TIL about the etymology of the word ampersand. Looks like it’s the first time it’s been mentioned in this thread, although a search shows that it’s come up in other SDMB fora.
Despite appearances, the history of ampersand owes nothing to amp or sand. The familiar character & derives from a symbol that was used in place of the Latin word et, which also means “and.” In the late Middle Ages, single letters used as words—words like I—were, when spelled, incorporated into a phrase that clarified that they were in fact individual words. For I the phrase was I per se, I, which in Latin means “I by itself (is the word) I”. In early lists of the alphabet, Z was followed by the symbol &, which was rendered & per se, and, meaning “& by itself (is the word) and.” Over the years, that phrase (which when spoken aloud was pronounced “and per se and”) was shortened by English speakers to ampersand.
The term ampersand is a corruption of and (&) per se and, which literally means “(the character) & by itself (is the word) and.” The symbol & is derived from the ligature of ET or et, which is the Latin word for “and.”
— Geoffrey Glaister, Glossary of the Book[2]
Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter that could also be used as a word in itself (“A,” “I” and “O”) was referred to by the Latin expression per se (“by itself”), as in “per se A” or “A per se A.” The character &, when used by itself as opposed to more extended forms such as &c., was similarly referred to as “and per se and.” This last phrase was routinely slurred to “ampersand” and the term had entered common English usage by 1837.
Meh. My Dad was a West Point graduate and a trumpet player. The number of silent drill and marching band competitions I got dragged to is incalculable. I am more surprised that the US has no civilian/non-musical version.
I’m not sure what’s harder, to do that while playing an instrument, or to keep that many people in sync without the drums.
This one took my breath away when I read it a few days ago:
21% of adults in the USA are illiterate.
54% of adults in the USA have a literacy below 6th grade level.
Of those with low or no literacy, only 34% were born outside the US.
More than one in five can’t read. More than 1 in 2 read below sixth grade level. So many things make more sense once you know that. And yet our politicians are attacking education budgets. Holy Og on high.
I don’t find it surprising. I’ve met a lot of people. They have no desire to read and would only attempt to read as a some kind of last resort measure in the face of a dire problem, and then if they try they’ll usually give up quickly.
Deauville and Trouville are seaside towns on opposite sides of the river Touques in Normandy, France.You can get from one to the other by using a sweet little ferry - here’s a streetview of it:
But what happens if there’s a really low tide, and the ferry can’t run? Well, you see that tower just beside the ferry? It does this:
(To fully understand how this works, you’re going to have the twiddle around with the second streetview).
Two more bits of information - first, this only happens at really low tides (we were disappointed); and second, there’s a perfectly good road bridge a couple of hundred meters upstream, so it’s all a bit pointless really (but rather fun).
Woohoo! It took 20 years, but I’m finally developing a reputation here.
Some years ago, and I don’t know how it happened, I stumbled across a video of some kind of virtual horse racing from Japan. It’s very strange; for starters, not all the horses are horses. That’s when I first realized I’ll never fully understand Japan. The precision walking is pretty normal in comparison.
I think they only do that during German drinking songs. However, every song ever written is a German drinking song.
Horse racing world finals. Japan World Cup! Holding of the race to determine the world of true was a long-held dream of Japanese horse racing fan decision. First prize, 1 billion yen of extraordinary well beyond the Dubai World Cup and the Arc de Triomphe prize. Can be played only top-notch thoroughbred, race of the world’s highest mountain “Japan World Cup” was finally born. All of Horsemen’s dream. Who will grab the vertex within the attention of unprecedented -??
Apparently, “horse race nights” are very popular in england ! Basically it seems to be
a social event where people place bets on videos of races from around the world
(so people are unlikely to have seen it before). I guess these days, they’d probably
use virtual horses so people can’t look up the results on their smart phones.
Can’t see the attraction myself …
Coming soon to a casino near me will be something called ‘historical horse racing’. The machine will have access to something like 1,000 horse races, and will present the player with the odds on each horse and other info like jockey’s and trainer’s winning percentages. Information like the racetrack, date, horses names, and jockeys are not available to the player.
The player makes his bet(s) and a replay of the race is shown.
My father-in-law was a veritable walking encyclopedia of horse racing. I have no doubt that in many cases he could identify the race, and tell you who won, given only that information. But even a non-enthusiast could use a database of races to identify the race from that information.
Here’s what’s available to a player, according to Las Vegas Advisor:
When a bet is made, a race is randomly selected from a video library of nearly 100,000 of them. Obviously, no identifying information, such as where and when the race was run and which horses and jockeys participated, is revealed. You can do your own “handicapping” by viewing a “skill graph” from the Daily Racing Form , which shows winning percentages of the anonymous jockeys and trainers and the horses’ post positions
I submit that even your FIL couldn’t figure out which race was being presented to him.
That’s probably referring to what’s called “functional literacy”. Complete illiteracy, i.e., can’t read at all, is usually reckoned at 1% or so. Someone who’s functionally illiterate can pick out words, but too slowly and painfully to be able to read, say, a story.
@Treppenwitz , there are lots and lots of movable bridges, of many different designs, in Cleveland. I think I heard once that we had a record number, even? Certainly there are some that lift straight up, some that pivot up from one end on a cantilever, and at least one that rotates horizontally.
@Robot_Arm , virtual horse-racing is a fairly popular fund-raising activity around here. Our virtual horses are mostly horses, but no reason why they shouldn’t be Pokemon or whatever.
You’d think that the players would quickly build a database from what information they do have.
Read this and then decide if you still agree with your statement. My earlier quote was wrong, in that there is a library of 100,000 races that the machine chooses from.
