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The tendency of each new generation is to reject former complexities and simplify everything for their own convenience.
When the cellular telephone was first introduced to the public it was called a cellular telephone; now it's a cell. The first microwave oven was called a microwave oven; now it's a microwave. (At first, food was cooked in a microwave oven; now it's zapped)
I'm not saying this is wrong. In fact, I find it quite convenient.
And I imagine the British spelling of some words, such as honour and colour have been Americanized by dropping the unnecessary 'u' and was done for brevity, done for the sake of the speaker's convenience.
Just a thought: Why has the American spelling of the word Wednesday never yet been changed to Wensday?
Did You Know . . .?
On January 1 in 2014 it was colder in Canada than it was on Mars.
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HISTORICAL EVENT
In the late 1950s, as a young man, DeSalvo acquired the first of his criminal nicknames. He knocked on the doors of young women, claiming to represent a modeling agency. He told the women that he needed to take their measurements and proceeded to crudely fondle the women as he used his tape measure. His stint as the "Measuring Man" came to an end with his arrest on March 17, 1960, and he spent nearly a year in prison.
When DeSalvo was released, his next series of crimes were far worse. For nearly two years, he broke into hundreds of apartments in New England, tied up the women and sexually assaulted them. He always wore green handyman clothes during his assaults and became known as the "Green Man."
DeSalvo confessed the murders to his cellmate George Nasser. Nasser told his attorney, F. Lee Bailey, about DeSalvo, and Bailey took on DeSalvo as a client. Under a deal with prosecutors, DeSalvo never was charged or convicted with the Boston Strangler murders, getting a life sentence instead for the Green Man rapes. Still, DeSalvo's life term was short. He was stabbed to death by an unidentified fellow inmate at Walpole State Prison on November 26, 1973.
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WORD FOR TODAY
convenience
noun
1. the state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty.
2. a thing that contributes to an easy and effortless way of life.
3. BRITISH a public toilet.
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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
(born January 4, 1937)
Dyan Cannon is an American film and television actress, director, screenwriter, editor, and producer. She made her screen debut in 1960 in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond.
Her small screen debut was in a guest appearance on Bat Masterson. She made another guest appearance in 1959 on CBS's Wanted: Dead or Alive starring Steve McQueen. She also appeared on another CBS western, Johnny Ringo, starring Don Durant, and on Jack Lord's ABC adventure drama, Stoney Burke. She portrayed Mona Elliott on the 1964 CBS drama, The Reporter. She also made appearances on 77 Sunset Strip, the perennial western series Gunsmoke, The Untouchables, and the syndicated Two Faces West.
In 1969, Cannon played Alice in the film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. In 1971, she starred in The Anderson Tapes (with Sean Connery), The Burglars, and Such Good Friends. Two years later, she co-starred with Burt Reynolds in Shamus. In 1974, she gave a critically acclaimed performance in Child Under a Leaf. Cannon starred in Revenge of the Pink Panther. That same year, she appeared in Heaven Can Wait.
(Jan 4, 1917 - Jan 9, 1997)
Jesse White was an American television, film, and stage character actor. He is best remembered for having portrayed the Maytag repairman in television commercials, a role that he filled from 1967 to 1988.
(born January 4, 1927)
Barbara Rush is an American stage, film, and television actress. She made her screen debut in the 1951 movie The Goldbergs and went on to star opposite the likes of James Mason, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Kirk Douglas. In 1952 she starred in Flaming Feather with Sterling Hayden and Victor Jory. In 1954 she won the Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer – Female" for her performance in It Came from Outer Space.
(Jan 4, 1746 - Apr 19, 1813)
Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Rush signed the Declaration of Independence and attended the Continental Congress. He served as Surgeon General in the Continental army.
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There is no reason that the universe should be designed for our convenience.
--John D. Barrow
Note: John David Barrow is an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He is currently Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
NASA TV
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