THE FIRST WORD

anemic

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-NEEM-ik) 

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Lacking vitality, strength, or colorfulness.
2. Suffering from anemia.

ETYMOLOGY:

From anemia (a condition in which one has a reduced number of red blood cells or hemoglobin), from Greek an- (without) + haima (blood). Earliest documented use: 1839. The word anemiousis entirely different.

USAGE:

"You don't have much of a life ... you have to admit your social life is a bit anemic."
Robin Kaye; Wild Thing; Sourcebooks; 2011.

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To become a nicer, more empathetic person, pick up a good novel. New research proves what any English literature teacher could tell you: Reading fiction enables people to better understand other people’s feelings and perspectives.(click below to read more)

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NOW YOU KNOW

A person who commutes an hour each way has to make 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as a person who lives near the office, according to new research by a Swiss economist. More than 11 million Americans commute more than an hour to work.
The Wall Street Journal

CHARITY OF THE WEEK

WorldTeach (worldteach.org) was founded in 1986 by a group of Harvard students who wanted to help provide better schooling in developing countries. Since then, the organization has placed more than 7,000 volunteer educators in mostly rural communities throughout Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands. WorldTeach assigns volunteers to schools that specifically request its services and otherwise would be unable to find or afford qualified teachers for English and other subjects. Bachelor’s degree holders of any nationality can apply to undergo the selective recruitment process for the organization’s more than two dozen national programs. Volunteers receive teacher training, language preparation, and field support that empower them to effect lasting change.

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The charity has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which rates not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their control of administrative and fundraising expenses, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest rating.

TODAY IN HISTORY

October 27

97		To placate the Praetorians of Germany, Nerva of Rome adopts Trajan, the Spanish-born governor of lower Germany.
1553		Michael Servetus, who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, is burned for heresy in Switzerland.
1612		A Polish army that invaded Russia capitulates to Prince Dimitri Pojarski and his Cossacks.
1791		President George Washington transmits to Congress the results of the first US census, exclusive of South Carolina which had not yet submitted its findings.
1806		Emperor Napoleon enters Berlin.
1809		President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
1862		A Confederate force is routed at the Battle of Georgia Landing, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.
1870		The French fortress of Metz surrenders to the Prussian Army.
1873		Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and is generally considered the inventor of barbed wire.
1891		D. B. Downing, inventor, is awarded a patent for the street letter (mail) box.
1904		The New York subway officially opens running from the Brooklyn Bridge uptown to Broadway at 145th Street.
1907		The first trial in the Eulenberg Affair ends in Germany.
1917		20,000 women march in a suffrage parade in New York. As the largest state and the first on the East Coast to do so, New York has an important effect on the movement to grant all women the vote in all elections.
1922		In Italy, liberal Luigi Facta's cabinet resigns after threats from Mussolini that "either the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome." Mussolini calls for a general mobilization of all Fascists.
1927		Fox Movie-tone news, the first sound news film, is released.
1941		In a broadcast to the nation on Navy Day, President Franklin Roosevelt declares: "America has been attacked, the shooting has started." He does not ask for full-scale war yet, realizing that many Americans are not yet ready for such a step.
1954		Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the US Air Force.
1962		American U-2 reconnaissance plane shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Cuba, killing the pilot, Maj. Rudolf Anderson, the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1962		Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to remove Soviet missile bases in Cuba if the U.S. removes its missile bases in Turkey.
1964		The political career of future US president Ronald Reagan is launched when he delivers a speech on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
1971		The Democratic Republic of the Congo renamed Zaire.
1986		London Stock Exchange rules change as Britain suddenly deregulates financial markets, an event called the Big Bang.
1988		US President Ronald Reagan decides to tear down a new US Embassy in Moscow because Soviet listening devices were built into the structure.
1997		Stock markets crash around the world over fears of a global economic meltdown.

AND I QUOTE

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."-Beverly Sills

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