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The Word Heard ‘Round the World

OK by Allan Metcalf '61 (Oxford) OK by Allan Metcalf '61 (Oxford) Despite the fanciful stories that attribute the origin of the expression "OK" to the Choctaw Indians, African languages, or a Revolutionary War countersign, the American word used 'round the world had its start as a jokey abbreviation for "all correct" in the Boston […]

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OK by Allan Metcalf '61 (Oxford)

OK

by Allan Metcalf '61 (Oxford)

Despite the fanciful stories that attribute the origin of the expression "OK" to the Choctaw Indians, African languages, or a Revolutionary War countersign, the American word used 'round the world had its start as a jokey abbreviation for "all correct" in the Boston Morning Post in 1839. Several chance occurrences saved OK from becoming yet another linguistic footnote: during the presidential campaign of 1840, President Van Buren became OK because of his nickname, "Old Kinderhook"; the Tammany Society sent members of its O.K. Clubs to break up Whig Party meetings; and a hoax about Andrew Jackson's poor spelling proved impossible to eradicate.

The Great Wall by Carlos Rojas '92, BA '95 (Harvard). The claim that the Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from space is just one of the myths surrounding it. Cultural representations of the Wall shape the ways it has been understood throughout history, asserts an assistant professor of Chinese cultural studies at Duke University. "The Wall is frequently imagined as an unthinkably massive barrier, yet the material structure itself no longer retains any strategic function, and even at its peak effectiveness its significance often lay more in its status as a symbol of the border than as an actual barricade."

From Microsoft to Malawi by Michael L. Buckler '96 (Hamilton). Before he joined the Peace Corps, Buckler did everything that was expected of him—went to the best schools, married, and became a top attorney—but felt he was living everyone else's American dream. He left his comfortable life to teach in a Malawian village, where he found that the people had much to teach him. As he writes in this memoir, "Simultaneously uplifting and depressing, welcoming and foreboding, liberating and oppressive, cruel yet undeniably vivacious, Malawi gets in your blood, inhabits your dreams, and dares you to be smitten by its charms."

Black Yanks in the Pacific by Michael Cullen Green '99 (Cornell). Facing a tight job market at home after World War II, many African Americans chose to join the military. "African American men understood voluntary service primarily as a means to secure stable employment during uncertain economic times," writes Green, a graduate student in history at Northwestern University. Although they found greater economic opportunities abroad, they also experienced prejudice in Japan and Korea. "Notions of Afro-Asian solidarity attracted few adherents in the post-war years because they conflicted with the interests and outlooks of thousands of black servicemen living on overseas bases," concludes the author.

Global Cosmopolitans by Linda Brimm '64 (Palgrave). "The global demands of the modern world have changed not just the face, but also the age, work, and social class of people living internationally," writes Brimm, a professor emeritus of organizational behavior at the Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires. "The result has been a recent and massive generational shift in the highly educated, globally mobile workforce." On the plus side, global workers easily adapt to new ways of thinking; on the down side, their lack of shared culture may cause them to question their identity.

Fiction

Caribou Island by David Vann, MFA '94 (Harper). In his first novel, the author of Legend of a Suicide tells the story of Gary and Irene, a couple who try to build a cabin in the Alaska wilderness as their marriage unravels.

Murder Your Darlings by J. J. Murphy '92 (Obsidian). Dorothy Parker enlists Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and other famous wits from the Algonquin Round Table to solve a murder and remove suspicion from a young William Faulkner.

Non-Fiction

Intellectuals Incorporated by Robert Vanderlan '88 (Penn). Publisher Henry Luce hired Archibald MacLeish, Dwight Macdonald, James Agee, and other writers to work for Time, Fortune, and Life. A visiting professor of history at Cornell argues that rather than selling out, they thrived in the world of mass-market magazines.

Anarchy Evolution by Greg Graffin, PhD '03, and Steve Olson (It Books). Graffin's role as the frontman of the punk group Bad Religion and his current work as a teacher of evolution at UCLA may seem poles apart, but he makes a case for the close connection between art and science while reminiscing about his days as a rocker.

Emerging Markets by M. Ayhan Kose and Eswar S. Prasad (Brookings Institution). The BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—weathered the recent economic downturn better than most industrialized nations. Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell, discusses the potential of these new economic powerhouses for sustaining long-term growth.

The Word on the Street by Harvey Teres '72 (Michigan). An associate professor of English at Syracuse University finds that today's critical culture is disconnected from the concerns of ordinary people. He calls for a return to the earlier model of the public intellectual who is accessible to all.

Columbia Rising by John L. Brooke '76 (North Carolina). A professor of history at Ohio State University examines the evolution of civil society and party politics in the Upper Hudson Valley from the Revolution to the Age of Jackson (1815-41).

Investments by Jerald E. Pinto '75 et al. (Wiley). Members of the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute offer a guide to the principles of portfolio and equity analysis.

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