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The Write Way 22 August 2003 Filthy Lucre Greetings, OK - hands up all of you who have been known, on occasion, to complain about the efforts involved in "making a buck" these days.
Over the years, we humans have come up with lots of different items to use as currency - in fact, pretty much anything can be money as long as everyone agrees to it. Different groups have used livestock of every description, grains, fruits, vegetables, baskets, shells, animal and human teeth and bones, beads, bangles and blankets. But one of my favourites is the red feather money of Malaita ... "Red feather money is more precious, is based on something rarer and demands more time and skill in its manufacture. It is more perishable and was used for larger transactions: the purchase of canoes, women, or in fines. Its source is the distant islands of Santa Cruz and Reef to the southeast. The red feathers come from a small honey-eating bird Myzomela Cardinalis lured by a live decoy, or a carved one and an imitated call, caught on gummed twigs, plucked and released. The down of ten or more birds yields half a coconut cup of feathers; the usual catch is from five birds in one day. When enough feathers have been assembled, they are taken to the moneymaker who, using additional pigeon feathers, glues them up into plates about 6 x 3cm with the red feathers edging the rest. A good roll of feather money is 10m long and has about 1500 feathers. These are attached to four cords, the roll being finished with thin plates of turtle shell. Working without haste, it might take a year for a man to make one coil; at least 300 man-hours are needed and some estimate it much higher. "The value of each roll varies greatly. Arranged into a pile of ten for example each piece is conventionally taken to be worth half that of the one below it from reasons of age and wear. If, mathematically speaking, the top roll has a value of 1 unit, the middle roll would be worth 16 and the bottom one 512! In times past, a single coil of the highest quality would purchase an ocean-going canoe 10 metres or more in length and capable of carrying a ton of cargo. Pig's teeth and charmed shells or stones would be attached to the coil, which was carefully wrapped and kept above the fire in a smoky place for care against damp and insects." Read more and see a photo here: http://www.melanesianhandicraft.com.sb/The_Shell_Money.htm Whether it's an Albanian lek, Ethiopian birr, Guatemalan quetzal, Mauritanian ouguiya, Polish zloty or a pocketful of emalangeni from Swaziland, if you're writing about money, you need to get your terminology right. Here's a list of the many currencies of the world: http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/xr/currency_table.html Subscriber Sara Holdernesse says she sometimes gets a bit confused about "... the quoting of $ value of something in the media. I'm never really sure which currency they are using. If we hear that some disaster has caused damage to the 'tune/value' of $x - is it in $Aus or $US (if it is in America, for example)?" Journalists usually convert values to the home currency, so if you're reading in an Australian paper an account of a disaster in the US, the value will be given in Australian dollars. If the reporter couldn't find the current exchange rate (or couldn't be bothered), then it will be stated as "US dollars." There are dozens of currency converters online - one I use all the time is: http://www.xe.com/pca/input.cgi It's very quick and simple. A mate from the US sent me this observation: Did you ever notice: When you put the two words "The" and "IRS" together it spells "THEIRS"? This week's quiz: Some words to use when chatting with your banker, stockbroker or accountant: debenture, proxy, barter, hedging, depreciation, indenture, recession, portfolio, guilloche, collateral 1. the direct exchange of goods and services unmediated by any type of currency 2. the geometric design, printed as security device 3. a promissory note backed by the general credit of a company and usually not secured by any specific collateral, such as a mortgage or property 4. securities or other property pledged by a borrower to secure repayment of a loan 5. a period of no or negative economic growth and high unemployment 6. the purchase or sale of a derivative security (such as options or futures) in order to reduce or neutralize all or some portion of the risk of holding another security 7. a written agreement under which bonds and debentures are issued, setting forth maturity date, interest rate, and other terms 8. the collection of different investment instruments owned by one individual or institution 9. a ballot by which stockholders can transmit their votes on corporate matters without needing to attend the actual shareholders meeting 10.reduction in value of one currency in terms of another currency or standard, or over time A tale about money we can all relate to, I'm sure: Goodman was a moderately successful stockbroker who dreamed of making the big money someday. He took a client out for a drive, and he chose the route carefully in order to impress on him the possibilities of the brokerage business. "Look at that yacht," he said as they drove slowly past a marina, "that belongs to the senior partner at Merrill Lynch. That one over there is owned by the head of Goldman, Sachs. And look at that huge yacht out there. That's the pride and joy of the top seller at Prudential-Bache." The other man was silent. Goodman turned to glance at him and saw a pained look on his face. "What's the matter?" Goodman asked. "I was just wondering," his companion said sadly, "are there any customers' yachts?" If you have a question that can actually be answered (unlike that of our hapless friend above) here's where you can find answers - fast! When you need reliable information or maybe you're just curious and want to learn something new, what do you do? You could spend hours researching in the library or on the Internet, but your time is precious. Isn't it better to spend a little money than a lot of your valuable time? Of course it is! Click here for answers to your questions: http://www.write101.com/IPs.htm Last week's quiz: Cotard's syndrome, Ekbom's syndrome, Capgras' syndrome, doppleganger, glossolalia, planchette, lycanthropy, autoscopy, circumambulism, discarnate 1. strange conviction that one's entire digestive system has disappeared or turned to stone - COTARD'S SYNDROME 2. strings of meaningless syllables made up of sounds taken from those familiar to the speaker and put together more or less haphazardly - GLOSSOLALIA 3. a psychosis in which the patient has delusions of being a wild animal (usually a wolf) - LYCANTHROPY 4. the delusion that others, or the self, have been replaced by imposters. It typically follows the development of negative feelings toward the other person that the subject cannot accept and attributes, instead, to the imposter . A bizarre stylization of psychosis, whereby a sufferer believes that family, friends or items of personal significance have been replaced by perfect imposters, usually originating from an alien, governmental or demonic source - CAPGRAS' SYNDROME 5. a spirit of a living person, outside the physical body - DOPPLEGANGER 6. obscure belief that creatures from the Insecta class or Nematoda phylum (namely creepy crawlies)are building a civilisation under one's skin - EKBOM'S SYNDROME 7. the indicator, or pointer used in association with a Ouija Board; A small triangular board supported by two casters and a vertical pencil that, when lightly touched by the fingertips, is said to spell out subconscious or supernatural messages - PLANCHETTE 8. existing outside a physical body - DISCARNATE 9. when one's normally benign reflection appears a more authentic and life-draining version of oneself; visual hallucination of an image of one's body - AUTOSCOPY 10. ceremonial walking around an object or person to secure protection - CIRCUMAMBULISM "A careful study of economics usually reveals that the best time to buy anything was last year." Add your pin to the map of the world: http://pub37.bravenet.com/guestmap/view.php?usernum=3170114826 If you received this newsletter from a friend and you'd like to have your very own copy delivered to you on Friday, just click here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and why not spread the word? Send your friends a copy and invite them to join our merry band - we number over 7,000 now. A fourth-grade
teacher was giving her pupils a lesson in logic. A Little Something Extra Plenty of useful information about how we've developed the concept of currency throughout human history: http://www.currencymuseum.ca/eng/explore/ Got a question about the world's currencies? Bet you'll find an answer here - it has everything, including a list of the currency of different countries: http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~ifbg/currency.html Word of the week: Lucre (n) - money or profits dictionary.com have this interesting comment: "Word History: When William Tyndale translated aiskhron kerdos, “shameful gain” (Titus 1:11), as filthy lucre in his edition of the Bible, he was tarring the word lucre for the rest of its existence. But we cannot lay the pejorative sense of lucre completely at Tyndale's door. He was merely a link, albeit a strong one, in a process that had begun long before with respect to the ancestor of our word, the Latin word lucrum, “material gain, profit.” This process was probably controlled by the inevitable conjunction of profit, especially monetary profit, with evils such as greed. In Latin lucrum also meant “avarice,” and in Middle English lucre, besides meaning “monetary gain, profit,” meant “illicit gain.” Furthermore, many of the contexts in which the neutral sense of the word appeared were not wholly neutral, as in “It is a wofull thyng... ffor lucre of goode... A man to fals his othe [it is a sad thing for a man to betray his oath for monetary gain].” Tyndale thus merely helped the process along when he gave us the phrase filthy lucre."If you have any of the above that is surplus to your needs ... feel free to donate to my Running Away Fund ...details follow at the end of this newsletter ... Oxymoron of the week: free lunch Got a question about grammar, punctuation or any other language matter? Here's the place to go: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=3170114826 This week's Latin phrase is one you can use when your stockbroker gives you the Bad News: Dicisne mihi maculas in sole mercatum labi fecisse? (Are you telling me that sunspots caused the market crash?) [dee-KIZ-nay MEE-hee mak-YOO-lahs IN SOH-lay mur-KAY-toom LAH-bee fek-EES-say?] Regards, Jennifer 1. Pay by PayPal:
2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form: http://www.write101.com/fund.htm (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart): http://www.write101.com/fund.htm To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the web site, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritingTips This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
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