Word: australian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Blame Me." The man who caused this commotion is an Australian citizen with a sharp chin, a penchant for maroon bow ties, and a salesman's exuberance and extroversion. Born in Brisbane, he was the fourth of the eleven children of Paul Schwarz, a Viennese Jew who was converted to Christianity, became a Pentecostal lay preacher, migrated to Australia for his health in 1905 and, after World War I, prospered as a dealer in war-surplus goods. Fred Schwarz graduated from Brisbane's University of Queensland with both science and arts degrees, took a post as a science...
...Schwarz had an interest deeper than doctoring. In 1940 he fell into an argument with an Australian Communist. After this debate, he determined to find out all he could about Communism. He steeped himself in the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, to the point that friends recall his wife, Lillian May, saying: "I'm never alone with Fred. He always has Karl Marx along...
From the U.S., which adopted decimal coinage in 1792, to South Africa, which made the change in 1961, 145 countries have decimalized their currency; Britain is the last major bastion of currency confusion. In school alone, according to an Australian survey, decimalization would save teachers up to 50% of the time they now take to teach children mathematics. In addition, English children often have to memorize the medieval apothecaries' scale (20 grains to a scruple), linear measure (40 rods to the furlong), dry measure (4 pecks to the bushel) and liquid measure (52.5 imperial gallons to a hogshead...
...seem to conduct your politics with a fine 18th century gusto," Winston Churchill once told an Australian politician. Last week, as a three-week campaign for general elections ended, Churchill's observation was as accurate as ever...
...ENGLISH, by Eric Partridge (1,362 pp.; Macmillan; $16). The fifth edition of this highly regarded work is considerably enlarged, and an even greater delight to logomaniacs than the first four. Lexicographer Partridge pads resolutely after creeping neologism, and one finds that since 1920 "without a mintie" has been Australian sporting slang for penniless, and that "boat race" is current Cockney rhyming slang for face. There is no end to this; it is ceaselessly fascinating to learn that between 1780 and 1830, "to dance the Paddington frisk" meant to be hanged, that "painted mischief" is an obsolete term for playing...