Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Grand Old Appartchiks


Word Game or Game of Words?

We saw a giant snow gauge on the Keneenaw Peninsula in MI last week and took a picture. A couple of days ago I blogged about it and inserted the picture. I thought I had coined a new word calling it a snowmometer. Wrong. After Googling that I found many have referred to giant snow measuring sticks as snowmometers.

Today’s morning Pioneer Press has a story about Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s adventures in Pennsylvania. The article refers to “Republican appartchiks.” I had never heard the term appartchik” and reached for the dictionary. Webster defines an appartchik as a member of a Communist apparat. http://www.twincities.com/ci_10310736?source=most_viewed

Joe McCarthy may come out of his grave. Linking the GOP with a Communist movement? McCarthy was a member of the Grand Old Party. Now is his reputation safe as a fighter of Communism?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

Now that I know the meaning of appartchik and snowmometer I may become a better Scrabble player although one only has seven letters to make a Scrabble word. Perhaps I can add on to an existing word. Would I be challenged by the other players? I don’t think snowmometer is in the dictionary –yet.

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