USS John F Kennedy in Malta

I received this picture today from my aunt. It was forwarded with this question:

Have you ever considered how big a U.S. aircraft carrier really is?

Here is a picture of the USS John F Kennedy (CV-67) docking in Malta. The comparison to buildings, automobiles, and city streets gives some conception of its size.

I couldn't resist posting this picture of JFK, which was the first ship I was ever assigned to in the Navy. Stationed in Spain in the early 70's, I was ordered TAD (Temporary Additional Duty) aboard CV-67 in the North Atlantic (for about a month, as I recall). If memory serves, we were participating in a NATO exercise. We crossed the Arctic Circle aboard ship, making us all Blue Noses. This designation is similar to that of Shellback (for one who crosses the Equator aboard ship) but did not entail the extensive initiation process of Shellback.

I later served on another short TAD trip aboard the Kennedy (CV-67) in the Mediterranean. The memorable part of that trip was being flown off the ship on the carrier's COD, nicknamed Caroline, in honor of President Kennedy's daughter.

I previously wrote about my time aboard aircraft carriers here.

A is for Amen

Recently someone made what he considered a clever comment about three English words known around the world—amen, hallelujah, and Coca-Cola. The ironic thing is that none of the three is really English. (Okay, I suppose we can consider the word Coca-Cola in its form as a trademark to be a native American English invention, but coca and cola themselves are simply transliterations from their original languages—Quechua and Temne respectively).

Amen
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language gives the etymology of amen as follows: [from Middle English from Old English from Late Latin from Greek from Hebrew] The word passed through these languages virtually unchanged, simply transliterated in each case.

The original Hebrew word amen is part of a wonderful constellation of words having to do with truth (see my earlier entry)—or faithfulness. The word amen has been used in its untranslated form in virtually all of the world’s languages and thereby has blessed and enriched virtually all of the world’s peoples.

Hallelujah
This is another Hebrew word that has found its way around the world without translation. Although today it is commonly used as an exclamation or interjection used to express joy or praise, the original word is in fact an imperative, i.e. “praise the LORD” (the word LORD being an evasive synonym in English for the name of God after the pattern used in Hebrew). The word Hallelujah (and its unaspirated Greek form alleluia) are among the most popular words in western religious hymns and songs of praise.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is not, strictly speaking, an English word either. Coca comes through Spanish from Quechua, from the dried leaves of the plant from which cocaine is extracted.

Cola, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is either of two tropical African evergreen plants having nutlike seeds yielding an extract that contains caffeine and theobromine and is used in carbonated beverages and pharmaceuticals. Cola finds its origin in West Africa, possibly from the word kola (the kola nut) in the Temne language.

A is for Apostrophe

Well, it's been over seven months since I last delved into the dictionary to dig up some tasty morsels (the word "delve" derives from a word meaning "dig," don't you know?), so perhaps it's appropriate that my first letter back represents a gap, something missing.

Although its (not it's) usage is very straightforward, it is (it's) one of the most misused marks of punctuation in the English language. There are some very entertaining web sites on the Internet concerning apostrophe usage.

There are two primary definitions of the word "apostrophe." The first is the aforementioned diacritical one to signify a gap, something missing, i.e. missing letters. It can also be used to show possession or form plurals.

The second definition of apostrophe is a rhetorical device in which an absent person or personified object is addressed. For example, "O death, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory?" or "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so" or "O Captain, my Captain" or "O Apostrophe, half a Quote, and yet so much less!"

The etymology of the word "apostrophe" is from Greek through Latin, literally "the act of turning away."

ἀποστροφή

Here's the link to the dictionary definition:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/apostrophe

A is for Adit

All of you crossword puzzlers (cruciverbalists) out there will know this word for a mine entrance—adit—because it's a fine crossword building block—two common consonants that work as a first, last or middle letter and two vowels. It fits nicely into a crossword puzzle.

If you don't do crosswords, you may never have run across this word. You're welcome!

(I found out from my trusty dictionary that the word adit means specifically "an almost horizontal mine entrance" and that it comes from the Latin aditus, access, past participle of adire, to approach from ad, to, toward and ire, to go.)

Trivial side note: Ad was one of the first words we learned in first-year Latin. We learned it as "ad with the accusative," indicating the case for the object of the preposition. The prefix ad- in English is one of those useful "bits and pieces" that help us figure out the meaning of a word when no dictionary is handy (heaven forbid that should happen very often!).

Orig: 6/1/08

A is for Aircraft Carrier

Okay, so this is really not about aircraft carriers; it's more pictures of the family, but I couldn't come up with a good A-word, and after all, I have served on three different aircraft carriers (if only for short periods of time).

Yesterday, we saw some pictures of Aidan. Now for more pictures, including Ellie, Ryan, and Jack. The first day I was in town we ate at a wonderful little Korean place. Here are the boys.



Here's Jack watching TV. He has a DVD called Baby Einstein, which I also found captivating. (It's in seven languages, teaches common phrases, alphabets, and simple songs in Hebrew, Italian, Russian, Japanese, French, German, and English).


Here's another view of the little guy watching his DVD (i.e. learning seven languages).



Here are some shots of Aidan and Jack.




Aidan is always talking to his little brother and loves to hold him and play with him.



As Ellie said on her blog, sometimes you take a bunch of pictures, and you just have to post them all. Here's another shot of the boys.



Jack seems to be saying, "Where am I, and what am I doing here?"



Oh, okay, everything's all right now.



Here he is—sleeping sweetly. Frère Jacques; Dormez-vous?


A picture before saying goodbye at the airport.


A family picture.

And a silly version.

Sabba saying goodbye to Jack.

Oh, and about those aircraft carriers. Here they are. I spent a short time on the John F. Kennedy (CV-67) in the North Atlantic and again in the Mediterranean.

I spent a month or so on USS America (CV-66) in the Med.

USS Independence (CV-62) had a long escalator to bring flight crews quickly from below decks. I did a couple of months TAD (Temporary Additional Duty) aboard Indy in the Mediterranean.

Here she is in Yokosuka, Japan, which happens to have been my last duty station.

Orig: 5/20/08