The Write Way

8 July 2005

Going ... Going ...Gone!

Greetings,

The last time we went to visit our daughter in Melbourne, we also caught up with my first-best-friend. We've been best mates since we were about 9, and every time we get back together it's as if we've never been apart (even if it's often years between actual physical visits).

Just shows that even if you're millions of years old, you can still make the news! If you happen to be a geological site, that is. Speaking of news ... one of our local radio stations has a morning trivia quiz that is broadcast about the time we're sitting down to brekky, and one of the questions last week was, "What four words make up the word 'news'?"

Now I immediately sprang from my chair and reached for the phone before the Love of My Life restrained me with the soothing words, "Forget it!"

You see, I know that news is NOT formed from the abbreviations for North, East, West and South, which was the answer the announcer took, and I feel it's my civic duty to set these gooses right! (And before you write to tell me that the plural of goose is geese, that's only the feathered variety. The human, two-legged, ding-bat variety are gooses!)

I can remember one of my teachers in High School making a wry comment about the origins of news, telling us it comes from the Middle English word newe meaning 'new things; tidings' and how much things have obviously changed when you read what's dished up in the papers as news these days. 

Sigh ... not much has changed in the intervening years, eh? Except when rocks that were once part of the coastline millions of years ago finally succumb to the pull of gravity and fall into the ocean ... Now that's news!

You can see how these rock stacks form over millions of years here: http://www.rgs.edu.sg/events/geotrip/stack.html 

[I'm reviewing this before I click Send, and I'm wondering how I can express what I'm feeling after seeing news reports of the London bombings ... 

The same as you're feeling, I imagine ... that dreadful depression that gives way to frustrated anger when you start wondering Why. Why do people do this to each other? Why can't they see that we're all just carbon-based bipeds who are on this lovely planet for such a short time? Why do they spend their time destroying lives? Surely there are better ways to draw attention to their causes ...

Sigh ... I guess we'll never know what makes these few choose Destruction rather than Creation as the answer. 

If you're in London (or have anyone you love in London), I'm sure I'm right in saying the rest of us are thinking of you at this time ... as we thought of those who live in New York, Madrid, Bali and all the other places that have sadly been targeted in recent years.]

This week's quiz:

Here are some geological-type words ... How's your knowledge of rocks and All Things Earthy?

magma, alluvium, caldera, aquifer, firn, drumlin, talus, moraine, sinkhole, playa

1. circular, often funnel-shaped depression in the ground that forms when soluble rocks dissolve 

2. firmly packed snow that has survived a summer melting season; has a density of about 0.4 gram per cubic centimetre and ultimately turns into glacial ice 

3. single, large mass of glacial till that accumulates, typically at the edge of a glacier 

4. deposit of sediment left by a stream on the stream's channel or floodplain 

5. dry lake basin found in a desert 

6. molten (melted) rock that forms naturally within the Earth; may be either a liquid or a fluid mixture of liquid, crystals and dissolved gases 

7. pile of rock fragments lying at the bottom of the cliff or steep slope from which they have broken off 

8. long, spoon-shaped hill that develops when pressure from an over-riding glacier reshapes a moraine; range in height from 5 to 50 metres and in length from 400 to 2000 metres; slope down in the direction of the ice flow 

9. permeable body of rock that both stores and transports groundwater 

10. vast depression at the top of a volcanic cone, formed when an eruption substantially empties the reservoir of magma beneath the cone's summit. Eventually the summit collapses inward, creating this depression that may be more than 15 kilometres in diameter and more than 1000 metres deep 

Last week's reference to people dressing up as furry animals etc prompted Dianne in San Diego to write: "I have to tell you that we have a fellow who has made his living as the a giant chicken since 1974: http://www.famouschicken.com/

"He is still going strong and has made a nice living being fowl."

So there you go ... there's money in sprouting feathers and fur!

Last week's quiz:

Here are some unusual occupations ... match 'em up:

costermonger, annealer, calenderer, ghillie, hostler, annuitant, beadle, scrivener, fencible, tinker

1. a professional fishing and hunting guide - GHILLIE

2. one who smoothed cloth or paper by passing it through rollers - CALENDERER

3. scribe employed to draft contracts, prepare accounts, etc - SCRIVENER

4. one who toughens (steel or glass) by a process of gradually heating and cooling - ANNEALER

5. soldiers enlisted for home service only - FENCIBLE

6. one who sells apples, other fruit and vegetables in the street - COSTERMONGER

7. travelling repairman , seller of pots and pans - TINKER

8. non-working person receiving an annual income or pension - ANNUITANT

9. one employed in a stable to take care of the horses - HOSTLER

10.a minor parish official who serves as an usher and preserves order at services - BEADLE

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A Little Something Extra

I've always been fascinated by geology and really wish I knew more about it. Whenever we drive in the country, I love going through roads that have been cut through mountains so I can see into the heart of the planet ... All those different coloured layers of soil and rock have such a tale to tell. 

Now we can all glimpse some of its meaning because the University of California, Berkeley has a whiz-bang site that traces the geological history of the world from around 4,500 million years ago to the present day ... Not a bad range, eh? 

Hop aboard the Web Geological Time Machine here: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html 

And visit the Museum of Paleontology here: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ 

And this site has some wonderful accounts of what life was like from Stone Age times on ... They began as lesson notes, written by teacher, Richard Cowen, for his Geology 115 students at UC Davis, but are now being rewritten to appeal to a general audience: http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~GEL115/ 

Word of the week: Geochronology (n) study of the relationship between the history of the Earth and time; the chronology of the earth's history as determined by geologic events

Like most of our scientific terms, this one comes not from Latin, but from two Greek words: ge (the earth) and chronos (time) 

Tautology of the week: leaky colander (Every home has one!)

And here's a Latin phrase to use if any ancient Romans invite you around for a toga party this weekend:

Suntnes glires novi? (Are these dormice fresh?)

[SOONT-nays GLEE-rays NOH-wee?]

Kind regards,

Jennifer

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Copyright 2005 Jennifer Stewart

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