Author: Allan Metcalf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199752524
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
It is said to be the most frequently spoken (or typed) word on the planet, more common than an infant's first word ma or the ever-present beverage Coke. It was even the first word spoken on the moon. It is "OK"--the most ubiquitous and invisible of American expressions, one used countless times every day. Yet few of us know the hidden history of OK--how it was coined, what it stood for, and the amazing extent of its influence. Allan Metcalf, a renowned popular writer on language, here traces the evolution of America's most popular word, writing with brevity and wit, and ranging across American history with colorful portraits of the nooks and crannies in which OK survived and prospered. He describes how OK was born as a lame joke in a newspaper article in 1839--used as a supposedly humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect" (ie, "all correct")--but should have died a quick death, as most clever coinages do. But OK was swept along in a nineteenth-century fad for abbreviations, was appropriated by a presidential campaign (one of the candidates being called "Old Kinderhook"), and finally was picked up by operators of the telegraph. Over the next century and a half, it established a firm toehold in the American lexicon, and eventually became embedded in pop culture, from the "I'm OK, You're OK" of 1970's transactional analysis, to Ned Flanders' absurd "Okeley Dokeley!" Indeed, OK became emblematic of a uniquely American attitude, and is one of our most successful global exports. "An appealing and informative history of OK." --Washington Post Book World "After reading Metcalf's book, it's easy to accept his claim that OK is 'America's greatest word.'" --Erin McKean, Boston Globe "Entertaininga treat for logophiles." --Kirkus Reviews "Metcalf makes you acutely aware of how ubiquitous and vital the word has become." --Jeremy McCarter, Newsweek
Author: Tom Freeman-Keel
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 9780786710454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311
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Book Description
A fascinating tale of deceipt and secret lives peels back the layers on the fifth Duke of Portland, a strange man who deliberately cloaked his life in mystery and his eccentric family, in a strange saga of fratricide, missing heirs, disputed fortunes, mock burials, clandestine marriages, fraud, perjury, blackmail, and bribery.
Author: Sandra McDonald
Publisher: Lethe Press
ISBN: 1590210948
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
"A beautiful adventuress from the ancient city of New Dalli sets off to reclaim her missing lover. What secrets does she hide beneath her silk skirts? A gay cowboy flees the Great War in search of true love and the elusive undead poet Whit Waltman, but at what cost? A talking statue sends an abused boy spinning through a great metropolis, dodging pirates and search for a home. On these quests, you will meet macho firefighters, tiny fairies, collapsible musicians, lady devils and vengeful sea witches.""--Cover, p. [4].
Author: Dominic Carrillo
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781519491190
Category : Bullying
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The hero is Paco Jones, a biracial Mexican kid with few friends. He's recently transferred from his old junior high to a private school, and because he's the poor new kid, he soon finds himself the least popular. He's jeered at during lunch, called Paco Taco, and ridiculed for being different. So what hope is there for him when he falls for Naomi Fox, a popular girl already involved with a popular guy? Through dumb luck and a few clever moves, Paco soon finds himself on center stage amidst a twisted middle school mess.
Author: Atlin Merrick
Publisher: Clan Destine Press
ISBN: 0645289906
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 338
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Book Description
Tales for those who never outgrew goosebumps Here are stories for lovers of chupacabras and hulders, griffins and gargoyles. Here be darkly cheery tales of ancient creatures beneath still waters, in the attic, or the shadows right by the bed. Herein an autistic hiker meets a cryptid who wants her camera; a Japanese tanuki seeks his fox daughter; and two women fall in love, never mind one's a swamp monster. Here be stories of changelings, nix, and demons adopted, of hungry kraken and cryptids we'd see if only, if only we looked into treetops, behind doors, or in our own back gardens. Here there be monsters. Thank all the gods.
Author: James Landers
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826272339
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
Today, monthly issues of Cosmopolitan magazine scream out to readers from checkout counters and newsstands. With bright covers and bold, sexy headlines, this famous periodical targets young, single women aspiring to become the quintessential “Cosmo girl.” Cosmopolitan is known for its vivacious character and frank, explicit attitude toward sex, yet because of its reputation, many people don’t realize that the magazine has undergone many incarnations before its current one, including family literary magazine and muckraking investigative journal, and all are presented in The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine. The book boasts one particularly impressive contributor: Helen Gurley Brown herself, who rarely grants interviews but spoke and corresponded with James Landers to aid in his research. When launched in 1886, Cosmopolitan was a family literary magazine that published quality fiction, children’s stories, and homemaking tips. In 1889 it was rescued from bankruptcy by wealthy entrepreneur John Brisben Walker, who introduced illustrations and attracted writers such as Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and H. G. Wells. Then, when newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased Cosmopolitan in 1905, he turned it into a purveyor of exposé journalism to aid his personal political pursuits. But when Hearst abandoned those ambitions, he changed the magazine in the 1920s back to a fiction periodical featuring leading writers such as Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, and William Somerset Maugham. His approach garnered success by the 1930s, but poor editing sunk Cosmo’s readership as decades went on. By the mid-1960s executives considered letting Cosmopolitan die, but Helen Gurley Brown, an ambitious and savvy businesswoman, submitted a plan for a dramatic editorial makeover. Gurley Brown took the helm and saved Cosmopolitan by publishing articles about topics other women’s magazines avoided. Twenty years later, when the magazine ended its first century, Cosmopolitan was the profit center of the Hearst Corporation and a culturally significant force in young women’s lives. The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine explores how Cosmopolitan survived three near-death experiences to become one of the most dynamic and successful magazines of the twentieth century. Landers uses a wealth of primary source materials to place this important magazine in the context of history and depict how it became the cultural touchstone it is today. This book will be of interest not only to modern Cosmo aficionadas but also to journalism students, news historians, and anyone interested in publishing.
Author: Edward Arthur Einhorn
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
ISBN: 1570918716
Category : Cats
Languages : en
Pages : 35
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Book Description
Ethan wakes up one morning with a talking cat on his head. The cat refuses to budge until Ethan wins a game of probability.
Author: Bill Horne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780971033719
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
"We are all a little wild here with numerous projects of social reform," Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1840 about the spirit of his time. "Not a reading man but has a draft of a new community in his waistcoat pocket." Almost a century later, five idealists, similarly committed to social reform, founded a new community, Camp Woodland, in upstate New York inspired by the spirit of their time. Some founders were educators. Others contributed administrative talents to the camp's operations. All were committed to racial and social justice and cultural diversity. Well before the currency of the Civil Rights Movement, Camp Woodland introduced a racially and ethnically diverse group of campers and staff into a traditional, rural community and succeeded in having its progressive vision accepted and embraced by its neighbors. How was a camp like Woodland able to become part of the rural community in which it was located? How did it earn the trust and acceptance of its mountain neighbors? And how was it able to harmonize potentially incompatible cultures? The Improbable Community tells the story of this achievement and recounts the collection of folk music, folklore and history by Camp Woodland that was an outgrowth of the friendships it formed.
Author: Robin Gregory
Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
ISBN: 9781619847279
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
Having won 21 awards, The Improbable Wonders of Moojie Littleman is being lauded as a classic. A haunting, visionary tale spun in the magical realist tradition of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the profoundly unique voice and heart-stirring narrative recall great works of fiction that explore the universal desire to belong. Early 1900s, Western America. A lonely, disabled boy with a nasty temper and miraculous healing powers, Moojie is taken by his father to live at his grandfather's wilderness farm. There, Moojie meets otherworldly outcasts and wants to join them. Following a series of trials--magical and mystical--he is summoned by the call to a great destiny ... if only he can survive one last terrifying trial.
Author: Justin Martell
Publisher: Jawbone Press
ISBN: 9781908279873
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
As Bing Crosby once put it, Tiny Tim represents 'one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business'. In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the forty-something falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-toe Thru' The Tulips With Me', catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of those attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. But while he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Here, drawing on dozens of new interviews, never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music.
