Page 14 - August 2020 Boomer Times & Senior Life
P. 14

Viral Words                                     PP Media Buzz PP

          Part 2 of 2 By Richard Lederer, Continued from July  The Banning of Gone With The Wind
      Another word we’re seeing and hearing a lot these days is quarantine.      — By Darwin Porter
     The first meaning of  quarantine, from the Italian quarantina, was a     Censorship of films, plays, TV shows, and
     period of forty days during which a widow had the right to continue   books, is rearing its ugly head again.
     living in her deceased husband’s house that was to be seized for debt.   In a robust democracy, censorship is rare. As
      Soon the word took on a related meaning—the forty days in which   a pervasive part of a culture, it belongs more to
     a ship suspected of harboring disease had to remain in isolation. The  totalitarian regimes as evidenced by what can
     arbitrary number was based on the notion that after forty days, the  be seen—or not—in China and Russia today. In
     disease on board would either have run its course and ended any  the past, Josef Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda
     chance of contagion or would have burst forth its ghastly fury. Finally,   minister, was adept at censorship.
                                                                Since the birth of motion pictures, self-ap-
     quarantine broadened to signify any period of sequestering, and the   pointed American  censors  have aggressively
     reference to forty has vanished.                         tried to impose their values on their fellow
      Then there’s the word  vaccinate. For centuries, smallpox was a   citizens. In 1897, an early silent film provoked
     scourge  of  humanity,  scarring  and  killing  millions.  Edward  Jenner,  a   outrage by portraying a man passionately kiss-
     British doctor, noticed that milkmaids did not generally get smallpox  ing his wife.
     and theorized that the pus in the blisters that these women developed   In 1907, Chicago became the first city in America to grant its chief
     from cowpox protected them from the more virulent smallpox. In 1796,  of police the power to censor any film before it was released. That was
     Jenner found that inoculating people with a serum containing the lymph   followed with towns and cities across America appointing censorship
     gland fluid of cows infected with cowpox virus prevented the similar   boards.
     smallpox. That’s why vaccine, vaccination, and vaccinate contain the   H See AND hear Darwin Porter every month on Zoomertimes TV.  H
                    Latin name for “cow,” vacca.                  Tune in on YouTube (search zoomertimes TV), on Facebook.
                      To read this entire article, go to BoomerTimesFL.  H  com/Boomertimes, or on BoomerTimesFL.com  H
                                                                Fearing Federal regulation, Hollywood in the 1930s imposed its own
                       Dr. Richard Lederer is the author of more than 50   censorship board, stifling free expression until independent producers
                     books about language, history and humor, including   broke free in the 1960s.
                     his newest books, “A Treasury of Halloween Humor”
                     and “A Treasury of Christmas Humor.” To order signed   Now, in 2020, new outcries of rage are being expressed as self-ap-
                     copies, explore his website, verbivore.com or write him   pointed “cultural commissars” want to decide what you can see or read.
      Richard Lederer  at richardhlederer@gmail.com.            To read this entire article, go to BoomerTimesFL.com.

              From The August Cover

           A Boat Appropriately Named

                          By Dan Verity
      Moriches, NY—Lisa and Jeff Zahradka have always enjoyed the
    waters off Long Island, New York. Lifelong boaters, the Zahradkas
    recently retired and decided to downsize their lives. Having sold their
    enormous 47-foot Egg Harbor, Lisa and Jeff purchased a gently-used
    37-foot cabin cruiser; a much more manageable pleasure boat for the
    retired lifestyle.
      To read this entire article, go to BoomerTimesFL.com.
                                                                                PRINTER AD
              From The August Cover

     The Green Iguana Is Running Wild In South Florida
                               The green iguana, also known as
                              the American iguana, is a large, a bo-
                              real, mostly herbivorous species of
                              lizard. The green iguana ranges over
                              a large geographic area; is native
                              from southern Brazil and Paraguay
                              as far north as Mexico, and have
     been introduced from South America to Puerto Rico and are very
     common throughout the island, where they are colloquially known
     as (“bamboo chicken” or “chicken of the trees”) and considered an
     invasive species; in the United States. Feral populations also exist
     in South Florida (including the Florida Keys), Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin
     Islands and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.          (From Wikipedia)
     14 / BoomerTimes & SeniorLife                  BoomerTimesFL.com                                     AUGUST 2020
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