Rotarian Jim Buck took a critical look at the use and abuse of the English language in everyday conversation during this week’s Rotary meeting.  Buck said he is fascinated by words and has large bound dictionaries at his office and home, keeps a thesaurus readily available, and is an avid reader.  During his overseas military service, Buck said he volunteered to staff the camp’s supply room so he could have first pick of new books arriving at the base. Buck noted there are more than one-million words documented in the English language.  He said about 170,000 words are in common use with the average individual using a vocabulary of 20-30,000 words.  Buck says what bothers him is how words are misused, sometimes so frequently their real meaning gets lost.

 

Buck went through a three-page list of words and phrases he finds are often used the wrong way.  For example, he pointed out that the adverb “hopefully” is now frequently used as verb.  Another example was using “anxious” instead of “eager” (such as “They were anxious to get to the game” when the grammatically correct way is  “They were eager to get to the game” ).  Buck said generational differences are also found with the younger generation responding to a “thank you” by saying “no problem” instead of “you’re welcome” or greeting people with “Hi Guys” regardless of gender.  Although lamenting that the English language is frequently used poorly,  Jim Buck said he will still do his best to use it properly.              

Dear Rotarians,

 

Don’t miss out on an opportunity to volunteer with your fellow Rotarians at the Make A Difference DKC Mobilepack event!   This is an opportunity to pack meals to support Feed My Starving Children.

 

Date:  Nov 12, 2022

Start Time:  9:00am

Finish Time:  11:00am

Location:  The Suter Company, 1015 Bethany Rd, Sycamore

Who can volunteer:  Rotary Club members, family members and friends of Rotarians

Age:  6+

**Seated jobs available for those who can’t stand for two hours

 

If you would like to sign up to volunteer during the Rotary shift, contact Heidi Wright:  hwright@suterco.com   815-761-2341.

 

If you want to pack at other times, you can sign up on line at www.makeadifferencedkc.com  The event is held Nov 10-13^th.  

 

The event goal is to pack 1.5 million meals and raise $400,000 to pay for the meals, which cost $.25 each.  We expect 5,000 volunteers over 4 days, making it the largest volunteer event in the county.

November 7, 1867 – Marie Curie, the scientist who discovered radium and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is born in Warsaw, Poland.

 

November 8, 1656 – Astronomer and mathematician Edmund Halley is born in London.  He discovers his namesake comet in 1682 and calculates its next appearance in 1758.  Reappearing about every 76 years, it should next be visible in 2061.

 

November 10, 1483 – German Theologian and Reformation founder Martin Luther is born.  He begins a separate religious movement after posting his 95 Thesis originally meant to reform the Catholic Church.

 

November 12, 1929 – Grace Kelly, award-winning actress who left Hollywood to marry Prince Ranier of Monaco, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

November 8, 1895 – X-rays are discovered by William Roentgen at the University of Würzburg in Germany.

 

November 9, 1965 – At 5:16 PM, the Great Blackout of the Northeast began caused by a circuit breaker malfunction at a power plant on the Niagara River. The blackout affects more than 30-million people living along the East Coast and Canada.

 

November 10, 1871 – Explorer Henry M. Stanley found missionary David Livingston at Ujiri, Africa.  Livingston had been missing for two years.

 

November 11, 1918 – The Armistice ending World War I takes affect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in Germany.  Before it ends, the global conflict involves more than 70 million military personnel and leads to 8.5 million combatant deaths and is blamed for 13 million civilian deaths.