Bernard Madoff, Ponzi Schemes and Ulysses S. Grant (New Word No. 7)

Economic historian John Steele Gordon has a fascinating article in the WSJ entitled "Pyramid Schemes Are as American as Apple Pie." In it, he defines "Ponzi scheme," a word I've heard a lot but never had a clear understanding of.

Ponzi schemes are scams where "early investors are paid dividends out of the money put in by later investors." No real capital is created, however, so it eventually falls apart. It's more commonly referred to as a pyramid scheme, which WordNet defines as "a fraudulent scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to the person who recruited them while expecting to receive payments from the persons they recruit; when the number of new recruits fails to sustain the hierarchical payment structure the scheme collapses with most of the participants losing the money they put in." Ponzi schemes are named after Charles Ponzi, who cooked up such a pyramid in 1919.

As for Ulysses Grant, read the whole thing for how he found himself an anachronistic victim of Mr. Ponzi. It's a great story.

[EDIT: Can anyone help me? Is their a difference between ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes? Can a pyramid scheme be legitimate, like selling Mary Kay cosmetics?]

Distaff Drinking (New Word No. 6)

This Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the 21st amendment, which repealed the 18th amendment and ended Prohibition. Crowds are hosting Repeal Parties in major cities to celebrate. In "Celebrating Cinco de Drinko" (WSJ), Eric Felten agrees and offers some interesting observations on the effect of Prohibition on American drinking culture and on the size of government.

He has a fascinating comment on "distaff drinking." A distaff is a tool used in spinning yarn, a rod which holds the unspun yarn and keeps it from tangling. Used here, it is metonymous for female. Wiktionary offers this definition: "anything traditionally done or considered of importance to women only; women considered as a group."

Here is what Felten has to say about distaff drinking before and after Prohibition:

Since speakeasies might be raided, most Americans did their drinking at home. Not only did this turn the cocktail party into an American institution, but it encouraged distaff drinking. Before Prohibition, reputable women didn't step into saloons. But once cocktails migrated to hearth and home, women joined in the fun. And for some women, a willingness to entertain cocktails coincided with a willingness to entertain other illicit pleasures. Lois Long -- who wrote the "Lipstick" column on nightlife for the New Yorker -- described her speakeasy days bluntly: "You never knew what you were drinking or who you'd wake up with."

Recognizing that this is only a snapshot of the period, what might this phenomenon have to say about the attempt to legislate morality? Does it place limits on legislation or just illustrate the need for better tactics? Should teetotallers try again? Or should we go the opposite direction and legalize marijuana?

EDIT: Here's one editorial encouraging the end of drug prohibition in the same way we ended alcohol prohibition. Good points are made, but I think he glosses over many of the difficulties. Here's a second editorial supporting the current drug policies of the United States, as effective and necessary.

Palaver (New Word No. 5)

In writing critically about the recent removal of North Korea from the United States list of terrorist-sponsoring states, John Bolton states:

So now Pyongyang has what it wants, and Washington has a vague, inadequate
invitation to more [nuclear weapons] verification palavering.

Google brought multiple definitions for "palaver" with varying connotations:

• chatter: speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly
• wheedle: influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering; "He palavered her into going along"
• blandishment: flattery intended to persuade
• loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric"
• talk, unnecessary talk, fuss; a meeting at which there is much talk; to discuss with much talk

Regardless of the definition chosen, clearly Bolton doesn't think the decision is a good one. North Korea has broken every international agreement it has made since 1953. With such an unimpressive history, Bolton is surely right that this will fare no better. The Bush Administration is grasping for anything they can spin as victory.

John Bolton is a polarizing figure for many, often branded as a warhawk and neocon. On North Korea, though, he is hard to argue with. Read the WSJ editorial here.

Paralipsis (New Word No. 4)

[A long time ago I started an indefinite series on New Words I learn. I haven't posted one in a long time, and it's not because I have had ready definitions for every word I've seen lately. It's because I've been lazy. I'll try to be more consistent.]

Here's a great one! Paralipsis is a rhetorical turn of "emphasizing or drawing attention to something by professing to say little or nothing about it, or affecting to dismiss it.” You should have plenty of opportunity to employ this in the upcoming months of electioneering.

The classic example is Ronald Reagan's one-liner during a presidential debate with Walter Mondale in 1984: "I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." Brilliant and dirty!

There is a goldmine of recent examples for the more cynical readers. For instance, Hillary claimed that Obama was not a Muslim "as far as I know." One wonders if it's also behind the high-minded insistence that Gov. Sarah Palin's family is "off-limits" -- in other words, toxic.

[I'm trying to think of similar Republican slights of hand, but I can't think of any. Surely this is due to my partisan blindedness, not due to the innocence of Republicans everywhere. If you remember some, feel free to drop it in the comments.]

Perhaps we give them too much credit. But for political-watchers, it's fun to imagine.

Short Hairs (New Word No. 3)

See if you can figure out what LBJ means in this statement about Walt Rostow (found in WSJ book review):

"He's going to be my goddamn intellectual," the president exulted, "and I'm going to have him by his short hairs."

Yup, you got it.

The Urban Dictionary entry reads:

A euphemism for "pubic hairs," itself in this context a euphemistic metonymy for "balls". It is used mostly in expressions such as "to have someone by the short hairs," which is to say "to have someone in a very difficult or hopeless situation," equivalent to "to have someone by the balls."

I don't know about you, but I've never heard 'metonymy' and 'balls' in the same sentence.

This discovery led me to another find: a blog dedicated to one of my own favorite topics, the abuse of the word "literally." I mean, it is like literally the best blog I've ever read.

Flotilla (New Word No. 2)

A flotilla is a fleet of small ships, as opposed to a squadron of large warships. It's of Spanish origin, but still used for some divisions of the United States Coast Guard.

Justin Taylor quoted Rev. David Short, using flotilla in his explanation of the Anglican communion.

The global communion is, at it were, 38 ships that are all chained together in the historic faith that we have received in the Scriptures, that is expressed in the creeds, in the formularies of the Anglican Church. We are a flotilla of 38 ships sailing toward, say, England. Since 2002, two of the independent provinces [US and Canada] have decided that we are going to sail in a different direction, say, Australia. So the chain that binds all these provinces together is being stretched and stretched. The ships are calling on two of the ships—Canada and the US—to turn around and head in the historic direction that the church has been heading.

Apparatchik (New Word No. 1)

Word choice in writing is so important. The well-placed word can add meaning, force, irony, even assonance that it's well-meaning synonym could only dream of conjuring.

I am fortunate to read good writing on a regular basis. Since I love good writing and since word choice is a strong component to good writing, I love reading new words. I love learning new words.

By far my favorite Google search feature is it's "define:" search. It has helped me countless times. And it not only helps with basic lexical units, but also technical jargon, slang and foreign phrases more akin to encyclopedia entries, like Hegelian dialectic or oeuvre (two recent searches). Now, I know a two-minute read is no sufficient primer on philosophical schools of thought, but I make no claim of expertise. I am an amateur.

In order to beef up my post count and to share my new words with persons other than my patient wife, I'm going to start posting new words here when I learn them, including the context and definition. The context is key, because I can't learn new words in a Word-A-Day format. A setting must capture the word in my mind.

My first word is apparatchik. Karl Rove used it in a WSJ editorial about the Democratic primary:

Neither Mr. Obama nor Mrs. Clinton can win with delegates elected in primaries and caucuses. In a real irony, the Democratic Party will settle its nominee battle with the aristocratic device of superdelegates -- party apparatchiks, interest group leaders and elected officials, many of whom gained their post years ago.

Apparatchik (says Wikipedia) originated as the colloquial term given to unelected professional functionaries of the Communist Party in the Soviet republic - those who had their position because of ideology, regardless the skill set required for the job. They were, literally, "agents of the apparatus."

It can be used now (a la Karl Rove) "to describe people who cause bureaucratic bottlenecks in otherwise efficient organizations. It is also frequently used to describe individuals appointed to positions in any government on the basis of ideological or political loyalty rather than competence." (NOTE: Technically, the plural is apparatchiki, not Rove's apparatchiks. However, I think Rove's usage is better.)