Not so much the green maverick on Main Street

Associated Press writer, Jeff Karoub, penned an article referring to the annual list of words compiled by the faculty at Lake Superior State University. What fun to read the list and think about the popularity (or over popularity) of words in common use.

The Oxford English Dictionary ,which is available to Georgia residents through GALILEO, has examples of the changes in meaning that words go through over time.

Here's what the OED offers on maverick

2. An unorthodox or independent-minded person; a person who refuses to conform to the views of a particular group or party; an individualist. Also in extended use.

1880 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 19 Aug. 4/5 We..will crush radicals, greenbackers and all other foes of democracy, especially those independent gentlemen, those political mavericks. 1892 R. KIPLING Life's Handicap 195 A very muzzy Maverick smote his sergeant on the nose. 1948 Chicago Daily News 11 June 16/7 One Republican Senator, and not by any means a conspicuous maverick, pointed out that the Senate might have acted. 1957 Oxf. Mag. 17 Oct. 22/2 The story is not just of local boy making good, but also, and more significantly, of maverick making friends. 1989 Money & Family Wealth Mar. 25/2 Although the Abbey National is one of the oldest building societies, in recent years it has cultivated an image as a maverick and a mould-breaker. 1994 Hypno 3 69/2 James is a maverick of disturbingly beautiful techno.

Yes, maverick has several meanings and a history to our understanding of what a maverick is!
What I noticed is the RSS feed that the OED offers to those who might like to add a word to their vocabulary. So here's to New Years resolutions- subscribe to the OED RSS feed and use that word twice before the next word appears in your feed reader. Amaze your acquaintances with the expansion of your vocabulary.

You may get the current password to access GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

0-16

Part of being a librarian is having a familiarity with statistics. Knowledge of where and how to find statistics is part of the job description. Statistics are also a part of our everday lives, from the price of gas to stock prices.

One statistic that you have probably heard a lot about in the last week has been 0-16. This figure has been widely reported in all avenues of the news media, including on venues that are not sports related. 0-16 refers to the the record of the Detroit Lions football team of the National Football League. Losing Sunday, the Lions became the first team in league history to lose all 16 regular season games.

Several teams have had perfect losing seasons in the history of the league. Perhaps the best known is the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs went 0-14 that year. However, the Bucs had a bit of an excuse. That year the Bucs were an expansion team, not expected to compete. (Note that the NFL expanded its regular season to 16 games in the late 1970's.) The last pure 'defeated' season before the Bucs was during World War II.

Several teams have gone winless but have managed to get a tie over the course of a season. The Dallas Cowboys, in their first year, went 0-11-1. More common is the dreaded 1-15 season, a mark achieved by several franchises, including the Patriots, Colts, Dolphins, and Jets, all of whom currently or once played in the AFC East Division. The Miami Dolphins spoiled some fans idea of the ultimate season when they won their singular victory late last year, ending the notion of having one team go undefeated in the regular season, the Patriots, with another going undefeated. The Panthers once went 1-15, winning their first game and losing the rest. The 1989 Cowboys were perhaps the most famous of the 1-15 teams, winning the Super Bowl just three years later.

One great website for football statistics is Pro-Football-Reference.com. This website contains a plethora of information on coaching records, draft picks, and player stats. And most statistics are better than the dreaded 0-16.

JWF

Boxing Day

The last week of the year . . . A time for winding down, putting away all the Christmas decor, and figuring out where you put the free 2009 calendar that you got in the mail.

Speaking of calendars, you may have noticed on yours a little known and understood holiday on December 26th known as Boxing Day. But what in the world is Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is a holiday associated with the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries of the British Commonwealth. Boxing Day is celebrated on the 26th of December, unless that day falls on a weekend, in which case Boxing Day is often moved back to the next Monday.

There are several possible explanations for the origins of Boxing Day. The entry on Encyclopedia Britannica (available through Galileo , get the password from your Georgia Librarian) notes that Boxing Day may have started out of two possible traditions. The first was the giving of alms or donations to the poor, often collected in small boxes, at Christmas. The second was the later tradition of servants having the day after Christmas off. Servants were often given the day off and were given boxes of goodies (similar to care packages).

There are other origins of the holiday. The urban legends website Snopes.com notes that in all the origin explanations, the main theme is that of the poor being given something by the wealthy.

Boxing Day in Canada has evolved into something similar to the huge post-Christmas shopping day in the United States. Sales and returns at big box stores are often the theme of the day. Britannica also notes that, for whatever reason, English colonists in America did not carry the holiday over from England, perhaps explaining why Boxing Day is not an official holiday in the United States.

Now you can stare at December 26th on your calendar in 2009 and not be confused.

JWF