Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

The announcement of the merger of JPMorgan Chase with Bank One Corporation invokes the memories of bank changes in our area, and their impact on our lives.
In 1950, when I opened my first bank account at the Chemical Bank and Trust branch on corner Park Avenue South (then Fourth Avenue) and 17th Street, the area between Union Square and Madison Square was a regular banking center. A block away, on 18th Street, was what became Manufacturers Hanover, across the street was Irving Trust, with another branch a block away, and a gigantic Chase center at Met Life, One Madison Avenue. They are now gone, or mutated , as are the local savings banks, with my beloved Union Square Savings Bank now a theatre. Amalgamated, at Union Square West, is the only survivor in its original form.
Irving Trust, organized 1851 (the name is associated with the diplomat and author Washington Irving), was the first to go, absorbed by Bank of New York in 1988. My main bank, Chemical, became Chemical Corn Exchange in 1954, merged with Manny Hanny in 1991, the 17th Street branch was closed soon after the 1996 merger with Chase, the survivor branch at 18th Street moved upstairs at the same location in 2002, leaving only an ATM room downstairs, with the original main floor destined to be an Oriental restaurant, food being the main growth industry in our two income family environment.
What is the impact of these banking events on the T&V country’s economy? All these mergers, paid for by labor savings through technology and job consolidations, caused job losses, not just at the closed branches but also those in the back offices, in accounting and computer operations. James L. Dimon of Bank One, (formerly with Sanford Weill’s Travelers Group and Citicorp) destined to be the CEO of the new merged entity, is known to have made his mark by slashing jobs and perks.
The former Chemical, our long-time bank, has a lmajor history of mergers. The NY Chemical Manufacturing Co was founded in 1823 by six merchants interested in making solvents, dyes, drugs and paints,, and had its charter soon amended to allow banking, entering that profitable business in 1844 (the chemical side was liquidated in 1851). It became Chemical Bank & Trust Co. in 1929.
The small Corn Exchange Bank was founded 1852, and expanded through mergers and acquisitions, such as that of the 1867 Eleventh Ward Bank and the 1889 Union Square Bank in 1902.
The two merged into Chemical Corn Exchange Bank in 1954, shortened to Chemical Bank in 1969. In 1959 it acquired the prestigious New York Trust Company, and in 1975 it picked up Security National Bank (founded as NY Sec &Trust in 1889).
In 1991 the now Chemical Banking Co, a banking pioneer with its ATM (NYCE) system, merged with Manufacturers Hanover Corp. to become the Chemical Banking Corporation 5th largest in the nation. In 1996 it joined with Chase Manhattan Company, forming the 3rd largest. Then, in Dec 2000 Chase Manhattan merged with J. P. Morgan & Co., Incorporated, as JPMorgan Chase.
The Chase bank started in life in 1799 as the Manhattan Company, founded by Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and other prominent New Yorkers to solve a health crisis, caused by an outbreak of yellow fever, traced to untreated water. The water company, funded with an allotment of $2 million, was overcapitalized, and put the extra cash into banking. The Bank of the Manhattan Company, among others, financed the Erie Canal, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes
In 1877 Chase National Bank (named after Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase, author of the 1863 –4 National Banking Acts) came on the scene. A major loser in the crash of October 29, 1929 and in the subsequent Depression that caused the closing of 5,000 banks by 1932, it recovered, led by Winthrop P. Aldrich and subsequently by John J. McCloy (former president of World Bank and US High Commissioner for Germany). The latter brought about the complicated merger with Manhattan, 1951-55, with “Jonah swallowing the whale.”. Aldrich’s nephew David Rockefeller became the bank’s co-CEO, and was material in the building of the massive headquarters structure that overwhelms the city’s harborscape, at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, and in internationalizing the business. This period served as the background for Emma Lathen’s (two lady writers, one e former Chase executive) popular a clef murder mysteries, with Bradford Withers as the globe-trotting CEO character. .
The House of Morgan, started by Junius P. Morgan, became the nation’s foremost banking power, acting as the national bank and Federal Reserve under his son J. Pierpont Morgan, the consolidator and Trust builder in the railroad, electric (GE) and natural resources (US Steel) worlds. The 1913 Italian Renaissance building at Wall and Broad, once its headquarters, now stands forlorn and nearly empty amid the bustle surrounding the New York Stock Exchange across from it. In 1935, responding to the the Banking Act of 1933, it split out its securities firm, as Morgan Stanley & Co. The parent, J. P. Morgan and Co., Incorporated, merged with Guaranty Trust in 1959, and became Morgan Guaranty Trust.
About Manufacturers Hanover, whose genial CEO John McGillicuddy led Chemical until the Chase merger. Although MH was the product of a 1961 marriage of banks named Manufacturers National (1853) and Hanover (1851, quartered at historic India House), it has distinguished forebears dating back to 1812.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

The unexpected victory of John Kerry and John Edwards in Iowa makes several points:
The Democrats of our, Carolyn Maloney's Congressional District, working as Kerry delegates to the NY Presidential Convention, should feel validated by the victory of their initial choice of a Presidential candidate.
The American voter is a sound middle-of-the-road thinker. Extremists and confrontation lists do not attract him, and, particularly, her.
The voters are ambivalent about Iraq, horrified by the mismanagement of the war and the losses of American lives but essentially accepting the premise that the war is justified as a long-term instrument of peace for the Middle East and defeat of the terrorists that threaten the US. Senators Kerry and Edwards were not damaged by their vote of approval for the enforcement of the UN resolutions against Iraq.
The press, with its frenzied attention to the Howard Dean campaign as a grassroots movement, highlighting individuals who made personal sacrifices of time and careers for the cause, misjudged the Democratic majority.
Dean's extremism and inconsistencies, belatedly spin-doctored by some as a Clintonian triangulation to satisfy everybody, did not help.
The effect of special interest groups is moot. Labor unions, the strength of Richard Gephardt, did not move the vote. On the other hand, the anti-Dean Democratic Leadership Conference, an organization of regulars, may have proven its clout.
Iowa is not conclusive With roughly 600,000 voters eligible in each party, the turnout is generally low, 90,000 for Republicans, 60,000 for Democrats. Its results, compared to the near-Delphic New Hampshire primaries, have differed in 3 out of 13 contested events since 1972, per NYTimes.
Illustratively, in 1984 Walter Mondale crushed Gary Hart but lost in New Hampshire.
In 1988 Gephardt won, and came in second in New Hampshire, losing conclusively on Super Tuesday and running out of campaign funds. In that weird year Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was the winner, after Gary Hart withdrew and Mario Cuomo refused to be a candidate. At the Atlanta Presidential Convention only Dukakis and Jesse Jackson remained in running, the former winning in the first round, collecting 2,876 votes against Jackson's 1,218.
The same year, Bob Dole beat George Bush Sr. and others.
In 1992 Iowa was ludicrous - favorite son Tom Harkin took 76%, Paul Tsongas 4% Clinton , Bob Kerrey (not Kerry) and Jerry Brown below that. In New Hampshire Paul Tsongas took 33%, Clinton had 25% with Kerrey, Harkin and Brown around 10% . Bush was uncontested. We know who won.
1996 saw Dole beating the millionaire Steve Forbes, leaving him 4th, behind a surprisingly strong Pat Buchanan and Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, with Senators Gramm and Lugar far behind. Clinton was easy, with no competition.
The 2000 Caucus had Al Gore beat Bill Bradley with ease, and George W. Bush win narrowly over Steve Forbes.
As stated before, Iowa Caucus is the first and indicative of the future, but the New Hampshire Primaryshows the real numeric strengths. Everybody is still alive, as they say in poker.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

On Fiji’s Yasava Island, Nabukeru village, we the discovery cruise group whose Zodiacs had made a wet landing from our M/S Clipper Odyssey just minutes ago, had our first Kava ceremony. Seated on tarpaulins, under the low roof of of grass mats, we were offered yanggona, the Fiji name of the freshly prepared drink made from mashed roots of the kava plant, a member of the pepper family. The master of yanggona dipped coconut cups into the plastic pail, and his associate, another elderly man, dignified in his wraparound sulu skirt, cordially offered them to all, locals and strangers. We learned the ceremony by watching the village elders, who signalled acceptance by slowly clapping hands three times, swinging the upper, right hand, high over the left, and uttering the magic welcoming word, “bula!” then downing the kava. It was described by the few visitors who accepted the brew as tasting of dishwater, not surprising, since some fresh shawings of the root remain in the drink. A few small cups of kava left me with a mild tingling of the tongue.

The visit to Nabukeru was negotiated beforehand, costing the tour company $F5,000 (about $2,500) and included the reception, a brief religious ceremony by a young Methodist minister, followed by a longer native event, with kava, a visit of the village (pop. 119) and hiking in the area, and use of the beach and reef. The village elders, dressed in sulus and tropical shirts, and wearing frangipani and grass leis - some sporting Melanesian curls, others with unexplainably urban haircuts that would have looked de rigeur on Wall Street - sat in three rows while intoning the melodies. We squatted, sat or reclined facing them – standing over your hosts is discourteous and might provoke a bloody fight in the old days – ready to get up and stretch at the end. But then the warning word, “meke” was sounded. A band of bare-chested young men with woden spears and swords broke into the clearing to the side, followed by women dressed in a local variants of wraparound mumus, all shouting a warlike dirge. We remained sitting, resigned to a long set of songs and dances, presumably celebrating harvest. The agile leader of the youths, face twisted, was exhorting his followers to a more militant performance, until thw women stepped forward and took over, doing planting songs and dances, very peaceful. The stout elder ladies were instructing their schoolgirl companions in the proper movements, all most Sunday-school like. Finally, we were able to bid a grateful “vinaka” and get up, to survey the blanket displays of 40-odd colorfully dressed market women, reclining along the beach, offering grass skirts (plastic), wood carvings, shell and glass beads, Hawaiian-type shirts/ wraparounds and runners of excellent painted tapa cloth (bark of the paper mulberry tree)..

Opting to visit the village, we joined our Australian anthropologist, Bob Tonkinson, who had the portly Mayor guide us. We saw three types of bures (huts), the traditional grass-roofed, the corrugated tin, and some of almost modern cement block construction, expensive but safe from the seasonal storms. The village uses the tourist contributions to buy cement and, with neighbors’ help, build houses for newlyweds, a way of keeping the younger generation down on the farm. They also have a generator, providing electricity four hours a day. Entering a grass bure, a one-room affair with dirt floor, we saw two ragged beds curtained off in the back, a low chest of drawers in front of the beds , with a mirror and a metal radio on it. Along the walls were old cardboard suitcases used as wardrobes, with a few dishes stored on top. On the walls were small framed family photographs and some magazine ads, no lamps visible. Cooking was done outside. A smiling woman and two toddlers welcomed us, informing the guide that her husband was away at work, fishing or gardening.

Crossing the village green to the Methodist church we stumbled over land crab holes (they come out at night and are very tasty), past the Mayor’s house (best in Nabukeru, almost like a real residence, freshly painted but equally poorly equipped), and the meke grounds, where men were still enjoying “grog and songs, in your honor.” Once there, the Mayor treated us to stories and casually showed the collection plate (we took the hint). The village hereditary chief is a woman (matrilineal passing of the title is not common in all islands), currently abroad, in Brazil, on national business. This mix of primitive and global is mind-boggling but not uncommon – two years ago in November we talked with village Fijians of 9/11, which they had seen on CNN.

Meanwhile our ship’s physician, Chris, an Australian flying doctor, had conducted an impromptu clinic, dispersing ship’s medicines where they could help, gently advising others to make their way to the main island. He gave away hundreds of packets of Tylenol, bandaids, and other provisions from the ship’s stores to a woman who acts as the village’s nurse. There is no professional medical help on Yasava’s six villages, although some government medics come visiting, once in a while. Strangers bringing old clothes, medicine and some money perform a nature’s function. It makes one feel almost good, about being a nosey tourist.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

The cold wave ff the weekend of January 10 has been a painful experience for many of our neighbors. It appears that New Yorkers suffer from colds, coughs and sore throats more than most Americans, despite what authoritative physicians and governmental health services indicate. To quote, informally, Dr. J, Smith, one of the top pulmonologists in NYC if not the world, there are a hundred varieties of emissions in the air in our city, none of them in excess of the acceptable, and all comparable to those in other large US cities. The worst is the stuff from the rear end of the bus. The emissions of 9/11 are no longer in the air.

On the surface, that sounds plausible, the rains have washed down the 9/11 particles in the air and on our buildings. But are they really gone, or do they rise again, as puddles dry and as the strong harbor winds of the Battery waft dust storms around, forcing those of us in the street to breathe through a scarf, or seek temporary refuge in a doorway? The incidence of chronic bronchitis in Manhattan is too frequent to be accidental, says this observer. This is particularly applicable to those of us who live within a couple of miles of Ground Zero, especially the ones who go to work in the Wall Street area every day.

What to do when the cold weather aggravates the malaise? According to the New York Times, we drink hot drinks, a good idea. City Bakery on 17th Street has sold
masses of hot cocoa. We call the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to complain about lack of hot water and heat. They had 5,000 calls a day, more than triple the normal. But we had no excessive calls to 911 or 311, looking for medical help.

We also take medicines, orthodox and New Age. As an example, a neighbor, R.T., finally shook a persistent case of colds, coughs and sore throat with Sambucol, an elderberry preparation from Israel that the New Age guru Dr. Andrew Weil says will shorten a case of the flu, curing it in three rather than in six days (per reputable research). We also take folk medicine.

None of the remedies discussed below are to be considered as substitutes for conventional medical care. Your family physician is still the essential caregiver for colds and coughs. Do not use the emergency services of our many local hospitals for coughs and colds, they must charge $250-500 per visit, to compensate for unpaid emergency services that are, as they should be, mandated upon them.

Herewith some of the folk medicine preparations that both taste good and do well. Consider an inspiring tea of shredded ginger root, with sliced lemon (peel and all), a mashed clove of garlic, simmered for 20 minutes, and taken with a spoonful of honey, to mask the garlic taste. Or try elderberry tea, always a favorite.

Then, there’s an easily home-made cough syrup, containing a few spoonfuls of lemon juice, a cup of honey and a quarter cup of warm water. Take it by the spoonful, or serve it with tea. To soothe a sore throat, serve it with chamomile tea.

An eucalyptus chest rub preparation will open bronchial passages and sinuses for easier breathing. It also has anti-microbial elements, to facilitate healing. Make it of 40 drops of oil of eucalyptus, 10 drops of oil of camphor, 10 of wintergreen, combined with a spoonful of olive oil, to facilitate rubbing. The essential element is the first. Using eucalyptus oil in a steam inhalant also works.

As for strengthening the immune system against colds and flus, there are myriads of advisors with food and vitamin suggestions. To mention a few easy items, such mushrooms as shiitake, well-known Oriental health food bought in the Union Square Greenmarket will help, as will drinking three glasses of good water, the eating of fresh garlic (easiest to swallow in a sandwich), drinking green tea and eating green vegetables.

There are also the actions we take to protect ourselves from the world, as well as protecting others from us. In a subway, wrap yourself in a newspaper – the Paper of Record is the best, at least from the point of size. If you must sneeze or cough, do it within your paper, it will protect others. For short trips, remain standing rather than use an available sat in a crowded train, you can control your environment and move away from sneezers. Carry plenty of tissues, flush them down at your destination. If you spit up yellow, or, particularly, green phlegm, there is an infection, and you must see a doctor.

One final suggestion – grow a spider plant in your home, it fights the toxic pollutants in the air. They are fun and look good.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

Theoretically the point of the first cut in the 2004 Democratic campaign for Presidency should be the qualification for the Federal matching funds grant, but it is not. The candidates who do not qualify because of inadequate public support, as measured by local fund raising, hang on, looking for positional gains - call it Vice Prsidency - from offering their troops' support to a potential winner. There is also the distant threat that a cult candidate, if not nominated, might form a third party and be the spoiler.
Anyway, conventional wisdom states that a candidate who does not finish at least third in Iowa and New Hampshire must leave the race, since the donor support will disappear. Of the six Iowa January 19 contenders, Howard Dean is riding high, with $15M collected in the last three months (he has opted out of the Federal match), followed by Gephardt ($3.1M match). Kerry has invested $7M of his personal fortune in a do- or-die IA and NH effort. His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerrey, deeply involved in rehabilitation of her company's hometown, Pittsburgh, travels the town meetings in IA preaching local initiative in preserving the farming communities. Edwards, Kucinich and Moseley-Braun stay in, with not much hope. Strategically abstaining from IA are Wesley Clark ($11M plus $3.7M Fed match) who will concentrate on the NH January 27 primary, Lieberman, who also has the February 3 primaries in MO, NM, SC, OK, AZ and DE in mind, and Sharpton.
What then, is the mystique of the IA caucus? It is in the details. Essentially, the caucus consists of 2,500 town hall meetings of registered party members who vote for the candidates, or the candidates' delegates. Those with votes under 15% are dropped, and a re-vote takes place. The votes are sent up to the next party level, and voted out, dropping losers, until the top level is reached, and 54 Democratic and 32 Republican delegates are elected for the National Convention. As levels advance, the initial vote loses its identity.
That is the principle, the actuality is more complex. The Republican and Democratic procedures differ, and voter admission methods vary from town to town. Courting the town-hall voters is a big electioneering task, and the twenty-somethings who descend on IA on behalf of the candidates lead a hectic life of shared dorms and daily travels. The essential result of the caucus is the first number, which tells the world where each candidate stands with real people.
The caucus popularity came about after the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago. The disorders and riots associated with the convention approach caused the passage of state laws that changed the Presidential nominating procedure, from state party conventions to state primaries. The latter are now part of the law in 2/3 of the states. Some chose the caucus, as a compromise, in an attempt to retain the town meeting and discourse nature of the process, preserving the individuality of the party voters.
Some stats: IA holds 7 electoral votes, with one R and one D senator, and four R and one D congressmen. In the 2000 primary Gore won 63-41 against McCain , and scored 48.5-48.2 in the general election against Bush. In 1996 Clinton won 50-40 against Dole.
As for New Hampshire, it holds 4 electoral votes, for her delegation of two R senators and two R congressmen. The presidential primary is on January 27.
NH is most important because of the state's historical long record of foreshadowing national Presidential elections. In 1952 NH had Eisenhower, in 1956 Nixon's NH write-in campaign gave him the VP spot. Kennedy won in 1960, in 1964 there was no filing, but LBJ had an overwhelming write-in vote. In 1968 Eugene McCarthy's 41% primary score scared LBJ out of the race. Nixon and Agnew held in 1972, though both had to resign, and the unexpected victory of "Jimmy Who" in 1976 was an omen. !980 brought on Reagan, but the 1984 favorite Gary Hart fell out of fashion. Bush41 worked out well, but in 1992 favorite son Paul Tsongas's victory over Clinton, precipitated by the Flowers case, did not play nationally. In 1996 Clinton won 49-39 against Dole. The 2000 primary gave Gore 49.7-48.5 against McCain, but he lost the state 48.1-46.8 against Bush.
NH will be particularly interesting because of the Dean appeal. His flat- out opposition to the Iraq war (although he would continue our struggle for democracy there) and in-your -face rejection of Bush, coupled with eloquent straight (though inconsistent) talk out on issues has captured the young and the unhappy, who flock to Dean rallies as though they were group sessions. The conventional wisdom tags him as loser, because middle Democrats will reject his radicalism, but his charisma plus the successful Internet MoveOn and Friendster-type appeals suggest a surprise. NH will tell more.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

Coming into port at sunrise in the tropics is a cool experience. First, you get a mug of coffee from the 24-hour galley, then walk into the pool deck, where early morning smokers gather. Together you watch the pilot arrive, in a tugboat, and hop on board. We glide us into our berth, and the ship’s Philippine crew put out the gangway. Some early morning market women are already on the peer, setting their tables of colorful salu-salu grass skirts, (70 percent plastic), coral beads, glass pearls and miniature models of collapsible dugout boats with outriggers

Our 112-passenger exploration cruise liner is the M/S Clipper/Odyssey, and today’s harbor is Port Vila, Vanuatu. We are destined for an early jitney trip to the Botanical Gardens, an enterprise started by a young Australian newspaperman who married a Mele-Maat village woman, which gave him an inside opportunity to acquire tribal land. Passing through Mele village, crowded with adults, kids, pigs and dogs, we see fenced in thatched cottages, bures, walls built with air spaces for ventilation. Occasionally people are taking a siesta in their dirt yards.

Plants in the tropics grow fast, and the young botanist now he has a garden of palms, giant spiky sea pandanus, and many local varieties of colorful trees, shrubs and flowers, interspersed with cages full of chattering rainbow lorikeets, a variety of the shrike - the equally noisy myna birds are roaming free - a silent Pacific boa snake, ant lions, flying foxes, and pigs, the local currency. The grass-skirted guide taps on an Ambrym tam-tam for attention. Printed notices of local history, curious events and floral peculiarities are posted throughout. Altogether, a good beginning for a tourist attraction. The owner has turned the garden over to his wife for management, and is concentrating on developing a tourist cottage colony. An incipient local fortune in the making.

We get back on the jitneys for a trip to the Cascades, a tropical slope with a downhill spring, the flow broken by interconnected pools with waterfalls. Our members stop to cool off in the clear water. The hilltop view of the harbor and islands is excellent, but the descent is hard. Vila is a beautiful town, with neat streets, but first our jit has to navigate the pothole cowpaths in Mele Village. A broad asphalted section overgrown with foliage turns out to be American WWII landing strip, when the then New Hebrides, particularly neighboring Espiritu Santo, were American supply bases for the impending invasion of Japan

A day later, in Loganville, capital of Santo, we see the Million-Dollar Peer, the memorial of American profligacy at the end of WWII. After Armistice, stuck with thousands of vehicles and heavy armament on Santo, the US offered to sell them locally at 8 percent of cost, and was refused. So we built a pier into the deep ocean and drove the material into the water. Presumably donating would have caused havoc with the local economies and mores. Therefore, dump! This is now a memorial and a major tale in the “cargo cult” legend.

Cargo cult is commonly seen as a native’s wish-fulfillment religion, an expectation to see American planes return and bring wealth and jobs to the people. There is more to that. The Jon Frum cult, of a local become wealthy abroad, started in the late 1930s, as continuation of the spread of Christianity. The nu-Vanuatans traditionally view religions as a means of acquiring wealth and social position, related to striving to be the “big man”, whereby one attains position by breeding more pigs and giving them away, sort of associated with the potlatches of the Dionysian Quakiutls (Ruth Benedict?), in the Pacific Northwest. Christianity was accepted because the missionaries and planters represented potential wealth, which could be linked with the arrival of the new people on “big birds,” the friendly US soldiers of WWII. When the latter left, Cargo Cult adherents started painting red crosses on their huts and placing wooden full-scale airplane models on the beaches, to attract other big birds The crosses are still in the villages, I’m told.

Upon return from the WWII peer we roam the main street of Loganville, a wide sandy avenue of racing pickups filled with workers, trucks with standing school children on their way to the beach for a swim, and taxi cabs. Swimming at the beach is a daily necessity, and sweaty bodies elicit snickers. Later, at a remote island village with black sand which we visited for a snorkel trip, we found a group of naked two- and three-year olds, accompanied by a couple of sixth grade girls, obviously a daycare center, out for a wash-up.. The toddlers, who viewed us curiously, tumbled into the surf without any prompting. At this age boys and girls are together, the traditional separation of sexes comes later. In Loganville teenage boys and young men often walk hand in hand, a center boy dragging his friends to some choice destination.. Each village has a secret men’s house, where they spend time on their crafts and lore. Women, who spend their days working in the gardens, have equal secretive traditional getaways.

About mosquitoes. We were warned to take malaria shots. There were advisories of deadly dengue fewer from Ambrym mosquitoes. Ho, ho, we experienced no mosquitoes in daytime, during mid-November, in any of the islands. Our guides offered DEET sprays as instant help, which we eventually skipped. Next, about Fiji, New Caledonia and Sydney.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

O.k., a little New Year's entertainment. On December 26 the Internet veteran organization called yourDictionary.com, the Web’s most complete language resource, released the Top Ten Words of 2003, chosen by visitors to the web site. Dr. Paranoia has most generously undertaken to review this year's crop, with comparisons to 2000-1-2.

The websters' (get that? It's a Dr. P. original!) research extends also to Top Phrases, Personal Names, Best and Worst New Product Names, Top Advertising, Internet, Enron-Derived, Color, Sports and includes The Most Spoken Word on the Planet, which is o.k., to no one's surprise. We will skip most of the California/Youthspeak, Recording-Speak, also Bushisms, a new category.

The 2003 top word, imbedded, seems overrated. Others, mostly in sequence, are: blog (a web log or diary/commentary); SARS; spam; taikonaut (should this be talkonaut?) - for the Chinese astronaut who did propaganda messages from space; Bushism- along with W and Dubya, listed since 2001. Also, allision (collision with unmoving object, from the Staten Island Ferry accident); recall (from California), and Middangeard, a Tolkienism for Middle Earth. In the department of phrases, winners were: shock and awe, rush to war, WMD, 16 words (about uranium from Africa), Gitmo, tipping point (change of balance, as in public opinion), angry Left, and Halliburton Energy Services, all loaded terms. In personal names, the usual suspects - Saddam, W, Rush, Martha, Pte. Jessica Lynch, Ah-nold and the Pope, with Howard Dean coning in late, before Paris Hilton and Hans Blix. Rudy was high in previous years, no longer. What is it that makes me think these choices are not entirely statistically validated?.

Actually, this crop compares well with the 2002 words, headed by misunderestimate, a Bushism not deserving prominence. Perp-walk, referring to handcuffed executives, "to nasdaq" - as in "nasdaquing one's fortune" - are unworthy. Survivor, as in Pennsylvania mine disaster, warlord, sniper, pedophile, bandwith (as capacity) all make sense. Terror- related phrases predominated - threat fatigue, weapons of mass destruction , suicide bomber, shoe bomb (Richard Reid), Homeland Security, dot communism, a phrase that did not last, meaning that everything on the web should link.

In 2001, the 9/11 terms dominated. Ground Zero, W (or Dubya), Jihad, anthrax, Euro, -stan (Paki-, Afghani-,Turkmeni-), foot-and mouth disease were topical. Wizard, as in Harry Potter, God (Allah, Yahweh) as a political concept were understandable, and Ophraization of political concepts ("see if it plays on Ophrah.") has a neat touch. The immortal phrase of Todd Beamer, "Let's roll!" as the passengers attacked the hijackers of Flight 93 still resonates, and the President's simplistic reference to evil-doers has acquired a Biblical severity.

The 2000 election overwhelmed that year's language. Chad (and offshoots, e.g. dimpled, pregnant, hanging; disenfranchised, undervote, Florida); millennium, Y2K, Sydney Olympics, dot-com, Eran (as in Gonzalez), pelletizing (a Firestone tire recall term), Intifada and Tiger (you know who) where tops. It also showed a flourishing of business terms that lasted - fish or cut bait, think out of the box, and push the envelope. B2B, B2C, ASP (application service provider), CRM (consumer service manager), e-business, killer app (successful), viral marketing (inexpensive or hard to understand). In 2001 IT (info technology) returned to replace high-tech, and such forgettable verbs as concepting and efforting. Paradigm jump came to mean successful change. It resonates with the customer meant that he'll buy. The best of 2002 was "the Schultz defense" - I know nothing.nothing, from Hogan's Heroes. Interface meant to converse, multitasking - to work concurrently on several topics, reboot - to reconsider. In comparison, 2003 was weak - ping, to send a reminder, off-line, to be out of it.

Business names were interesting. Accenture, the escape name for Anderson Consulting, came in for a drubbing in 2000-2001, and was found to be a success in 2002, as was American Home Products return to Wyeth . In 2001 Nasocron, a cold remedy, took honors as being even more repulsive than its competitor, Flonase. GameCube (Nintendo) and xBox (Microsoft) worked. Verizon was a dog, In 2000 Celebrex, arthritis pain killer, worked. The 2001 Emoticon, for a smiley is gone. The milk and soy product called Silk ("Silk is soy") was found silly and confusing in 2003, while iTunes, Apple's Napster equivalent moved well.

Sports names have petered out. In 2000 we had Lance Armstrong, Shaq, A-Rad, in 2001 73 for Barry Bonds's home run record, No.3 for the late Dale Earhardt, Williams; Zim (Zimmer) and the curse of the Bambino is as good as 2003 gets. Names with bad vibes do not make it.

O.k, a few youth/California words: hottie (adored), give it up (applaud), hella (good), bling-bling (platinum, jewelry), phat (hella, cool). Shut up! means a surprised "really?". So, hella New Year, and bling-bling for your hottie!

Wally Dobelis apologizes for mangling the name of Union Square Partnership and opening the Greenmarket on Tuesdays (it should have been Wednesdays)in last week’s column.

O.k., a little New Year's entertainment On December 26 the Internet veteran organization called yourDictionary.com, the Web’s most complete language resource, released the Top Ten Words of 2003, chosen by visitors to the web site. Dr. Paranoia has most generously undertaken to review this year's crop, with comparisons to 2000-1-2.

The websters' (get that? It's a Dr. P. original!) research extends also to Top Phrases, Personal Names, Best and Worst New Product Names, Top Advertising, Internet, Enron-Derived, Color, Sports and includes The Most Spoken Word on the Planet, which is o.k., to no one's surprise. We will skip most of the California/Youthspeak, Recording-Speak, also Bushisms, a new category.

The 2003 top word, imbedded, seems overrated. Others, mostly in sequence, are: blog (a web log or diary/commentary); SARS; spam; taikonaut (should this be talkonaut?) - for the Chinese astronaut who did propaganda messages from space; Bushism- along with W and Dubya, listed since 2001. Also, allision (collision with unmoving object, from the Staten Island Ferry accident); recall (from California), and Middangeard, a Tolkienism for Middle Earth. In the department of phrases, winners were: shock and awe, rush to war, WMD, 16 words (about uranium from Africa), Gitmo, tipping point (change of balance, as in public opinion), angry Left, and Halliburton Energy Services, all loaded terms. In personal names, the usual suspects - Saddam, W, Rush, Martha, Pte. Jessica Lynch, Ah-nold and the Pope, with Howard Dean coning in late, before Paris Hilton and Hans Blix. Rudy was high in previous years, no longer. What is it that makes me think these choices are not entirely statistically validated?.

Actually, this crop compares well with the 2002 words, headed by misunderestimate, a Bushism not deserving prominence. Perp-walk, referring to handcuffed executives, "to nasdaq" - as in "nasdaquing one's fortune" - are unworthy. Survivor, as in Pennsylvania mine disaster, warlord, sniper, pedophile, bandwith (as capacity) all make sense. Terror- related phrases predominated - threat fatigue, weapons of mass destruction , suicide bomber, shoe bomb (Richard Reid), Homeland Security, dot communism, a phrase that did not last, meaning that everything on the web should link.

In 2001, the 9/11 terms dominated. Ground Zero, W (or Dubya), Jihad, anthrax, Euro, -stan (Paki-, Afghani-,Turkmeni-), foot-and mouth disease were topical. Wizard, as in Harry Potter, God (Allah, Yahweh) as a political concept were understandable, and Ophraization of political concepts ("see if it plays on Ophrah.") has a neat touch. The immortal phrase of Todd Beamer, "Let's roll!" as the passengers attacked the hijackers of Flight 93 still resonates, and the President's simplistic reference to evil-doers has acquired a Biblical severity.

The 2000 election overwhelmed that year's language. Chad (and offshoots, e.g. dimpled, pregnant, hanging; disenfranchised, undervote, Florida); millennium, Y2K, Sydney Olympics, dot-com, Eran (as in Gonzalez), pelletizing (a Firestone tire recall term), Intifada and Tiger (you know who) where tops. It also showed a flourishing of business terms that lasted - fish or cut bait, think out of the box, and push the envelope. B2B, B2C, ASP (application service provider), CRM (consumer service manager), e-business, killer app (successful), viral marketing (inexpensive or hard to understand). In 2001 IT (info technology) returned to replace high-tech, and such forgettable verbs as concepting and efforting. Paradigm jump came to mean successful change. It resonates with the customer meant that he'll buy. The best of 2002 was "the Schultz defense" - I know nothing.nothing, from Hogan's Heroes. Interface meant to converse, multitasking - to work concurrently on several topics, reboot - to reconsider. In comparison, 2003 was weak - ping, to send a reminder, off-line, to be out of it.

Business names were interesting. Accenture, the escape name for Anderson Consulting, came in for a drubbing in 2000-2001, and was found to be a success in 2002, as was American Home Products return to Wyeth . In 2001 Nasocron, a cold remedy, took honors as being even more repulsive than its competitor, Flonase. GameCube (Nintendo) and xBox (Microsoft) worked. Verizon was a dog, In 2000 Celebrex, arthritis pain killer, worked. The 2001 Emoticon, for a smiley is gone. The milk and soy product called Silk ("Silk is soy") was found silly and confusing in 2003, while iTunes, Apple's Napster equivalent moved well.

Sports names have petered out. In 2000 we had Lance Armstrong, Shaq, A-Rad, in 2001 73 for Barry Bonds's home run record, No.3 for the late Dale Earhardt, Williams; Zim (Zimmer) and the curse of the Bambino is as good as 2003 gets. Names with bad vibes do not make it.

O.k, a few youth/California words: hottie (adored), give it up (applaud), hella (good), bling-bling (platinum, jewelry), phat (hella, cool). Shut up! means a surprised "really?". So, hella New Year, and bling-bling for your hottie!

Wally Dobelis apologizes for mangling the name of Union Square Partnership and opening the Greenmarket on Tuesdays (it should have been Wednesdays)in last week’s column.

O.k., a little New Year's entertainment On December 26 the Internet veteran organization called yourDictionary.com, the Web’s most complete language resource, released the Top Ten Words of 2003, chosen by visitors to the web site. Dr. Paranoia has most generously undertaken to review this year's crop, with comparisons to 2000-1-2.

The websters' (get that? It's a Dr. P. original!) research extends also to Top Phrases, Personal Names, Best and Worst New Product Names, Top Advertising, Internet, Enron-Derived, Color, Sports and includes The Most Spoken Word on the Planet, which is o.k., to no one's surprise. We will skip most of the California/Youthspeak, Recording-Speak, also Bushisms, a new category.

The 2003 top word, imbedded, seems overrated. Others, mostly in sequence, are: blog (a web log or diary/commentary); SARS; spam; taikonaut (should this be talkonaut?) - for the Chinese astronaut who did propaganda messages from space; Bushism- along with W and Dubya, listed since 2001. Also, allision (collision with unmoving object, from the Staten Island Ferry accident); recall (from California), and Middangeard, a Tolkienism for Middle Earth. In the department of phrases, winners were: shock and awe, rush to war, WMD, 16 words (about uranium from Africa), Gitmo, tipping point (change of balance, as in public opinion), angry Left, and Halliburton Energy Services, all loaded terms. In personal names, the usual suspects - Saddam, W, Rush, Martha, Pte. Jessica Lynch, Ah-nold and the Pope, with Howard Dean coning in late, before Paris Hilton and Hans Blix. Rudy was high in previous years, no longer. What is it that makes me think these choices are not entirely statistically validated?.

Actually, this crop compares well with the 2002 words, headed by misunderestimate, a Bushism not deserving prominence. Perp-walk, referring to handcuffed executives, "to nasdaq" - as in "nasdaquing one's fortune" - are unworthy. Survivor, as in Pennsylvania mine disaster, warlord, sniper, pedophile, bandwith (as capacity) all make sense. Terror- related phrases predominated - threat fatigue, weapons of mass destruction , suicide bomber, shoe bomb (Richard Reid), Homeland Security, dot communism, a phrase that did not last, meaning that everything on the web should link.

In 2001, the 9/11 terms dominated. Ground Zero, W (or Dubya), Jihad, anthrax, Euro, -stan (Paki-, Afghani-,Turkmeni-), foot-and mouth disease were topical. Wizard, as in Harry Potter, God (Allah, Yahweh) as a political concept were understandable, and Ophraization of political concepts ("see if it plays on Ophrah.") has a neat touch. The immortal phrase of Todd Beamer, "Let's roll!" as the passengers attacked the hijackers of Flight 93 still resonates, and the President's simplistic reference to evil-doers has acquired a Biblical severity.

The 2000 election overwhelmed that year's language. Chad (and offshoots, e.g. dimpled, pregnant, hanging; disenfranchised, undervote, Florida); millennium, Y2K, Sydney Olympics, dot-com, Eran (as in Gonzalez), pelletizing (a Firestone tire recall term), Intifada and Tiger (you know who) where tops. It also showed a flourishing of business terms that lasted - fish or cut bait, think out of the box, and push the envelope. B2B, B2C, ASP (application service provider), CRM (consumer service manager), e-business, killer app (successful), viral marketing (inexpensive or hard to understand). In 2001 IT (info technology) returned to replace high-tech, and such forgettable verbs as concepting and efforting. Paradigm jump came to mean successful change. It resonates with the customer meant that he'll buy. The best of 2002 was "the Schultz defense" - I know nothing.nothing, from Hogan's Heroes. Interface meant to converse, multitasking - to work concurrently on several topics, reboot - to reconsider. In comparison, 2003 was weak - ping, to send a reminder, off-line, to be out of it.

Business names were interesting. Accenture, the escape name for Anderson Consulting, came in for a drubbing in 2000-2001, and was found to be a success in 2002, as was American Home Products return to Wyeth . In 2001 Nasocron, a cold remedy, took honors as being even more repulsive than its competitor, Flonase. GameCube (Nintendo) and xBox (Microsoft) worked. Verizon was a dog, In 2000 Celebrex, arthritis pain killer, worked. The 2001 Emoticon, for a smiley is gone. The milk and soy product called Silk ("Silk is soy") was found silly and confusing in 2003, while iTunes, Apple's Napster equivalent moved well.

Sports names have petered out. In 2000 we had Lance Armstrong, Shaq, A-Rad, in 2001 73 for Barry Bonds's home run record, No.3 for the late Dale Earhardt, Williams; Zim (Zimmer) and the curse of the Bambino is as good as 2003 gets. Names with bad vibes do not make it.

O.k, a few youth/California words: hottie (adored), give it up (applaud), hella (good), bling-bling (platinum, jewelry), phat (hella, cool). Shut up! means a surprised "really?". So, hella New Year, and bling-bling for your hottie!

Wally Dobelis apologizes for mangling the name of Union Square Partnership and opening the Greenmarket on Tuesdays (it should have been Wednesdays)in last week’s column.