A
BRIEF PRELUDE
It would have been fitting to deliver this as a Valentine’s
day gift to you all on Monday, but I was too busy counting
the ways in which the holiday has turned into a boon for Hershey.
This week: why we celebrate this crazy day, and whence it
came.
QUOTES
OF THE WEEK
“Gravitation
is not responsible for people falling in love.”
—Albert Einstein
“Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.”
—H.L. Mencken
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”
—Shakespeare
THIS
WEEK IN HISTORY
 FEBRUARY
16, 1959: Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of
Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing
dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became
commander in chief of Cuba's armed forces after Batista was
ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Miro Cardona
as head of the country's new provisional government.
FEBRUARY 18, 1929: The Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.), founded in 1927, announced
the winners of the first Academy Awards. The awards were handed
out at a banquet in May, which was broadcast on live radio.
Although the first awards were for films made in 1927-1928,
they weren't announced until February of 1929. Wings won the
Best Picture award; Janice Gaynor won Best Actress and Emil
Jannings won Best Actor. Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone
both took Best Director awards.
The winners received gold statuettes; however, the awards
weren't nicknamed “Oscars” until 1931, when a
secretary at the academy noted the statue's resemblance to
her Uncle Oscar, and a journalist printed her remark. Source:
www.historychannel.com.
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3
WORDS
Memorize these by week's end and you shall
quickly develop an enviable lexicon.
| matrocliny
(MA-truh-klin-ee) n. |
| 1. |
|
inheritance
of traits primarily from the mother (patrocliny
is the male equivalent of this term) |
(His
matrocliny was apparent because he shared
the same knowing smile and brown eyes.) |
|
toothsome (TOOTH-sum) adj. |
| 1. |
|
pleasing to the taste; delicious |
| 2. |
|
sexually attractive |
(1.
That Chinese restaurant across the way has been
serving up toothsome dishes for years.
2. Every eye was on the toothsome young
blonde as she entered the room in a swirl of white
linen and lace. |
|
pulchritude (PUL-kri-tood) n. |
| 1. |
|
physical
beauty |
(He
was a dashing figure of great pulchritude,
sculpted as from a stone by the gods.) |
|
Starting next week: the three words of the week will
be thematic, or somehow related. This will make it easier
for the reader to retain the words in his or her memory.
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