letter_trainer_0_1 Flashcards
_NO
ENO. Brian Eno is a musician, composer and record producer from England who first achieved fame as the synthesiser player with Roxy Music. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, Devo and U2.
E_EN
EDEN. The city of Eden Prairie lies just outside downtown Minneapolis. If you live there, congratulations! Eden Prairie was ranked by “Money Magazine” as the best place to live in America.
E_EN
EDEN. In the Christian tradition, the ‘fall of man’ took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, against the bidding of God. As a result, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden to prevent them becoming immortal by eating from the tree of life. The first humans had transitioned from a state of innocent obedience to a state of guilty disobedience.
NR_
NRA. The NRA is the National Rifle Association, an organization that has been around since 1871. The group has had some celebrity presidents, including US President Ulysses S. Grant. It’s often said that the NRA is the most powerful lobbying group in Washington.
R_A
RNA. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. Amino acids are delivered in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA and then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.
EL_
ELI. Even I know that Eli Manning and his older brother, Peyton, are quarterbacks!
AL_
ALI. Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, changing his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta? Ali was presented with a gold medal during those ‘96 Games, a replacement for the medal he won at the 1960 Olympics. He had thrown the original into the Ohio River as a gesture of disgust after being refused service at a “whites only” restaurant.
E_EE
EPEE. There are three fencing events in the modern Olympics, distinguished by the weapon used:
_PA
EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency was set up during the Nixon administration, and began operation at the end of 1970.
S_E
STE. ‘Sainte’ (ste.) is French for ‘saint’, when referring to a female.
_EE
LEE. Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was first published in 1960. The book is a mainstay in English classes all around the world, a great ambassador for American literature, I’d say.
_TE
ETE. The Côte d’Azur is on the Mediterranean coast of France, stretching from Saint Tropez in the west, to the Italian border in the east. In English we often refer to the area as the French Riviera. It’s a little crowded for me (okay, expensive), especially in the summer (ete in French).
RN_
RNA. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. Amino acids are delivered in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA and then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.
_RIA
ARIA. The aria “Il mio tesoro” comes from Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni”. The title translates into “My treasure”.
_EE
NEE. “Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.
_TA
ETA. Estimated time of arrival (ETA)
ET_
ETE. In French, ‘juillet’ (July) is a month in the ‘été’ (summer).
OR_
ORR. The bomber pilot in Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22” is called Orr, and he has no other name, just “Orr”.
E_S
ELS. The Chicago “L” is the second largest rapid transit system in the US, with the New York City Subway being the largest. The “L” is also the second oldest, again with the New York City Subway system having the honor of being around the longest. Note that the official nickname for the system is the “L” (originally short for “elevated railroad”), although the term “El” is also in common use (especially in crosswords as “ELS”). The L is managed by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
E_S
ELS. Ernie Els is a South African golfer. Els a big guy but he has an easy fluid golf swing that has earned him the nickname ‘The Big Easy’. He is a former World No. 1 and has won four majors: the US Open (1994 & 1997) and the British Open (2002 & 2012).
E_A
ETA. Elasticity in the world of economics is a mathematical concept. An elastic variable is one that might be varied by changing something else. For example, in some markets one can lower the price of goods and thereby increase the volume of sales. Sometimes variables are inelastic. For example, sales volume might be described as inelastic if chaning the price has no effect.
_SLO
OSLO. The Oslo Accords grew out of secret negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in a residence in Oslo in the early nineties. The delegates shared the same house while they conducted 14 meetings. While eating all their meals together at the same table, the negotiators came to respect one another and apparently friendships developed.
ST_
STE. Ste. (suite) and Apt. (apartment).
R_O
RIO. In Spanish, the Amazon (el Amazonas) is a river (rio).
_DEN
EDEN. According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.
_PA
EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency was set up during the Nixon administration, and began operation at the end of 1970.
_IO
RIO. The Rio casino in Las Vegas was opened in 1990, originally targeting the local population as it is located off the famous Strip where most of the tourists hang out. Famously, the Rio opened up the adults-only Sapphire Pool in 2008, a pay-to-enter (only men paid) topless pool club that featured music and dancers. A year later the Sapphire Pool was closed down after there were eleven arrests for drugs and prostitution offences during an undercover police operation.
S_L
SNL. NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.
ED_N
EDEN. According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.
A_I
ALI. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had three memorable fights. The first was billed as the “Fight of the Century” and took place in 1971 in Madison Square Garden. It was a fight between two great boxers, both of whom were undefeated up till that point. Frazier won in a unanimous decision after fifteen rounds. A couple of years later, in 1973, Frazier lost his title to George Foreman. Ali and Frazier had a non-title rematch in 1974, with Ali coming out ahead this time, also in a unanimous decision. Later that year, Ali grabbed back the World Heavyweight Title in “The Rumble in the Jungle”, the famous “rope-a-dope” fight against George Foreman. That set the stage for the third and final fight between Ali and Frazier, “The Thrilla in Manila”. Ali won the early rounds, but Frazier made a comeback in the middle of the fight. Ali took control at the end of the bout, so much so that Frazier wasn’t able to come out of his corner for the 15th and final round. He couldn’t come out of his corner because both of his eyes were swollen shut, giving Ali a victory due to a technical knockout (TKO).
EN_
ENO. Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, Eno’s most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up.
N_E
NEE. “Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.
_NL
SNL. Since 2005, the “Saturday Night Live” comedy show has been airing a feature called “SNL Digital Shorts”. These spots break away from the “live” format of the show, and are prerecorded for airing during the Saturday broadcast. The Digital Shorts are filmed on consumer-grade digital cameras, and are edited on personal computers. They can feature members of the regular cast, musical guests, and celebrity cameos.
I_A
IRA. ‘This American Life’ is a radio show that is broadcast weekly on National Public Radio (NPR). Host of the show is the much-respected Ira Glass. I was interested to learn that one of my favorite composers, Philip Glass, is Ira’s first cousin.
OSL_
OSLO. Sigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist. Undset’s best-known work is ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’, and she was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1928.
_NO
ENO. Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. Eno’s most oft played composition (by far!) can’t be found on an album. It’s Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system starts up.
_NS
ENS. An ensign is the most junior rank of commissioned officer (usually) in many armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.
OD_
ODE. Percy Bysse Shelley wrote “Ode to the West Wind” in 1819 when he was living in Florence, Italy. One interpretation of the work is that expresses his dismay at not being home in England, while another is that it is a lament for the loss of his son, who died earlier in the same year.
ET_
ETA. Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.
E_E
ETE. One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in France.
_TA
ETA. Expected time of arrival (eta)
EL_
ELS. Ernie Els is a South African golfer. He’s a big guy, but he has an easy, fluid golf swing that has earned him the nickname “The Big Easy”. Els has a child who suffers from autism, and he has been very effective raising money for charities that focus on the condition.
_AE
RAE. ‘Norma Rae’ is a 1979 movie starring Sally Field as Norma Rae Webster in a tale of union activities in a textile factory in Alabama. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton told in a 1975 book called ‘Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance’.
_TE
ETE. One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in France.
_PEE
EPEE. The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.
EN_
ENS. In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. Th em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!
IR_
IRA. I have to tell you, when I first came to the US from Ireland, it was pretty confusing seeing big signs along the freeway touting contributions to the IRA! Back in Ireland, that was pretty illegal (where IRA means the Irish Republican Army).
_NT
TNT. TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand in 1863, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.
EN_
ENS. 50% of the letters in the word ‘nonunion’ are Ns (ens).
A_N
ANN. President Obama’s mother’s full name was actually Stanley Ann Durham. She worked as an anthropologist, having earned a Ph. D. at the University of Hawaii. Ann met her first husband, Barack Obama, Sr. in a Russian Language class, and the two were married in 1961.
ER_S
EROS. As always seems to be the case, the Greek gods Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, but Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male.
_EE
NEE. “Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.
LS_
LSD. LSD is short for Lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. But it wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that the psychedelic properties of the drug were discovered. Trippy, man …
_RA
IRA. As well as writing novels, Ira Levin was a dramatist and a songwriter. His first novel was “A Kiss Before Dying”, and his most famous was “Rosemary’s Baby” which became a Hollywood hit. His best known play is “Deathtrap”, a work that is often seen in local theater (I’ve seen it a couple of times around here), but it also was a successful movie, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. My favorite Levin novels though are “The Boys from Brazil” and “The Stepford Wives”.
AN_
ANN. Cape Ann is 30 miles north of Boston and is on the northernmost edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Cape was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. Early in his adventurous life Smith had been captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. His “owner” in his days of slavery was a woman called Tragabigzanda, and apparently the slave and owner fell in love. What we know today as Cape Ann, Smith originally called Cape Tragabigzanda in her memory.
A_I
ALI. The Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims differ in the belief of who should have taken over leadership of the Muslim faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Followers of the Sunni tradition agree with the decision that the Prophet Muhammad’s confidante Abu Bakr was the right choice to become the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. Followers of the Shia tradition believe that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet Muhammad’s own family, and favoured the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali.
LE_
LEE. The Second Battle of Deep Bottom (also called ‘Fussell’s Mill’) was fought in the middle of August 1864, in Henrico County, Virginia during the Civil War. The Union forces were led by Maj. Gen Winfield S. Hancock, and the Confederates by Gen Robert E. Lee and Maj, Gen W. Field.
E_P
ESP. Extrasensory perception (ESP)
_RIE
ERIE. The mighty Niagara River flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, and forms part of the border between the US and Canada. The river is only about 35 miles long (so some describe it as a ‘strait’) and has a drop in elevation of 325 feet along its length, with 165 feet of that drop taking place at Niagara Falls.
_RA
IRA. Individual Retirement Account (IRA)
EM_
EMU. The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the emus. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formation and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …
_EE
NEE. “Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.
_LS
ELS. The Chicago “L” is the second largest rapid transit system in the US, with the New York City Subway being the largest. The “L” is also the second oldest, again with the New York City Subway system having the honor of being around the longest. Note that the official nickname for the system is the “L” (originally short for “elevated railroad”), although the term “El” is also in common use (especially in crosswords as “ELS”). The L is managed by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).
_TA
ETA. Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.
AB_
ABE. The US five-dollar bill is often called an ‘Abe’, as President Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a ‘fin’, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.
EL_
ELS. Elevated railroad (El.)
S_L
SNL. Drew Barrymore has quite the pedigree, being a granddaughter of Hollywood icon John Barrymore. She appeared in her first movie at the age of five, in 1980’s “Altered States”, but her big break was in 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”. That same year she became the youngest host of “Saturday Night Live” at the age of seven. She has been invited back to host the show quite a few times and has now hosted six times, more than any other female celebrity.
O_R
ORR. The James Norris Memorial Trophy is awarded to the top defense player in the NHL each year, based on votes by members of the professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Bobby Orr won the award every single season from 1967-1975. Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate any more. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking …
O_O
ONO. Yoko Ono was born into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Her father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.
_TE
ETE. Our word ‘summer’ is ‘verano’ in Spanish, and ‘été’ in French.
AL_
ALI. ‘Ali’ is a 2001 biographical movie about Muhammad Ali, with Will Smith in the title role. Among other things, the film is noted for its realistic fight scenes. The scenes were realistic because Smith was really being hit, as hard as his opponents could manage.
ER_S
EROS. As always seem to be the case, the Greek gods Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, but Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male.
AB_
ABE. In one scene of the movie ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’, the title character pretends to be ‘Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago’ in order to get a table in an upscale restaurant.
EN_
ENS. The are two letters N (ens) sitting side-by-side in the word ‘Cannes’.
I_A
IRA. I have to tell you, when I first came to the US from Ireland, it was pretty confusing seeing huge signs alongside the freeway touting contributions to your IRA. Back in Ireland, that was pretty illegal (where IRA stands for the outlawed Irish Republican Army!).
EL_
ELI. The Eli Young Band is a country group from Texas founded by Mike Eli and James Young when they were roommates in the University of North Texas.
_NO
ENO. Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, his most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up.
_RA
ERA. Steroids are found commonly in nature, with familiar examples being cholesterol and testosterone. The controversial class of drugs called anabolic steroids (known informally as ‘roids’ or simply “steroids”) are artificially produced chemicals designed to mimic the effect of the male sex hormone, testosterone. They are termed “anabolic” as they build up cellular tissue (particularly muscle) in a process called anabolism. Taking anabolic steroids can be termed ‘juicing’, and the aggressive behavior that can be a side-effect is known as ‘roid rage’.
R_E
RAE. Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. Jepsen got her start on TV’s ‘Canadian Idol’ when she placed third in the show’s fifth season.
EN_
ENO. Musician Brian Eno started his career as synthesiser player with Roxy Music and then launched a very successful solo career in the seventies. Eno is considered as a pioneer of the ambient music genre.
IR_
IRA. Individual retirement account (IRA)
_TA
ETA. Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”.
S_L
SNL. Al Franken is the junior US Senator from Minnesota. Franken won the seat in 2009 after an extremely close race, a race that he eventually won by just 312 votes. Prior to serving in the Senate, Franken was a noted satirist and writer for ‘Saturday Night Live’.
_SLO
OSLO. ‘Hedda Gabler’ is a play by the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, first published in 1890. Considered one of the greatest theater roles, the title character of Hedda Gabler is sometimes referred to as ‘the female Hamlet’.
ES_
ESP. Extra Sensory Perception.
A_IA
ARIA. Conceptually ‘surtitles’ (also ‘supertitles’) at say an opera are like subtitles in a film. Translations of the libretto are projected above the stage for the benefit of the audience.
_TA
ETA. Expected time of arrival (ETA)
L_E
LEE. “Alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing “aweather”.
ST_
STE. In French, a woman (femme) becomes a saint (sainte … ste.) by being canonized (canonisée).
_AE
RAE. The actress Rae Dawn Chong is the daughter of Tommy Chong, of “Cheech and Chong” fame. Rae Dawn appeared in quite a few films in the eighties and nineties, including “The Color Purple” and “Commando”.
A_A
ANA. An ana (or plural anas) is a collection, including literature, that represent the character of a particular place or a person. Ana can be used as a noun, or as a suffix.
_NL
SNL. NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.
T_T
TNT. TNT is an abbreviation for Trinitrotoluene. The explosive chemical was first produced by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand in 1863, thinking he had produced a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate, so it was marketed as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.
_NO
ENO. Brian Eno is a musician, composer and record producer from England who first achieved fame as the synthesiser player with Roxy Music. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, Devo and U2.
_MU
EMU. The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formation and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests by farmers for military help were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …
IR_
IRA. As well as writing novels, Ira Levin was a dramatist and a songwriter. Levin’s first novel was “A Kiss Before Dying”, and his most famous work was “Rosemary’s Baby” which became a Hollywood hit. His best known play is “Deathtrap”, a production that is often seen in local theater (I’ve seen it a couple of times around here). “Deathtrap” was also was a successful movie, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. My favorite of Levin novels though are “The Boys from Brazil” and “The Stepford Wives”.
_RA
NRA. ‘Heat’ is slang for a firearm.
AL_
ALE. Peter Ballantine was a Scotsman who moved to the United States, founding his brewery in in Newark, New Jersey in 1849. Ballantine was very successful in its day, the third largest brewery in the country in the fifties, when it was the television sponsor of the new York Yankees. However, sales eventually declined and it had to close its doors in the sixties. The brand names are now owned by the Pabst Brewing Company, and apparently the beer sold under the label today bears no resemblance to the beer made by the Scotsman. If you’re a fan of the TV show “Frasier” you will probably recall that Frasier’s Dad drank Ballantine beer all the time.
AL_
ALI. Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta? Ali was presented with a gold medal during those ‘96 Games, a replacement for the medal he won at the 1960 Olympics. He had thrown the original into the Ohio River as a gesture of disgust after being refused service at a “whites only” restaurant.
_LI
ALI. The Disney animated feature “Aladdin” was released in 1992 and is one of the best features to come out of the studio, in my opinion, largely due to the great performance by Robin Williams who voiced the Genie. “Aladdin” was the most successful film of 1992, earning over $500 million worldwide, an unusual feat for an animated movie.
E_I
ELI. Eli is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.
_NO
ONO. Yoko Ono was born into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Her father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi, and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war, the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father returned, life started to return to normal, and Yoko was able to attend university, and was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.
_RIE
ERIE. The song “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal” was written in 1905. The lyrics are nostalgic, and look back to the days when traffic on the canal was pulled by mules, bemoaning the introduction of the fast-moving engine-powered barges. The first line is “I’ve got an old mule and her name is Sal”.
_NT
TNT. The Heavy Metal band known as AC/DC was formed by two brothers Malcolm and Angus Young in Australia. The group is usually called “Acca Dacca” down under.
OS_O
OSLO. Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city of Oslo burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.
A_E
ABE. The US five-dollar bill is often called an ‘Abe’, as President Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a ‘fin’, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.
EN_
ENS. There are three letters N in the word ‘inning’.
N_A
NRA. The NRA is the National Rifle Association, an organization that has been around since 1871. The group has had some celebrity presidents, including US President Ulysses S. Grant. It’s often said that the NRA is the most powerful lobbying group in Washington.
IR_
IRA. Individual retirement account (IRA)
_TE
ETE. One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in France.
AN_
ANA. The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.
ET_
ETA. Estimated time of arrival (ETA)
EP_
EPA. Environmental protection agency (EPA)
S_L
SNL. ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL)
AL_
ALI. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Dutch-American activist and author who was born in Somalia. One of Ali’s most notable campaigns is the opposition to female genital mutilation.
T_T
TNT. TNT is an abbreviation for TriNitroToluene. The explosive chemical was first produced by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand in 1863, who used it as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate, so it was marketed as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.
AR_
ARI. The Arizona Diamondbacks joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, the Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.
E_O
ENO. Brian Eno is a musician, composer and record producer from England who first achieved fame as the synthesiser player with Roxy Music. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, Devo and U2.
E_A
EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set up during the Nixon administration and began operation at the end of 1970.
AR_
ARI. The Arizona Diamondbacks joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, the Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.
NR_
NRA. National Rifle Association (NRA)
ER_S
EROS. As always seem to be the case, the Greek gods Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, but Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male.
_RI
ARI. The Arizona Diamondbacks joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, the Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.
E_IE
ERIE. Lake Erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes by area (Lake Ontario is the smallest). The lake takes its name from the Erie tribe of Native Americans that used to live along its southern shore. Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume and the shallowest, something for which nearby residents must be quite grateful. Being relatively shallow, much of Erie freezes over part way through most winters putting an end to most of the lake effect snow that falls in the snow belt extending from the lake’s edge.
AB_
ABE. Grampa Abe Simpson is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, the same actor who provides the voice for Homer.
_SD
LSD. LSD is short for LySergic acid Diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. But it wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …
E_U
EMU. An emu has one set of eyelids to blink with, keeping the eyeball moist. The second set is used to keep out dust.
_RA
ERA. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was written by the American suffragist leader, Alice Paul. Although Paul was successful in her campaign to get passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution (guaranteeing voting rights regardless of sex), her 1923 Equal Rights Amendment didn’t make it to the Senate floor until 1972. The amendment was passed by the Senate, and then headed to the state legislatures for the required ratification. 38 states had to approve the legislation for the amendment to be adopted, but only 35 states voted in favor before the deadline. So the amendment is still pending, although about half of the fifty states have adopted the ERA into their state constitutions.
_NO
ENO. Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, his most oft played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system starts up.
AL_
ALE. The foodstuff that we call ‘hops’ are actually the female flower of the hop plant. The main use of hops is to add flavor to beer. The town in which I live here in California used to be home to the largest hop farm in the whole world. Most of the harvested hops were exported all the way to the breweries of London where they could fetch the best price.
S_L
SNL. Saturday Night Live (SNL)
_TE
ETE. One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in France.
_PEE
EPEE. The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. The épée is similar to a foil and sabre, both of which are also thrusting weapons. However, the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.
ER_E
ERIE. Lake Erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes (Lake Ontario is the smallest). The lake takes its name from the Erie tribe of Native Americans that used to live along its southern shore. Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, something for which nearby residents must be quite grateful. Being relatively shallow, Erie freezes over part way through most winters putting an end to the lake effect snow that falls in the snow belt extending from the lake’s edge.
_IO
RIO. The 1942 movie ‘Now, Voyager’ stars Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty. Prouty got the title of her book from the Walt Whitman poem ‘The Untold Want’:
ET_
ETA. Estimated time of arrival (ETA)
ERO_
EROS. Eros was the Greek god of love, the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid.
_MU
EMU. Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs.
E_U
EMU. The cassowary is a large, flightless bird found mainly in New Guinea. One species of cassowary is the third tallest bird on the planet, second only to the ostrich and the emu.
TN_
TNT. ‘TNT’ is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.
E_IE
ERIE. Put-in-Bay, Ohio is a village on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. The village’s name comes from the old name for the harbor around which a settlement developed, namely ‘Pudding Bay’. The Pudding Bay name was likely chosen as the bay is shaped like a pudding sack. Put-in-Bay is home to Crystal Cave, the world’s largest geode.
S_E
STE. ‘Sainte’ (ste.) is French for ‘saint’, when referring to a female.
NR_
NRA. National Rifle Association (NRA)
E_S
ENS. In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years.
_PEE
EPEE. The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.
S_L
SNL. NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975, under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to pull together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he come up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.
N_E
NEE. “Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.
R_A
RNA. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. Amino acids are delivered in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA and then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.
_SD
LSD. LSD (colloquially known as ‘acid’) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …
_RA
IRA. I have to tell you, when I first came to the US from Ireland, it was pretty confusing seeing big signs along the freeway advocating IRA contributions. Back in Ireland, that was pretty illegal (where IRA stands for the outlawed Irish Republican Army!).
O_LO
OSLO. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian expressionist, most famous for his painting “The Scream”, painted in 1893. What a wonderful work that is, a true representation of expressionism. The Munch Museum in Oslo is dedicated to his work and life. In 2004, two of Munch’s paintings, “The Scream” and “Madonna”, were stolen from the Munch Museum by armed robbers who subdued the museum guards. The paintings were missing for two years, but recovered in 2006.
_TA
ETA. I guess the reference is to a chapter of a Greek fraternity, with eta being the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet.
E_EN
EDEN. The Sistine Chapel, in the Pope’s residence in Rome, takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV who was responsible for restoring the old Capella Magna in the 15th century. It was about a century later (1508-1512) that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of Pope Julius II.
A_E
ALE. Sam Adams beers are named in honor of the American patriot who played a role in the American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party. Samuel Adams came from a family associated the brewing industry, mainly involved in the production of malt.
ARI_
ARIA. P.D.Q. Bach is an alter ego used by musical satirist Peter Schickele. Schickele creates works that he bills as compositions written by P.D.Q. Bach, the ‘only forgotten son’ of Johann Sebastien Bach.
_TA
ETA. Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.
RA_
RAE. Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. Jepsen got her start on TV’s ‘Canadian Idol’ when she placed third in the show’s fifth season.
ES_
ESP. Extrasensory perception (ESP)
R_O
RIO. Duran Duran is a New Wave band from Birmingham in England. Duran Duran’s success was partially driven by some well-received MTV music videos in the 1980s. The band also worked hard on their image and paid a lot of money for very fashionable clothes in which they performed. As a result, one of Duran Duran’s nicknames is ‘the prettiest boys in rock’.
E_E
ETE. The Somme is a department in the very north of France, in the Picardy region. The Somme is famous as the site of devastating battles during WWI.
_NO
ONO. “Starpeace” is a concept album recorded by Yoko Ono in 1985. The project was designed as a message of peace, and a statement of opposition to the “Star Wars” missile defense system championed by President Reagan.
A_I
ARI. Ari Gold is a fictional character in the HBO series “Entourage”. “Entourage” tells the story of a rising film star, Vincent Chase, a native of New York but now learning to handle himself in Hollywood. Vincent’s Hollywood agent is Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven.
E_S
ENS. Half of the letters in the word ‘nine’ are Ns (ens).
A_IA
ARIA. The Metropolitan Opera (the Met) of New York City is the largest classical music organization in the country, presenting about 220 performances each and every year. Founded in 1880, the Met is renowned for using technology to expand its audiences. Performances have been broadcast live on radio since 1931, and on television since 1977. And since 2006 you can go see a live performance from New York in high definition on the big screen, at a movie theater near you …
AL_
ALI. Muhammad Ali first used his famous catchphrase ‘float like a butterfly and sting like a bee’ before his world title fight against Sonny Liston in 1964. Back then Ali still went by his birth name of Cassius Clay.
ER_
ERA. The Progressive movement had the goal of eliminating corruption in government in the US. The movement gave its name to the Progressive Era that lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s. Journalists who investigated and exposed corruption were given the name ‘muckrakers’. The term ‘muckraker’ was popularized by President Theodore Roosevelt when he referred to ‘the Man with the Muck-rake’, a character in John Bunyan’s allegory ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’.
ET_
ETA. Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”.
EDE_
EDEN. A dystopia is an imaginary community in which the residents live unhappily and in fear. ‘Dystopia’ is the opposite of ‘utopia’. One example of such a society is that described by George Orwell in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.
_RA
NRA. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (usually referred to as ‘the Brady Bill’) was enacted in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law instituted federal background checks for anyone wishing to purchase a firearm. The legislation is named for Jim Brady, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was paralysed for life when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate the president. Brady passed away in August 2014. The death was ruled a homicide, that he had died from the gunshot wound he received thirty-three years earlier.
_NA
RNA. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.
RI_
RIO. Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). ‘Rio de Janeiro’ translates as ‘January River’. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.
_LE
ALE. The foodstuff that we call ‘hops’ are actually the female flower of the hop plant. The main use of hops is to add flavor to beer. The town in which I live here in California used to be home to the largest hop farm in the whole world. Most of the harvested hops were exported all the way to the breweries of London where they could fetch the best price.
_ROS
EROS. As always seem to be the case, the Greek gods Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, but Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male.
O_O
ONO. John Lennon and Yoko Ono married at the height of the Vietnam War in 1969. The couple decided to use the inevitable publicity surrounding their wedding and honeymoon to promote peace in the world. They honeymooned in the Presidential Suite of the Amsterdam Hilton, inviting the world’s press to join them and to witness their ‘bed-in’. They spent the week talking about peace, and an end to war. The marriage and bed-in is chronicled by the Beatles in their song ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’.
_SP
ESP. Extra Sensory Perception.
L_D
LSD. LSD (colloquially known as ‘acid’) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …
E_EE
EPEE. The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.
OSL_
OSLO. Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city of Oslo burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.
AL_
ALI. ‘Ali’ is a 2001 biographical movie about Muhammad Ali, with Will Smith in the title role. Among other things, the film is noted for its realistic fight scenes. The scenes were realistic because Smith was really being hit, as hard as his opponents could manage.
EP_E
EPEE. The French word for sword is épée. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.
ET_
ETA. Expected time of arrival (ETA)
_EE
LEE. The Lee Highway used to connect New York City to San Francisco, passing through the South and Southwest. The route isn’t used much for cross-country travel anymore, not since the interstate system was constructed. Parts of the route are still known as the Lee Highway though, especially in Virginia and Tennessee.
ST_
STE. ‘Ste.’ is short for ‘Sainte’, the feminine form of ‘Saint’ in French.
L_E
LEE. The powerful 1957 movie ‘12 Angry Men’ was directed by Sidney Lumet, and has a stellar cast of ‘jury members’ including Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman and Ed Begley. If ever there is a movie that clearly was based on a play, it’s this one. Practically the whole film takes place on one set, the jury room.
EP_
EPA. ‘The Simpsons’ television show spawned ‘The Simpsons Movie’ in 2007. The film is all about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) taking on Homer Simpson after he pollutes the local lake.
_TA
ETA. Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.
_LI
ELI. The inventor Eli Whitney is a best known for inventing the cotton gin. Whitney also came up with the important concept of ‘interchangeable parts’. Parts that are interchangeable can be swapped out of equipment or perhaps used in related designs.
_LE
ALE. Samuel Adams was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, from Boston Massachusetts. Adams followed his father into the family’s malthouse business a few years after young Samuel graduated from Harvard. There were generations of Adams family members who were “maltsters” i.e. those producing malt needed for making beer. Samuel Adams is often described as a brewer, but he was actually a malster. The Samuel Adams brand of beer isn’t directly associated with the Adams family, but it is named in honor of the patriot.
_RIE
ERIE. The USS Niagara is a warship that was used in the War of 1812, serving in the Battle of Lake Erie. You can visit it today in the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, where it is docked behind the Erie Maritime Museum.
E_I
ELI. Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. The founder Eli Lilly was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.
EN_
ENS. There are two letters N (ens) in the word ‘nation’, one at each end (‘boundary’).
ER_
ERA. President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) is one of only four people to have held all four elected federal offices, namely US Representative, US Senator, US Vice-President and US President. As President he is perhaps best remembered for escalating involvement in the Vietnam War, and for his ‘Great Society’ legislation.
AB_
ABE. Grampa Abe Simpson is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, the same actor who provides the voice for Homer.
_RA
IRA. A rollover IRA is a subtype of a traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The funds for a rollover IRA come from another qualified plan such as a 401(k) or a 403(b) account.
RA_
RAE. Charlotte Rae is an American actress, best known for playing the character Edna Garrett on two sitcoms from the seventies and eighties: “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life”. Towards the end of the series, the Edna Garrett character operated her own gourmet food shop called ‘Edna’s Edibles’.
ER_S
EROS. Sigmund Freud believed that we humans are driven by two desires, the desire for life (the libido, or Eros) and the desire for death (Thanatos). Personally, I don’t think so …
_PA
EPA. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
AN_
ANN. Ann Sothern was a long-time film and television actress from Valley City in North Dakota. Sothern’s most celebrated role was playing the lead in the 1939 film ‘Maisie’ which led to a series of ‘Maisie’ comedy film sequels.
EN_
ENS. An ensign is the most junior rank of commissioned officer (usually) in many armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.
ET_
ETE. French circulating fans might be moving the warm air in the summer (‘été’).
