1. Are Americans getting shorter?
Each day on my way to and from work I pass through an urban university campus. This time of year brings a new crop of first year students moving into dorms and enjoying the fast approach of fall. In recent years I’ve noticed a halt in the growth of students, by which I mean their height. This September, on dorm move-in days, I saw several sets of parents who were discernibly taller than their matriculating offspring. What’s going on here? I found a possible answer in articles indicating Europeans are now taller than Americans. The reason, according to the authors (Europeans themselves) is America’s inferior health care system and our greater social/economic inequality. Studies are beginning to conclude Americans have long since stopped growing, and, by some measures, may actually be getting smaller.
2. Why does “Wednesday” have such a weird spelling?
I just set up an appointment for next Wednesday. I’ve always disliked that day, or, more precisely, the way “Wednesday” sounds to the ear and looks in print, because it obeys no rule of how pronunciation should relate to spelling. What accounts for its oddness? Someone posting a comment to the WordReference forum had this answer: “I would like to share a point that the modern spellings are derived from their ancient forms after a lot of phonological changes. According to the phonological phenomenon called “syncope”, we are bound to spell it as wenz-di. Please find more about these under the concepts of metaplasm. I hope this information proves useful to everyone.” So should we all start spelling it “wenzdi” (at least when texting)?
3. Is anybody else cringing as they watch that new iPod Nano “Jump” video?
Apple just introduced a new version of the iPod Nano that includes a video camera. One of the videos the company created to show off the feature is entitled “Jump,” available on the Apple website here and on CNN Video here (starting at 1:22). In a 15-second episode, three teenagers in swimsuits jump, upright, feet first, into the clear waters of a bay. My guess is this is somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and I estimate the jump to be between 10 and 20 feet straight down. Visible beneath the water’s surface is an ominous clump of large rocks — a gathering of boulders lying in wait. Am I the only one watching and wondering how dangerous this exercise was to life and limb?