Frogs that reën from the sky and tips for the Christmas concert

This Week in History

13 December 1989: FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela meet for the first time.

13 December 1906: Philosopher and writer Laurens van der Post is born in Philippolis in the Free State.

14 December 1911: Norwegian Roald Amundsen is the first man to reach the South Pole.

15 December 1938: The first coelacanth is caught off East London. It was previously thought to have been long extinct.

16 December 1913: The Vrouemonument in Bloemfontein is unveiled, and on this day in 1949 also the Voortrekker Monument.

20 December 1924: Adolf Hitler is released on parole after eight months in prison for treason.

21 December 1989: US forces attack Panama and remove Manuel Noriega from power.

23 December 1888: Vincent van Gogh cuts off his ear after a quarrel with his friend Paul Gauguin.

Afrikaans, say WAT?

Some Afrikaans words not in frequent use these days, from the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal:

ooghaardou:

Dew-filled drizzle. “Getem kyk hy op na waar die reëndruppels al weer veryl: dit was maar net ’n ooghaardoutjie." (From Jan Rabie's ’n Haan vir Eloúnda, 1971). (Also recorded in Albertinia, Kareedouw, Ladismith and Oudtshoorn).

mars en kwyk:

1. Walking on or carrying on, often in a swaggering or fancy way. “Elke dag het ’n nuwe neukery / dis mars en kwyk en dis opdraand kry." (From Boerneef's Op die Flottina, 1967). “Dis mars en kwyk en mars en kwyk / laat kerwe die sekels deur die koringare." (Boerneef: Krokos, 1958).

2. Dance: “Hulle mars en kwyk die hele aand." (Recorded in the Kalahari).

pandoeka:

Type of frog. “Dit was op so ’n oggend soos dié dat ek die paddas sien reën het ... Meteens begin die paddas deur die lug val – kleintjies, halfwassetjies, grotes. Almal sulke pandoekatjies." (Audrey Blignault, In klein maat, 1955). (Also recorded in Bredasdorp, Robertson and Swellendam).

Christmas concert tips for parents

As collected by HuffPost:

♦ Parenting level: made my kid wear an obnoxious holiday headband so I can spot her easier during the school Christmas concert.

♦ Drove home from tonight's concert listening to Nine Inch Nails to “cleanse the palate".

♦ Hear me out. A fast-forward feature where you can skip right to your kid in the winter concert and then gtfo.

♦ My daughter's elementary school holiday concert was last night. There was a sign language interpreter. His very theatrical signing of “I can't hear them" and “I don't understand what they're saying" was my everything.

♦ Overheard at 10-year-old’s holiday concert: this could have been a conference call.

♦ My toddlers often screamed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at an ear-splitting level, except for when they were supposed to sing it at the preschool Christmas concert where they were inexplicably silent.

Financial Word of the Year

No other text in the world is read more attentively and closely than the US Federal Reserve's monthly news release on interest rates. The wording is often nearly identical to the previous month and full of financial jargon, but even minor changes can cause a stir in international markets.

In the December statement, issued on Wednesday, a single three-letter word was added from the previous month that sent out a powerful signal that the Fed considers inflation to be under control and that rising interest rates are a thing of the past for now. The international equity, bond and currency markets reacted immediately in anticipation of a drop in US interest rates as soon as June next year.

See if you can spot the all-important change.

From the November statement: “In determining the extent of additional policy firming that may be appropriate to return inflation to 2 percent over time, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments." 

From the December statement: “In determining the extent of any additional policy firming that may be appropriate to return inflation to 2 percent over time, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments." 

♦ VWB ♦

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