Zack Preble

I just found a very interesting map of Europe delineating countries by age of sexual consent.
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The day I first heard the etymology of the word ’sincere’ I thought I had just acquired one of the most valuable nuggets of trivia. The origin of the word involved Roman sculptors who corrected imperfections in their work by filling them with wax ‘cera’. A statue with no wax would be ‘without wax’ or ’sine cera’. Great story but most probably untrue.

I’ve just been invited to be a baptismal godfather to my friend’s daughter. At first I felt honored and privileged. Then I realized what was going on…I was selected by elimination! According to the Church, a godparent must meet the following criteria:

1. A child must have one practicing Roman Catholic godparent in good standing with the Church
2. This Catholic godparent must be at least 16 years old and be mature enough to understand, accept and carry out the duties of a godparent.
3. A godparent must have received the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.
4. A godparent must be living an exemplary life consistent with faith and morals as taught by the Roman Catholic Church.
5. A godparent must be actively practicing the faith.
6. A nonCatholic, baptized Christian may be chosen as a Christian Witness, as long as one godparent is Catholic.
7. If two godparents are chosen, they may not be of the same gender.
8. There may be no more than two godparents.
9. If both are Catholic, both must meet all the criteria above.
10. Cannot be the mother or father of the baby.
11. If married, the marriage must be in accord with the laws of the Church.

The other unspoken criteria is that the godparent must be a friend of the family right?

Ok, so they are turning a blind eye to number 4. I’m still thrilled.

I love expanding my vocabulary by watching Seinfeld. There are always new and interesting words to learn. Take this dialog where George feels the waitress was making fun of him.

George: Did you see the way she pointed at the check? She gave me the finger.
Jerry: That’s how waitress types express derision. They don’t want to get their mouths dirty.

So the word I learned here is derision. It means ridicule, mockery. Now how about this one, where Kramer finds tons of checks from Nana in Jerry’s drawer.

Kramer: Jerry, your grandmother gave you this gift. She wants you to spend the money, to have the fun that she can’t have. Oh, this is tantamount to a slap in the face.
Jerry: Oh, get out of here.
Kramer: Jerry, a gift not enjoyed is like a flower that doesn’t blossom.
Jerry: Alright, alright, I’ll cash the checks.
Kramer: Yeah.

The word here is tantamount which means ‘equal to’ or the ‘the same as’.

After reading about a 10.5 ounce baby born in Germany I decided to find out what the extremes for babies is since neither this baby nor the 17 lb baby born in Russia set any world records. So here it is:

The lightest (tiniest) baby ever born: Rumaisa Rahman weighed just 8.6 ounces when she was born in Chicago in 2004. The earliest baby (least time in womb): Amillia Sonja Taylor, born Oct. 24, 2006 after just under 22 weeks (normal gestation is 39 weeks).
Heaviest baby ever born: 22 pound baby boy born in Italy in 1955.

It is legal to have an abortion without any reason up to 24 weeks of gestation. Abortions after 24 weeks are only legal if there is a ‘risk of abnormality’.

I had never heard the expression ‘canary in a coal mine’ until this morning while listening to the radio. I looked it up and thought I’d share what I learned in case you had never heard it either.

Back in the day, coal mines had no ventilation and toxic gases could build up. Canaries are very sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide so miners would bring a caged canary to work and knew it was safe as long as the canary was whistling.  The expression means now refers to the signs of things to come.