Squares and Cubes
English Irregularities
“Retirement”
A “Pampered Pumpkin”
Percussion Ensemble
Continuing to Mature
Halloween

Squares and Cubes
08/10/03

At the retirement community where my wife and I have been residing since leaving Japan nine years ago, residents are able to choose whether to eat meals in their individual homes or apartments, in the community Dining Room or elsewhere. My wife and I usually eat a simple breakfast at home in the morning and a simple supper at home in the evening, but we eat our noon meal in the Dining Room, where the menu changes daily. There, we join the line of others who point to or tell the server what meats and vegetables to put on our plates. The menu is written on a blackboard behind the counter, and when “cube steak” is on the menu, I sometimes jokingly say to the server: “Since you have no ‘square steak,’ I’ll take the ‘cube steak.’” “Squares” and “cubes” are terms commonly used in geometry to signify different shapes, but they are used in other areas as well with somewhat different meanings. In geometry, a square is “a rectangle having four equal sides” and a “cube” is “a solid with six equal square sides,” but, according to my dictionary, “cube” may also be used as a verb meaning “to tenderize meat by making superficial cuts in a pattern of squares,” and a “cube steak” is defined as “a thin slice of beef made tender by cubing.” Another meaning of “square” is “honest” or “direct” and “just” or “equitable.” During this emotionally charged election campaign season in the U. S. A., candidates do not always give “square” answers to the questions posed, nor are they able to promise “square” deals for the voters, but we are still hoping that the end result will benefit both this country and the world. (1176)

English Irregularities
08/10/08

Residents in this Penney Retirement Community have served in many different countries around the world and consequently are acquainted with many different languages. “Languages of the World” is one of the Continuing Education Courses now being offered here, taught by residents who are well acquainted with the languages they teach. As I prepared my lecture on the Japanese language, I realized again how irregular the English language is in regard to the pronunciation, spelling and meanings of words. Consider, for example, the irregularities of the plurals of words ending with o-u-s-e. In this retirement community there are many “houses.” In many of those houses, married men and women live with their “spouses,” and the female spouses in this community have many different kinds of “blouses.” Although I have not seen the small rodent called a “mouse” or the small insect called a “louse” in the community here, if we saw more than one of them, they would not be called “mouses”and “louses,” but “mice” and “lice.” On the other hand, the small cubes marked with dots on the sides and used in various games are called “dice,” but the singular of “dice” is not “douse,” but “die.” As a verb, “die” means to cease living, but another word with the same pronunciation but spelled differently signifies a substance used to color materials. It is the tradition in many cultures to use materials “dyed” black when formally remembering the one who “died.” As I will note in my sermon this coming Sunday, accurate translation is not simply translating words from one language to another, but transmitting the meaning of the words into a different culture and time. (1177)

“Retirement”
08/10/12

When I sat down before my computer on this 11th day of the 10th month of the year (according to the Gregorian calendar), I had planned to write a message, entitled “October/Godless Month” and explain the reasons why the English name of this month begins with the prefix meaning 8 and why the traditional Japanese name for it means “month without gods.” However, checking my index of previous messages, I found that I had made a message with that title and content just one year ago. This was another indication of my failing memory and of the need to consider when would be the best time to discontinue my regular composition of messages for this webpage. One of the Continuing Education Classes now being offered at this retirement community that I should be attending is titled “From Ageing to Sage-ing.” (Last week, I spoke about the Japanese language at the “Languages of the World” class.) A “sage” is a “wise person” and, hopefully, we become wiser as we grow older—but that doesn’t always happen. Since my wife and I entered this retirement community directly from Japan nine years ago, we have been happy here and have kept very busy at many different meaningful activities. In fact, we sometimes question whether we have actually “retired.” Maybe we need to “retire” from our “retirement.” That depends on the meaning of the word “retire.” If “retool” means to change the tool to fit a new condition, may “retire” indicate the need for a new “tire” to keep us running fast? And if “retry” means “to try again,” we may consider “retire” to mean, “be tired again.” But, as Richard Cumberland, an English bishop, wrote: “It is better to wear out than to rust out.” (1178)

A “Pampered Pumpkin”
08/10/16

In the newspaper, a couple of days ago, a short article under an impressive picture was entitled “Pampered Pumpkin Wins, Sets Record.” According to my dictionary, the word “pamper” means “to treat with excessive indulgence; coddle.” In this retirement community, we do not have a “barber shop” for men nor a “beauty parlor” for women. However, there is a place called the “pamper room” where the hair of both men and women are treated. The “pampered pumpkin” noted and pictured in the newspaper article was the winner of the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin/Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, California. “Pumpkin,” derived from a Greek word for “large melon,” denotes a large, orange-yellow fruit, grown on a vine, having a thick rind and numerous seeds. As the Halloween season approaches, more and more pumpkins will be seen, for those that are hollowed out, have eyes and a mouth cut out of the rind and have a candle inserted inside become “jack-o’-lanterns” that are very popular at Halloween festivities at the end of this month. The “pampered pumpkin” in the aforementioned article weighed 1,528 pounds (687 kilograms) and had a circumference of 15 feet (4.57 meters). It was grown in the state of Oregon and transported to California in a truck. The man who grew the pumpkin said his secret to growing big pumpkins is good soil. “We really pamper them,” he said. Some people pamper their pets and some parents pamper their children. The English poet, John Dryden, called the Jews “God’s pampered people,” but according to the Bible, people are chosen not to be served by others but to serve others and to be vessels of God’s grace to them. (1179)

Percussion Ensemble
08/10/21

It is the custom of this retirement community to hold commemorative concerts/programs in honor of former members of the community who have passed away. Such programs/concerts are funded by contributions made by the family and friends of the person so honored. Recently, such a program was held that featured five percussionists. “Percussion” is derived from a Latin word meaning to strike hard. Bands and orchestras include percussion instruments which produce sound by striking rather than blowing or vibrating strings. Percussion instruments include drums, cymbals, chimes and xylophones. In fact, even pianos may be included in this category. The leader of the recent “Percussion Pleasures” program was a lady who has been the principal percussionist of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1977. She is now a professor at the University of Florida and has developed a Percussion Ensemble. (The word “ensemble,” in which the first two “e”s are pronounced like “o”s, is derived from a Latin word meaning “at the same time.” In this case, it denotes a group of musicians who perform together.) The ensemble that performed here included the leader and four university students who played drums, tom-toms, cymbals and a marimba. It was very interesting to see how what we usually consider “noise” can be combined or adjusted in such a way as to consider it “music.” Some of those in attendance doubted whether the “noise” ever became “music” , but we were reminded that in our lives also, there are times when very unattractive experiences may combine to produce something very attractive or meaningful. (1180)

Continuing to Mature
08/10/25

Since I am now over 80 years old, neither my body nor my mind are as active as they were a few years ago, but I still try to keep maturing, which is one reason why I continue to compose messages for this webpage. Besides stimulating others to think, I also am continuing to learn as I prepare and think about them. Recently, I composed a message about a “pampered pumpkin,” which stimulated an e-mail response from a faithful listener and reader of both the “Daily Word” and “Timely Words” messages in Japan. In that message, I noted that many pumpkins are hallowed out and made into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween festivities. Her e-mail included this comment: “I’m afraid that in the middle of the message, ‘those that are hallowed out’ might be ‘hollowed out,’” which stimulated me to make further investigation into the meaning and recognized usage of the words “afraid” and “hallow.” Her comment was correct, but I was surprised that she used “afraid” to indicate “regret,” while most Japanese speakers of English would only use this word to indicate “fear.” In regard to the word “hallowed,” I immediately had that word in the message changed to “hollowed” because in my dictionaries, the meaning of “hallow” is limited to “set apart as holy.” Checking the larger, unabridged, international dictionary of the English Language in the library, however, I found the meaning of the word I had learned long ago was still relevant for our day, for the definition of the word in that dictionary concluded with the statement that it was a “dialect variant of ‘hollow.’” (1181)

Halloween
08/10/29

As was noted in a recent message, the word “hallow” means “to set apart as holy.” There are two well-known examples of the use of this word at the present time. One is the phrase in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13, which is now called “The Lord’s Prayer” and is often repeated in the traditional English form by Christians around the world. That prayer begins with these words: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The other is the name given to the annual celebration observed on October 31st, the evening before a traditional church festival honoring all the saints, called All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows. “All Hallows Eve,” the evening before that day, came to be known as “Halloween” and has become a time of following traditions rooted in pre-Christian customs of the Celts of Ireland and Scotland. It was the last day of the Celtic calendar and, according to the religious tradition of the druids, was the night when witches and warlocks roamed the land, when evil spirits and spirits of the dead were abroad. Witches, goblins, ghosts, spirits of the dead, skeletons and black cats are now all included in decorations and activities related to Halloween which are not in harmony with Christian thought. The "trick or treat" custom of children going from house to house in costumes, asking for a "treat" of some kind to avoid a possible retaliatory "trick," seems to have ancient roots which are also not in keeping with Christian teaching. Even as pre-Christian customs became included in the Christian celebration of Christmas, even more obvious are the customs related to All Hallows Eve. (1182)