The word of the day* for January 27, 2007 is “independent” — adjective 1 : not dependent: as a (1) : not subject to control by others : SELF-GOVERNING (2) : not affiliated with a larger controlling unit <an independent bookstore> b (1) : not requiring or relying on something else : not contingent <an independent conclusion> (2) : not looking to others for one's opinions or for guidance in conduct (3) : not bound by or committed to a political party c (1) : not requiring or relying on others (as for care or livelihood) <independent of her parents> (2) : being enough to free one from the necessity of working for a living <a person of independent means> d : showing a desire for freedom <an independent manner> e (1) : not determined by or capable of being deduced or derived from or expressed in terms of members (as axioms or equations) of the set under consideration; especially : having linear independence <an independent set of vectors>. (2) : having the property that the joint probability (as of events or samples) or the joint probability density function (as of random variables) equals the product of the probabilities or probability density functions of separate occurrence. 2 capitalized : of or relating to the Independents. 3 a : MAIN 5 <an independent clause> b : neither deducible from nor incompatible with another statement <independent postulates>.
Early one icy winter morning, when my sister was on her way from Newton, IA to Iowa City for a class, she came over a hill to find several “teen-aged” pigs in the median. Now, I have never asked how she knew these were teen-aged pigs. We’ll just assume that, as they were out there in the pre-dawn hours crossing the highway—obviously up to something they oughtn’t—the description fits. Anyway, she says that although the road in front of her was clear, there were several vehicles behind her. She didn’t wait around to see if the pigs inadvertently became someone’s breakfast.
She also says that every time she mentioned it to her husband, he always said that you wouldn’t want to hit a pig. Seems a pig’s center of gravity is low and one will do a lot of nasty damage to the car. He didn’t, my sister complains, think about what it might do to the driver.
The quote† for today is from Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972)and Evan Mcloud Wylie, Movin’ On Up, ch. 1 (1966):
It’s easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when
you haven’t got a thing—that’s the Lord’s test.
;^) Jan
* The definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online, 10th Edition or The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition and is used by permission.
† The quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or The Quotation Pages and is used by permission.
P.S.: Comments and word requests are welcome.
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