Trouble in the East

Protest in Toronto


Counter-protest in Toronto


Protest in Montreal


Protest in Ottawa


300 killed in Gaza, 8 in Colombo, Pakistani troops massed on the Indian border ... there's been nothing but bad news between Christmas and the New Year.

Check out live ground reports at the Aljazeera English site or videos or Haaretz. Why the Gaza bombings? The Israelis blame the Qassam rockets fired at their homes from secret underground silos embedded in residential areas near the border (see their video).



Nevertheless, the question of proportionate military counter-strikes and the threat of a ground invasion looms:



This afternoon outside the Israeli Consulate, Canadians made their views known. According to the Canadian Press, "Demonstrations were held in several cities across Canada on Sunday as pro-Palestinian protesters denounced the attacks. The largest was in Toronto, where about 800 protesters outside the Israeli consulate screamed at a few dozen Israel supporters." The following organisations demanded Canadian condemnation of the Israeli killing of the Palestinian people:

• Canadian Arab Federation
• Palestine House
• Women in Solidarity with Palestine (WSP)
• Islamic Society of York Region
• Not In Our Name (NION): Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism
• Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance
• Muslim Association of Hamilton
• International Jewish anti-Zionist Network – Toronto
• Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
• Niagara Palestinian Association
• Al-Huda Lebanese Muslim Society
• Hamilton Coalition Against the War
• Palestinian Association of Hamilton
• No War - Paix
  

The Toronto rally is covered on the CTV website.

Images from elsewhere:


Sri Lankan soldier at site of suicide blast where eight were killed



Awful VBIED bomb in Khost, Afghanistan, killing two Canadians and 14 children on the way to collect their exam results and graduation certificates

Revenge suicide attack on Pakistani village, over 30 killed


Aftermath in Mosul


Aftermath in Fallujah

In Fallujah and Mosul, Iraq, suicide car and bicycle bombers kill at least five, apparently at anti-Israel protests

Why? I can't figure this one out.

Philadelphia Fun

It wasn't easy just trying to get a picture in front of the Liberty Bell.


Even then, not everybody likes me. This guy ruined my picture.






Car got creamed on the way there, but at least we found some $.99 toboggans at a thrift store!


Liberty Bell, famed crack and all!


Big Ben at The Franklin Institute


Planes, light, magnets, and stuff--like what made Ben Franklin tick


Just got back last night from a short trip in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

We visited the Liberty Bell Monday morning ...



and the Franklin Institute in the afternoon.

Last Day of School--Concert

And what a whopper of a winter storm it was!



After "O Canada," the childcare medley, "Ding Ding Dang/Jingle Bells," and a couple of other items, we Level 4/5ers were called up to sing "Away in the Manager"! Well, fortunately, we stuck to the real lyrics:



Yay! Great job, choir of Steven Cao, Joan, Janet, Steven Peng, Lilly, Zohreh, Mersedeh, Tao, Tom, and (far left) prospective student Vincent. The teachers enjoyed your singing very much, and perhaps the other students did, too. After the first stanza of "Away in a Manger," Zohreh gave a wonderful introduction to the Persian festival of Yalda, which begins this evening.

Thanks, Teacher Waldi, for taking the video with such a steady hand and willing heart. Her class's item came next, but she didn't hesitate to help us out. Well, with my shaky hand, here's Waldi's class (before my battery died):



And then it was food--baklava, chao mifen, braised ribs, chili crab sans crab, even Tim Bits, you name it!

Field Trip: 12th Annual Toronto Mass Choir Free Concert

Okay, folks. Just got back!

Here are the pictures:


We get off at Queen Station and take a leak and a pic at Eaton Centre (great shaky job, photographer).


Zohreh with Elham underneath Canadian goose sculptures on the ceiling.


Lovely Christmas tree there, yay!


Then, taking a break from the wimpy PATH Underground City network, it's off to the City Hall in the brrrrracing winter air (Tom seems to agree).


These pigeons didn't seem to mind the freeze. Well, maybe they did, huddling pitifully over a grate.


Hey, Nathan Phillips Square--gotta come back here with skates and family someday!


Finally, a seat in Roy Thomson Hall.


Arrgh. One more time, photographer.


Full house, almost.


The program ... wow, they managed to keep the message of Christmas pretty much intact!


You get the studious, and the not-so-studious. And then the program begins (no pictures allowed, but hopefully more on that later).

I get to endure this person with serious halitosis on my right (in case Steven wonders why I keep fanning myself the whole way through).



Last shot: guess who else showed up and who snuck out (see Usage Note here) halfway through the program (no TTC token for you, haha! But thanks for the seat, phew!).

Let's wait a day or two to see if anyone uploads the pirated clips of the performance on Youtube.

Shoeing the Prez ... Not over yet!

Latest Updates:

==> Check out this shoe store!



1. Woops, can I take my size 10 back? Now facing two years' jail time, that shoe-launching journalist craves the Iraqi PM's pardon.

2. Picturesque Speechless: Aftermath of the Shoe Attack. Click on Enter.

3. What do you ladies out there think of this gentleman's offering his daughter in marriage to the shoe-fastballing hero?

Here's your Passives Quiz:

1. More journalists might have chucked the President a pair of shoes.

2. A pair of shoes ...

3. The President ...

Watch the video (below) and complete sentences 2 and 3 in the Passive:



Write your answers under Comments (below).

As a reward, you can play the following online games:

a. Flying Babush

b. Bush's Boot Camp

See you tomorrow--at Roy Thompson Hall! Hmm ...

With a Christmas theme:

Monty Python-esque:

With Pokemon ball:

Austin Powers-esque:

The Three Stooges:

World of Warcraft theme:

From "God Not Great" to "Christianity the Problem": Hitchens Deconstructed

Tonight I sat up for this debate of October 22, 2007 between Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and Dinesh D'Souza, author of What's So Great About Christianity. They debated at The King's College on the topic of "Is Christianity the Problem?" Now, having watched all sorts of debates on the Internet, I was ready to drag the time slider as I usually do to skip the boring bits.

Well, there were no boring bits this time--every minute of it was as revealing of D'Souza's calm use of the tools of logic as it was of Hitchen's fundamentalist ferocity against the very idea of God in general and salvation through Christ in particular. Also, an interesting linguistic comparison between British-born Hitchens and Mumbai-born D'Souza--who's the "native speaker" here?

If you'd like to watch this 90-minute debate, click here.

President hoping to gild legacy shoed out

What a size-10 joke to wake up to!






From another angle:



The journalists may be cooling his heels in jail, but these guys in Basra, Iraq, aren't:



In Afghanistan, however, journalists keep their shoes on.

My weekend trip

Several busloads of red-jacketed ski instructors and assistants from Toronto's ski centres descended Sunday morning on Mount St. Louis Moonstone Ski Resort for a day of training. It was my first time there, and by the end of the day, I could hardly ski. In fact, I could hardly walk either. My thigh muscles had gone on strike. But it was a good introduction to the ski season in Ontario and another reminder of our Creator's constant gracious outpouring of some of the most precious resources in our world--H2O!

All right, all right, here's the nice class photo

Both of them:



You never know whom you'd offend with just one, e.g. "Hey, I wasn't ready!"

Where's Hossein?

Okay, we ended early today for the teachers to party and took a class picture* as Hossein suggested. Hossein suggested it? Arrrgh. Where's he?


*Nice of Jenny to give this guy a haircut in class yesterday, just in time for the photo op!

Cribs, Inns, Mangers, and more!

Fascinating article here, just as I thought we'd seen enough of cradles and cribs!

According to archaeologists, the infant Jesus was laid, not in a woodshed outside the local Howard Johnson, but rather in the storeroom or animals' room (with manger) because there was no room in the upper room ("inn").

Interesting things happen when hallowed tradition meets handy trowel.

No crib for a bed?

But what on earth's a crib, in our chosen carol?

Says the mother of all dictionaries, the OED (bold added):

I. 1. a. A barred receptacle for fodder used in cowsheds and fold-yards; also in fields, for beasts lying out during the winter; a CRATCH. (In nearly all early quots. applied to the manger in which the infant Christ was laid; cf. CRATCH n.)
a1000 Crist 1426 (Gr.) Ic læ{asg} cild{asg}eong on crybbe. c1200 ORMIN 3711 Te Laferrd Jesu Crist Wass le{ygh}{ygh}d inn asse cribbe. a1300 Cursor M. 11253 (Cott.) In a crib he sal be funden. 1340 HAMPOLE Pr. Consc. 5200 Born..and layd..In a cribbe, bytwen an ox and an asse. c1400 Apol. Loll. 97 {Th}e oxe knowi{th} his weldar, and {th}e as {th}e crib of his lord. 1535 COVERDALE Job xxxix. 9 Wyll the vnicorne be so tame as..to abyde still by thy cribbe? 1577 B. GOOGE Heresbach's Husb. III. (1586) 142b, Serpents, that many tymes lie hid under their [sheep's] Cribbes. 1602 SHAKES. Ham. v. ii. 87 Let a Beast be Lord of Beasts, and his Crib shall stand at the Kings Messe. 1712 POPE Messiah 79 The steer and lion at one crib shall meet. 1847 MARRYAT Childr. N. Forest v, The animal could move about a little and eat out of her crib. 1884 West Sussex Gaz. 25 Sept. Advt., Circular iron and oak bullock cribs.

b. (Orig. in R.C. Ch.) A representation of the manger in which the infant Christ was laid, erected in churches.
1885 Catholic Dict. s.v., The present custom of erecting a crib in the churches at Christmas time..began during the thirteenth century.

c. Astron. The star-cluster Præsepe in Cancer.
1551 RECORDE Cast. Knowl. (1556) 266 Cancer containing 8 stars, beside a cloudy tract which is named ye Manger or Crybbe. a1718 R. CUMBERLAND Orig. Gentium Antiq. (1724) 93 The constellation Cancer, in which the Aselli and their crib is plac'd.

2. ‘The stall or cabin of an ox’ (J.).
a1340 HAMPOLE Psalter 512 Nete sall noght be in kribbis. 1611 BIBLE Prov. xiv. 4 Where no Oxen are, the crib is cleane. 1841 LANE Arab. Nts. I. 13 The Merchant..went to the bull's crib, and sat down there, and the driver came and took out the bull. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 416/2 The calf-house..should be..divided into separate sparred cribs or hutches. 1884 Cheshire Gloss., Crib, a small cote to put young calves in.

3. a. A small habitation, cabin, hovel; a narrow room; fig. a confined space. In N.Z. now esp. a small house at the seaside or at a holiday resort.
1597 SHAKES. 2 Hen. IV, III. i. 9 Why rather (Sleepe) lyest thou in smoakie Cribs..Then in the perfum'd Chambers of the Great? 1840 CLOUGH Amours de Voy. I. 6 The world..Whithersoever we turn, still is the same narrow crib. 1862 C. R. THATCHER Dunedin Songster No. 1. 5 The weather and time had so peppered that tumbledown crib, I declare. 1886 BESANT Childr. Gibeon II. vi, There were no confessional cribs and no candles. 1887 HALL CAINE Deemster xxviii. 185 Shutting himself in this dusty crib, the Bishop drew from under the bed a glass-covered case. 1929 W. SMYTH Bonzer Jones xvii. 213 ‘Here's my crib,’ he announced. 1947 ‘A. P. GASKELL’ Big Game 88 If it's fine George will be taking them up to his crib. 1962 Guardian 21 July 6/4 An index to social status in New Zealand..is possession of the seaside bach (in Southland, the crib). 1963 Truth (N.Z.) 24 Sept., ‘You know my sea~side summer bach?’ ‘Bach? What the South Islanders call a crib?’ 1970 D. M. DAVIN Not Here, Not Now II. ix. 115 Then back to the crib again, set off the road in the bush.

b. Thieves' slang. A dwelling-house, shop, public-house, etc. to crack a crib: see CRACK v. 11.
1812 J. H. VAUX Flash Dict., Crib, a house, sometimes applied to shops. 1838 DICKENS O. Twist xix, Now, my dear, about that crib at Chertsey. 1844 J. T. J. HEWLETT Parsons & W. xxii, The grocer's crib, as he called it.

c. A lock-up; a bridewell. local.
1847-78 in HALLIWELL. 1879 in Shropshire Word-bk.

d. slang (chiefly U.S.). A saloon, ‘low dive’, or brothel. Also crib-house, -joint.
c1857 B. A. BAKER Glance at N.Y. 23 Let's take a drink; there's a crib open. 1882 Sydney Slang Dict. 3/2 Drum, or crib, house of ill repute. 1901 ‘J. FLYNT’ World of Graft 219 Crib, gambling dive. 1926 J. BLACK You can't Win (1927) xiv. 199 I'll make the cribs myself. I'm dynamite with them old brums in the cribs. 1930 J. DOS PASSOS 42nd Parallel 320 The little lighted cribhouses. 1932 B. DE VOTO Mark Twain's Amer. vi. 124 The palaces blended with scores of dance halls..parlor houses, cribs. 1958 P. GAMMOND et al. Decca Bk. Jazz iii. 42 Forced into the dives and crib-joints of the red-light district of New Orleans.

4. fig. A ‘berth’, ‘place’, situation. slang.
1865 HATTON Bitter Sweets vii, It's a snug crib this.

5. a. A small rectangular bed for a child, with barred or latticed sides. (Sometimes loosely = cradle.)
1649 Bury Wills (1850) 220 One trundle bedstead and an halfe trundle bedstead, a cribb. 1828 WEBSTER, Crib..6. A small frame for a child to sleep in. 1832 H. MARTINEAU Weal or Woe vii. 86 Fergus was kneeling at the foot of the child's crib. 1857 W. COLLINS Dead Secret (1861) 77 Having a nurse to engage and a crib to buy.

{dag}b. transf. Child, baby. Obs. Cf. CRIBBER 1.
1702 LADY M. COKE in Cowper MSS. II. 447 (Hist. MSS. Comm.) Your Crib is well, and all are yours. Ibid. 453 Inquire me out a nursery maid, because your crib is weaning.

6. fig. {dag}a. A close-fisted person, one who keeps a tight hold of what he has. Obs.
1622 MABBE tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. I. 251 That his wife be close-fisted, a very Crib.

b. dial., Austral., and N.Z. Food, provisions; a light meal or snack; a piece of bread, cake, etc. Freq. attrib.
1641 BROME Jov. Crew II. Wks. 1873 III. 388 Here's Pannum and Lap, and good Poplars of Yarrum To fill up the Crib, and to comfort the Quarron. 1825 JAMIESON Suppl. s.v., Haste ye, and gi'e me ma..crib, Guidwife. 1872 N. & Q. 4th Ser. IX. 47/1 The gift..was generally a small cake..and was called the ‘christening crib’{em}a crib of bread or cake being a provincialism for a bit of bread, &c. 1880 M. A. COURTNEY Gloss. Cornwall 15/2 Crib, a crust of bread; fragments of meat. ‘Eat up your cribs.’ 1881 RAYMOND Mining Gloss., Crib..3. A miner's luncheon. 1889 Daily News 4 Apr. 4/8 In the pocket of each of the garments was a pasty and a ‘crib’ (apparently a small loaf). 1904 ‘G. B. LANCASTER’ Sons o' Men 159 Sereld..growled because someone had spilt tobacco-ash into his crib{em}which is bushman for dinner. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 13 May 6/1 Half an hour's ‘crib’ time [at Blackball, N.Z.] is also granted. 1926 K. S. PRICHARD Working Bullocks xi. 108 Red picked up his crib-bag. 1928 J. DEVANNY Dawn Beloved xxx. 273 He stopped..to hang up his towel and crib tin. 1942 A. L. ROWSE Cornish Childhood ii. 30 He used to take it to work with him and at crib-time (i.e. lunch-time) would entertain his fellows with it. 1947 A. VOGT in D. Davin N.Z. Short Stories (1953) 364 Ben went to work [in the bush] each day like the rest of the men, with his crib and oil-skin. 1954 Coast to Coast 1953 37 Jacques was holding out his crib. ‘Time to eat.’.. Crib over, the men rolled cigarettes. 1971 J. TURNER Stone Dormitory iii. 30 ‘Just come in for me crib. It's time.’.. ‘It's ready for you, Tom,’ she said, putting the bread and cheese and tea before him.

II. {dag}7. a. A wickerwork basket, pannier, or the like. In quot. 1648 a bag. Obs.
1387 TREVISA Higden (Rolls) IV. 353 {Th}ey putte hym in a litel cribbe i-schape as a litel bote. 1398 {emem} Barth. De P.R. XIX. cxxviii. (1495) 934 Fiscella is a lytyll euenlonge crybbe or a panyer woue wyth smale roddes of wylow. 1648 DAVENANT Long Vac. London, With canvas crib To girdle tied..Where worms are put, which must small fish Betray at night to earthen dish. 1676 WORLIDGE Cyder (1691) 112 You may have a Basket or Crib..and put Straw round it in the inside.

b. The BIN used in hop-picking.
c1830 MRS. SHERWOOD in Houlston Tracts III. lxxii. 10 Come along this way to the crib (that is, the sheet or cloth into which the hop blossoms are cut).

{dag}8. A crate or measure of glass. Obs. Cf. CRATE 2b, CRADLE n. 6c.)
1688 R. HOLME Armoury III. 385/1 A Load of Glass is two Kribbs; a Krib is 100 or 150 Foot of cut Glass.

9. Salt-making. An apparatus like a hay-rack in which the salt is placed to drain after boiling. ? Obs.
c1682 J. COLLINS Making of Salt 54 The Liquor that Dreynes from the Salt in the Cribs is a sort of Bittern. 1753 CHAMBERS Cycl. Supp. s.v., Crib in the English Salt Works..These cribs are like hay-racks, wide at the top, and tapering to a narrow bottom, with wooden ribs..placed so close, that the salt cannot easily fall through them.

10. a. A wickerwork contrivance for catching salmon; a CRUIVE.
1873 Act 36-7 Vict. c. 71 Sched. III, License Duties..For each..weir..box, crib, or cruive. Ibid. §17 Any legal fishing mill dam not having a crib, box, or cruive.

b. The enclosure for trapped fish in a pound-net. U.S.
1873 Rep. U.S. Fish Commission I. 264 The pound-nets..have several parts, termed the ‘leader’, the ‘heart’, the ‘pot’, ‘bowl’, or ‘crib’, and the ‘tunnel’. a1884 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. Suppl. 231/1 Crib (Fishing), the bowl or pound of a Pound Net.

11. A framework of bars or spars for strengthening, support, etc.; see quots. Cf. CRADLE n. 6.
1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 895 Preserving the Banks of Rivers, by building Wings or Cribs to break the force of the Water. 1708 S. MOLYNEUX Ibid. XXVI. 38 A large Tub..of Wood inclosed with a Crib made of Brick and Lime. 1883 F. M. CRAWFORD Mr. Isaacs iii. 49 As the crib holds the ship in her place while she is building.

12. Mining. A framework of timber, etc., lining a shaft, to prevent the earth from caving in, or water from trickling through.
1839 Ann. Reg. 41 It was necessary to construct what is termed a crib; that is a cylinder corresponding to the dimensions of the shaft. 1851 GREENWELL Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 19 Common cribs are circles of wood, usually oak, from 4 to 6 inches square, and are used to support the sides of a pit when the stone is bad. 1881 Pop. Sc. Monthly XIX. 28 A shaft or crib is sunk..to prevent the sides from caving in.

13. A rectangular frame of logs or beams strongly fastened together and secured under water to form a pier, dam, etc.; sometimes including the superstructure raised upon it. (Canada & U.S.)
1816 [see crib-dam]. 1867 Harper's Weekly 20 Apr. 252/4 The flood-gates of the ‘crib’ were opened. 1874 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., Crib..6. A structure of logs to be anchored with stones. Cribs are used for bridge-piers, ice-breakers, dams, etc. 1881 Proc. Inst. Civ. Engineers LXIII. 268 (Cribwork in Canada) Cribs are merely open or close boxes, made of timbers strongly framed together. 1884 Pall Mall G. 10 Oct. 7/2 Fourteen men were employed at a crib in the lake at the outer end of the tunnel.

14. A small raft of boards or staves to be floated down a small stream, a number of which are made up into a large raft. (Canada & U.S.)
1813 W. JOHNSON Reports X, Light cribs of boards would float over the dam in safety. 1880 Lumberman's Gaz. 28 Jan., When the streams get wide enough the ‘sticks’ are made into ‘cribs’, and these, again, are made up into ‘rafts’..Cribs are formed of about 20 sticks of timber fastened between two logs called ‘floats’.

15. A bin or place with sparred or slatted sides for storing Indian corn (= CORN-CRIBb); also for salt and other commodities. U.S.
1823 J. D. HUNTER Captiv. N. Amer. 258 The corn [is preserved] in cribs, constructed of small poles and bark of trees. 1828 WEBSTER, Crib..5. A small building, raised on posts, for storing Indian corn. 1864 Ibid., Crib..4. A box or bin for storing grain, salt, etc.

III. 16. Cards. a. The set of cards made up of two (or one) thrown out from each player's hand, and given to the dealer, in the game of cribbage. b. Also, short for CRIBBAGE. (colloq.)
1680 COTTON Compl. Gamester viii, Sometimes it so happens that he is both bilkt in hand and crib. 1870 HARDY & WARE Mod. Hoyle 79 (Cribbage) The players..each throw out two [cards] for the crib, face downwards..The four cards constituting ‘crib’ belong to the dealer. Ibid. 80 Having counted his hand, the dealer proceeds in like manner to count his crib. 1885 Standard 3 Apr. 2/6 He had played..at ‘whist’ and ‘crib’.

IV. Senses from CRIB v.

17. The act of ‘cribbing’; a petty theft. (See CRIB v. 7.) rare.
1855 BROWNING Fra Lippo 148 To confess Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends.

18. Something ‘cribbed’ or taken without acknowledgement, as a passage from an author; a plagiarism. (colloq.)
1834 MEDWIN Angler in Wales I. 207 That's a crib from Waller, I declare. 1876 A. M. FAIRBAIRN in Contemp. Rev. June 130 It was a crib from himself.

19. A translation of a classic or other work in a foreign language, for the illegitimate use of students. (colloq.)
1827 LYTTON Pelham I. ii. 11, I could read Greek fluently, and even translate it through the medium of the Latin version technically called a crib. 1861 HUGHES Tom Brown at Oxf. xxxix. (1889) 375 Schoolboys caught by their master using a crib.

20. A complaint, grumble. colloq.
1943 HUNT & PRINGLE Service Slang 26 People have their own pet cribs.

V. 21. attrib. and Comb., as crib timber-work (see sense 13); crib-bite v. intr., to have the practice or habit of crib-biting; crib-biter, a horse addicted to crib-biting; also fig.; also, a grumbler; crib-biting, the vice or morbid habit of seizing the manger (or other object) with the teeth and at the same time noisily drawing in the breath (wind-sucking); crib-breakwater U.S., a breakwater made of cribwork; crib-bridge, a bridge whose piers are formed of cribs (see CRIB n. 13); crib-cracker slang, a burglar (see CRIB n. 3b); so crib-cracking; crib-dam U.S., a dam formed of cribs; crib-muzzle, a muzzle worn by a horse to prevent crib-biting; crib-rail, a transverse member of the frame of a railway coach; crib-strap (see quot.); cribwork, work consisting or formed of cribs (sense 13); also attrib.
1844 *Crib-bite [see WIND-SUCK v.]. 1809 Sporting Mag. XXXIV. 190 A bay horse..found to be a *crib-biter. 1832 MARRYAT N. Forster xl, I have lately used iron pens, for I'm a devil of a crib-biter. 1860 HOTTEN Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 124 Crib biter, an inveterate grumbler; properly said of a horse which has this habit, a sign of its bad digestion. 1831 Ann. Reg. 25 Horses had the habit of *crib-biting in very different degrees. 1879 Rep. Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army II. 1588 (Knight), *Crib breakwater. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 8 Dec. 2/1 What military engineers call a ‘*crib’ bridge. 1879 Punch 3 May 201/1 A bludgeon as big As a *crib-cracker's nobby persuader. 1883 G. R. SIMS How the Poor Live ii. 10 His talents as a ‘cribcracker’, and his adventures as a pickpocket. 1906 Daily Chron. 5 Dec. 6/6 The house is adequately protected against burglars and is proof against the amateur crib-cracker. 1852 Punch 9 Oct. 161/1 He..From cly~faking to *crib-cracking turned. 1816 Niles' Reg. IX. Suppl. 164/2 These dams are built with timber, in the manner of *crib dams, secured to the rocks below with iron bolts. a1884 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. Suppl. 231/1 *Crib muzzle (Manége), a muzzle used to correct the equine habit of cribbing. 1958 Engineering 14 Mar. 344/1 The body pillars, cantrail and *cribrails are in 12 s.w.g. 1874 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., *Crib-strap (Menage), a neck-throttler for crib-biting and wind sucking horses. 1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 621/2 Sluices..are constructed through a mass of *crib timber-work. 1873 ROBERTSON Engin. Notes 56 *Cribwork..consists of logs notched on to each other in layers at right angles. 1881 Proc. Inst. Civ. Engineers LXIII. 271 A cribwork pier is easily ripped up and removed by an ordinary spoon dredge.

DRAFT ADDITIONS MARCH 2002

crib, n.

* crib sheet n. = cheat sheet n. at CHEAT n.1 Additions; a short digest or summary of the salient information on a particular topic (such as on a single sheet of paper), for quick, easy assimilation.
a1940 ‘N. WEST’ Western Union Boy in Novels & Other Writings (1997) 425 He..decided to take no chances, so he went into his English 43 exam with a *crib sheet in his pocket. The exam was easy and he didn't have to use the crib sheet. 1964 in Jrnl. Higher Educ. 37 (1966) 261 In addition, he would make up a special location index which tells him precisely where the various crib sheets have been placed. 1988 Guardian (Nexis) 13 Feb., I am always grateful to BMW (UK) for providing a crib-sheet with its test cars, listing what options are fitted and what they cost. 2001 Time 21 May 22/1 Here's a crib sheet on the worst terrorist attack in American history... How the government won its conviction... What evidence did the jury never see?.. Could it have been a wider conspiracy?

As early as A.D. 1000 and 1200, a crib was synonymous with a manger: "A barred receptacle for fodder used in cowsheds and fold-yards; also in fields, for beasts lying out during the winter; a CRATCH. (In nearly all early quots. applied to the manger in which the infant Christ was laid; cf. CRATCH n.)"

But see meaning 5.a. By 1649 the term was applied to: "5. a. A small rectangular bed for a child, with barred or latticed sides. (Sometimes loosely = cradle.)"

So when Jesus lay in a manger, He had no crib (meaning 5.a.) for a bed but only a "crib" (meaning I.1.). Everybody confused yet?

Handwriting's on the Wall!

In addition to the Active Verb Forms already up on the left side of our classroom wall, we added the Passives this morning to the right side of the room. With that, we now have all 24 forms of the English verb--active and passive voice, past and present and future tenses, both simple and continuous aspects. The trick, of course, is to know it at the back of one's hand, to be able to convert the active to passive, and vice versa, on the fly.

Some of these verb forms are obviously clumsy to use and not too frequently used. Can you identify them? List them in your Comments below.

Historical Records of Christmas

Those who are looking for the historical record of Christmas can check this site for the texts.

To hear the audio readings, click on the following:

Matthew 1

Luke 2

Hebrews 1

Christmas Carol Time

Okay, we need to decide what to present for next Friday's Christmas Concert. Please preview these before voting:

Away in a Manger

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night

We Three Kings (Lyrics here)

Visiting Mom and Dad

Just got back from visiting my mom and dad at Bob Jones University's Christmas Lighting and Carol Sing.



My parents also got their pictures pencil-sketched. And what a joy this morning, as I got to see the sunrise from 35,000 feet up!

Down Memory Lane

Applewood Farm and Downtown Library & U of T with Donald: More pictures and information here

Or who can find Joseph in the official CAF-LINC Blog?

A walk through history for our new classmates!

Flipsides next

Having learnt the active verbs, we'll take a look this week at the passives.

For those of you who need a refresher on the actives, here's the definitive chart (above).

Go .... grammar!