondered why he would think that I might so contribute since I was not a resident of New York state. I also wondered how his campaign workers got my name; I guessed that they got it from the registry of a hotel in the Wall Street area of New York city, where I stayed numerous times when I was working as a consultant for a client in the area. They must have figured that anyone staying at that hotel must have been both a moneybags and a staunch Republican, who would gladly contribute to Giuliani's campaign fund even though they couldn't vote for him.

Now Rudy's at it again--this time in his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential election. I just received the following e-mail from him.

Dear Friend,

Click Here tojoin Team Rudy today.
I am running for President because when I look to the future, I see a country where Americans are confident our nation is in control of its destiny. I believe in solving problems through strength, not weakness – from optimism, not pessimism. I am passionate about seizing our opportunity and sharing a vision of how America can be better. I'm emailing you because you are someone who makes up your mind early. You are influential in your community, and it would mean so much to have you join my team as one of its founding members.

Pictured here is your First Edition Team Rudy Member Card. I'd be honored if you'd activate it and help me run a strong campaign with your gift.

Blah, blah, blah.

I don't know, Rudy, I'll have to think about voting for you--but forget the gift to your campaign.

Regards,

Moneybags

Friday, March 09, 2007

It's OK

How many times a day does one in the United States say "OK"? Probably many more times than one would imagine. The British use it too, but I have never heard it as widely used there as it is in the U.S. In the U.S we say "OK" when we mean, "All right. I'm ready to go" or "Good, that's enough" or "Go ahead, you have my permission..." or "I agree." The "OK's" in those instances (and many others) are interjections--things that we say almost reflexively in everyday circumstances. Then, we sometimes use "OK" as a verb: "The boss will have to OK it", or as a noun: "We got the boss's OK to go ahead", or as an adjective: "It's OK to use that pan for baking." And also, we have buttons on our computers that say "OK", by which we tell them to go ahead with the settings we have chosen.

Languages other than English also have equivalents of "OK": in Spanish they say está bien ("it's well") and the French say d'accord ("of accord") and also ça va ("that goes"). However, having lived, worked, and traveled in countries where those languages are spoken, I have never heard any of them used as much as we use "OK". Usually they are used just as interjections: In Spanish: Está bien, eso es todo que necesito ("OK, that's all I need"); in French: D'accord, j'accepte votre prix ("OK, I accept your price") or Ça va, ça c'est tout dont j'ai besoin ("OK, that's all I need")

So, how did "OK" ever come to be? The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories says that it was trimmed down from "all correct." It goes on to say "...there was the abbreviation fad. Among the young and fashionable set in American cities in the late 1830's, the thing to do was to reduce phrases to initials...(also) there was the tradition of deliberate misspelling in humorous writing." It adds:

(OK) might well have passed into oblivion...had it not been for the presidential election of 1840. In that year the Tammany Democrats in New York created a Democratic O.K. Club. The O.K. in the name was derived from Old Kinderhook, after Kinderhook, New York, the birthplace of Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate...The campaign gave another boost to OK. A Whig journalist floated the story that OK was used by Andrew Jackson as standing for Ole Korrek (later oll korrect), which was supposed to be Jackson's spelling of all correct This was a reference to the presidential campaign of 1828 in which Jackson's bad spelling was a campaign issue.

Another reference source, the website Answers.com offers an explanation that "OK" originated from Andrew Jackson's liking a Choctaw Indian word, okeh ("it is so"). It goes on to say that, during the Battle of New Orleans against the British (in the War of 1812), Jackson asked Pushmataha, a leader of a Choctaw contingent that was fighting alongside the Americans, if the fight was going well for him, to which Jackson received the answer, "okeh." (The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories also mentions this possible origin.)

However it originated, "OK" is likely to be a linguistic workhorse in the U.S. for a long time.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

A billionaire with a sense of humor

Whether or not one owns stock in Berkshire Hathaway, suggested reading is its CEO, Warren Buffett's, letter to shareholders. Buffett is, of course the second wealthiest individual in the U.S.--in the latest Forbes ranking, published last September, his net worth was reported to have been $46 billion, surpassed only by Bill Gates with $53 billion. (Buffett gave some $30 billion to the foundation of Gates and his wife last year, to be added to their funds for investment in do-good causes around the world.)

Along with all the large amount of factual material he puts into in his letters, Buffett includes much humor in them. One item that caught my eye in his letter in Berkshire Hathaway's 2006 annual report, which just came out a few days ago, was about an:

...older man who crashed his grocery cart into that of a much younger fellow while both were shopping. The elderly man explained apologetically that he had lost track of his wife and was preoccupied searching for her. His new acquaintance said that by coincidence his wife had also wandered off and suggested that it might be more efficient if they jointly looked for the two women. Agreeing, the older man asked his new companion what his wife looked like. "She’s a gorgeous blonde," the fellow answered, "with a body that would cause a bishop to go through a stained glass window, and she’s wearing tight white shorts. How about yours?" The senior citizen wasted no words: "Forget her, we’ll look for yours."

The relevance of the joke had to do with Buffett's commentary regarding looking for attractive stocks.

(Buffett's letters can be accessed at the company's website www.berkshirehathaway.com.)

There is a story that someone asked Buffett if he was ever going to retire (he is now 76), to which he answered, "Five years after I die."
Name:
Location: United States

Mycroft Watson is the nom de plume of a man who has seen many winters. He is moderate to an extreme. When he comes to a fork in the road, he always takes it. His favorite philosopher is Yogi Berra. He has come out of the closet and identified himself. Anyone interested can get his real name, biography, and e-mail address by going to "Google Search" and keying in "User:Marshall H. Pinnix" (case sensitive).

Powered by Blogger

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Free Top Ten Search Engine Submission!
  • Excite
  • What-U-Seek
  • Webcrawler
  • NetFind
  • Lycos
  • Infoseek
  • AltaVista
  • HotBot
  • Goto
  • Northern Light
Site Title
URL
Name
Email
Free Advertising
 Blog Top Sites a href="http://www.blogtopsites.com/"> Blog Top Sites