You've Got Moxie!

I just finished a fascinating book about life in America a century ago. Back in the 1920s baseball was everyone's obsession, Babe Ruth became our first national celebrity, and mass communication (radio and print newspapers) spread news with astonishing speed. (The book, an award-winning best-seller, is "The Big Fella" by Jane Leavy [2018])

Primary sources quoted in the book illustrate how language evolves. Not just slang, like phrases I gleefully played with as a kid in the 1960s ("Right on, man!", "groovy"), but vocabulary spoken in ordinary conversation. Some words commonly deployed then have since been replaced by new ones.

Here's an example. Today we talk about "grit" -- that laudable quality some folks have to persevere through hardship. We admire the force of their character, their determination. Back in the 1920s, a popular word used for this was "moxie". A person who had moxie was strong, vigorous and capable of enduring anything. 

The word moxie itself is interesting: it originated in the 1870s as the (capitalized) commercial name of a "medicinal" elixir. (The beverage was actually just a carbonated energy drink with no medicinal value.) Widespread ads for "Moxie" later led "moxie" to evolve into a personal characteristic.

"Hey, it takes moxie to climb Coney Mountain!"

Word of the Day

Our language is full of marvelous words. I delight in obscure ones. We also frequently encounter common words whose meaning we don't know. For these, there's no excuse not to "look them up," especially when read on electronic devices.

One word I've seen dozens of times but didn't comprehend until yesterday is "winsome". What does it mean?

Winsome denotes something that is sweet, charming or attractive. Like a winsome smile or a winsome personality. Knowing this word super-charges your ability to bestow a flattering compliment. Don't you want to possess that power?

At The Reception

My friend Helen is exhibiting her artwork in Cold Spring Harbor. Tonight we attended an Artist Reception for the show.

The work (watercolors) is beautiful. Helen is patently talented and the subjects of her paintings are joyous. While at the reception we had several nice chats with Helen.

A bonus of the event was running into someone I knew 60 years ago and haven't seen since (Tom). Tom's father Tony worked with my father when they were both police officers in Lloyd Harbor. Our families socialized together at annual Police Department events, like summer beach parties and Christmas parties. I remember Tom and his brothers but haven't seen him in over a half-century. Catching up was fun. I learned he, too, used to ride motorcycles.

Here's a picture from one of those 1960s Christmas parties. Can you find me in it?

Making Sports Interesting

I don't expect you to be interested in hockey but good writing entertains us no matter what its subject. For example, I'm reading a book about Babe Ruth I doubted would appeal but find it fascinating ("The Big Fella"). Written by brilliant female sports-writer Jane Leavy, the Babe book ensorcells me with detailed description of how celebrity emerged in this country a century ago. Babe was more than a baseball hero; he was America's first celebrity. He become as famous for his off-field persona as on-field play. This happened because of the emergence of mass communication in the 1920s. That is the real story in the book.

Back to hockey. After a promising start this season, my favorite team (NJ Devils) fell apart. Terrible mismanagement by GM Tom Fitzgerald has many fans demanding he be fired. Team owners are resisting that pressure, however, so we fans have a solution -- tell the White House there's oil under the Prudential Center (where the Devils play) and ask for regime change. 🙂

A second problem with the team is that a star-player, foolishly given a lavish contract, is under-performing. The team will lose lots of money when it trades the player for a used Zamboni and a box of Skittles. (Zambonis are machines that clean arena ice.)

Finally, some good news: the Devils' hated rivals, the NY Rangers, are also collapsing. Germans have a word for this -- Schadenfreude. (Taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune.) Last night the Rangers gave up ten goals to Boston. It was like watching your mother-in-law drop the tasteless casserole she brought for dinner.