Popular Culture Entries

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NOTE: Here is transcribed, as closely as possible (warts and all), the text as it appears in the source entries but sometimes only incomplete segments. For internet readability some discrepancies involving formatting and accents are likely. Do not always expect accuracy in the entries themselves (which is not to deny their “truth” or value or even, shall we say, occasional accuracy), but innaccuracy is often the least of their offense: what we call sexism, racism, homophobia and just a general colonial Western superiority complex pervades much of the popular knowledge of the late 19th and early to mid 20th century. I suggest, however, you resist the urge to judge too much from a position of 21st century self-righteousness, for how much has really changed? How much of our contemporary knowledge is inaccurate, dogmatic, prejudiced and offensive in ways we can and cannot even recognize?

This is a work in progress…

Alcohol, Potatoes and Tobacco [Part of Economic Geography, Lesson 13]
Beer and wine are typically European commodities. Until dairying reached a reasonable organization, both in number of milch cows and in the preparation and distribution of the liquid which they yielded, the poorer qualities of beer and wine were the alternatives to water as a drink; the prevalence of tea, coffee and cocoa as modern substitutes for beer and wine is in part due to the improvements in milk production. Potato and tobacco came to Europe from America, potatoes from the south and tobacco from the centre.
–From Practical Knowledge For All Newly Revised Edition. Fifth Volume. London: The Waverley Book Company Ltd., c1945. pg. 195.

The Art of Making Baskets. The Cunning of the Basket Maker. How Baskets of all Kinds and Sizes Have Been Woven from the Earliest Ages Down to Our Own Days.
     You have heard of the old woman who lived in a shoe, but did you know that there are thousands of real people who live in big baskets? Of course we do not call their houses baskets–the official name is wattle work huts. But the huts are made by setting supple stakes in the ground and then weaving branches back and forth between them; and this is just the way we make a basket.
     As a matter of fact, the first houses ever made were probably made of basketry. And primitive man must have used basketry in a hundred other ways. When he was a baby, he would be put to sleep in a basketwork cradle and perhaps play with a basketry doll. As he grew up, he might wear girdles, petticoats, hats, and sandals made of basketry, travel in basketry canoes, set basketry traps for wild beasts, furnish the basketry hut with basketry mats and furniture, cook in basketry dishes, and even carry a basketry shield in battle. Then when he came to die, he might be buried in a basketword coffin.
–From Richards Topical Encyclopedia Volume Twelve Arts and Biography. New York: J.A. Richards Publishing Co. Inc, 1949. pg. 129.

Bedlam,
A corruption of Bethlehem, the name of a relgious house in London, the Hospital of St Mary, Bethlehem, which was founded in the year 1246 by Simon Fitzmary, who had been one of the Sheriffs of London… The patients of B. used to be exhibited, like wild beasts, in cages, for so much a head; and convalescent patients were sent out to beg, with badges on their arms, and known as ‘B. beggars’ or ‘Tom-o-Bedlams.’ This practice, the object of which was to raise funds for the institution, was put down in the latter part of the 17th c.
–From the The Globe Encyclopaedia of Universal Information. Vol I. A to CANN’A. Boston: Estes & Lauriat, 1876. pg 325.

Boo-Boo And His Tail [Tales for Nursery Folk]
     Boo-Boo was a guinea-pig, and he lived in a nice little hutch in Billy-Boy’s garden. Billy-Boy loved him, and always took his friends down to see Boo-Boo.
     But the guinea-pig used to be frightened when he sometimes heard Billy-Boy say: “Hold him up by his tail, and see what happens!”
     Billy-Boy’s friends never did hold Boo-Boo up, but the guinea-pig was so afraid they would that he used to go into the corner of his cage and hide there. Then Billy Boy’s friends laughed and went away.
     One day Boo-Boo decided to go and have his tail cut off, for then no one could ever hold him up by it. He tried to see if had a big one, but he was so fat that he couldn’t see round himself.
     That night the little guinea-pig slipped out of his hutch, and ran off. He went to Prickles the Hedgehog, who was sniffing about in a ditch.
     “Prickles,” he said, “will you do something for me?”
     “What do you want?” asked Prickles.
     “Please could you cut off my tail? begged Boo-Boo. Prickles stared at him, and shook his head. Then he began to laugh.
–From Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: An Educational Treasury and Children’s Dictionary Volume 5. General Editor, H.A. Pollock. London: The Home Library Book Company, 1934. pg. 265.

Cane Basket weaving
     Pulp cane is the most suitable material for beginners to use, as long lengths of uniform thickness may be obtained. For a first basket a very simpl shape should be made, so that the whole thing can be done without help.
Materials:
     Pulp Cane No. 6 and No. 3.
     A pair of Scissors with rounded ends
Method.
     Soak the cane for an hour. Cut eight stakes 20 inches long in No. 6 cane.
     Lay four of these on the table from left to right and the other four on top of them to form a cross, with all arms of the cross the same length. Cut another stake 12 inches long and put it with the stakes at the left hand arm of the cross, with the ends level. Now turn the cross so that the five stakes are at the top.
     Take a piece of No. 3 cane. This is called a weaver. Lay the end of it on top and across the four stakes that go from right to left. Weave it under the five at the top, from the left, over the four at the right, under the four at the bottom and over the four at the left. In the second round take it under the odd stake, over the other four at the top, under the four at the bottom and under the four at the left side. Third round, over the odd stake and so on until the weaver comes back to the odd stake again; weaving is always done from left to right…
–From Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: An Educational Treasury and Children’s Dictionary Volume 4. General Editor, H.A. Pollock. London: The Home Library Book Company, 1934. pg. 343.

Collecting With The Camera [segment from Favourite Hobbies: Things to Make and Do; Collections: How to Begin–and Afterwards]
Photography is so common a hobby nowadays, thanks to the cheap film-using camera, that many of our readers will already have accumulations of “snaps” taken by them at one time or another. A large number of the subjects will doubtless be of a personal kind, and of little interest to anyone but the photographer and a small circle of relations and friends. Also, it is more than probable that many of the prints, owing to defects in exposure, lighting and composition, fall below the standards of good photography…
          Subjects Carefully Chosen.
     …And here are a few suggestions that may be helpful: To begin with, fight shy of what may be called picture-postcard subjects. Leave it to the professional to record Brighton beach or folks bathing at Margate. You can buy plenty of this kind of stuff cheaply.
     Second, don’t waste films on expansive scenes, which look very nice to the eye, but are very disappointing when reduced to a small picture of a few square inches–we assume a hand camera to be used. Third, unless the subject is particularly interesting, and the chance of taking it may not recur, don’t snap it if the light is so bad that the best you can hope for is a very under-exposed negative, followed by a correspondingly washy print, lacking strength and detail. Goodness only knows how many films are exposed annually by amateurs, young and old, under hopeless conditions of lighting. Fourth, don’t bother about subjects of movements too rapid for ordinary camera to capture, such as waves breaking at close quarters, and trains travelling at high speed. Special forms of shutters are required for dealing with them
     …The chief difficulty in the photography of cats, especially when the animal is one’s own pet, is that they will often persist in following the photographer closely around, rubbing against his legs. Taken unaware, however, they make charming studies…
–From Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: An Educational Treasury and Children’s Dictionary Volume 4. General Editor, H.A. Pollock. London: The Home Library Book Company, 1934. pg. 223-4 & 229.

Confess (ko̤n-fes’), v…
I. trans. 1. To make avowal or admission of, as of a fault, a crime, a charge, a debt, or something that is against one’s interest or reputation; own; acknowledge; avow.
     Do you confess the bond?
          Shak., M of V., iv. 1.
2. Reflexively, to make an admission or an inculpatory statement concerning; acknowledge to be; specifically, acknowledge the sins or moral faults of, as in auricular confession to a priest: as, I confess myself in error or in fault.
     I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts,
     wherein I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and
     excellent ladies anything.
          Shak., As you Like It, i. 2.
     He hath confessed himself to Morgan, whom he supposes
     to by a friar.
          Shak, All’s Well, iv. 3.
3. Eccles., to receive the confession of; act as a confessor to.
     I confess’d her, and I know her virtue.
          Shak., M. for M., v. i.
4. To acknowledge as having a certain character or certain claims; recognize; own; avow; declare belief in.
     Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
     him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
          Mat. x. 32.
5. To grant; admit; concede.
                    If that the King
     Have any way your good deserts forgot
     Which he confessth to be manifold,
     He bids you name your griefs.
          Shak., 1 Hen IV., iv. 3.
II intrans 1. To make confession or avowal; disclose or admit a crime, fault, debt, etc.
     Bring me unto my trial when you will
     Died he not in his bed? where should he die?
     Can I make men live, whe’r they will or no?
     O! torture me no more, I will confess.
          Shak., 2 Hen. VI. iii. 3.
–From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: A Work of Universal Reference in all Departments of Knowledge with a New Atlas of the World. Volume II CELT-DROOL. New York: The Century Co., 1900. pg. 1182.

Confessions of an English Opium Eater, THE.
Record of a remarkable period of his life by Thomas De Quincey, first published in book form, 1822, and greatly enlarged in 1856. It is a prose classic of the 19th century.
–From Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopedia. Volume 3 CAV-DRILL. London: The Amalgamated Press LTD, c. 1910. pg. 2202.

How to Eat
We have seen that food, properly chewed and mingled with saliva, is swallowed and reaches the stomach. This is the largest and most important of the hollow organs of the body; but when we call it “hollow” we must not fancy that it is something like a football, with a great space inside it. There are no such unfilled spaces in the body. When the stomach is empty, as it should be for some time before every meal, its walls are pressed against each other. When food enters it, they make room; and the greater the supply of food, the more the stomach enlarges in proportion. A healthy stomach always accurately fits its contents.
How We Can Eat Without Gaining Strength
Foolish people who have something the matter with the wonderful machinery we have described, or who do not care whether they eat too much so long as the taste is pleasant, may be surprised that their food does not give them strength. They forget that we live only by what we digest and absorb.
–From The Book of Knowledge The Children’s Encyclopedia, The Maple Leaf Edition. Volume VI. Toronto: The Grolier Society, Limited, 1926. pgs 2083 & 2086

Maple Sugar. In the Old Days of “Sugaring Off”: A Tale of the Gay Times That Peoples used to Have When the Sap Was Running in the Sugar Maples.
Are you ever tempted to wonder how people had any fun a hundred years ago, when there were no radios, no automobiles, no baseball, and no “movies”? If sometime you should find yourself in that self-satisfied frame of mind, in which everything outside your own time and country seems very dull and tiresome, just stop a moment and remember the old-time “sugaring off.”
–From Richards Topical Encyclopedia Vol 9: Basic Industries. New York: J.A. Richards Publishing Co., Inc, 1949. pg 122.

The Mountain and the Squirrel
The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel;
And the former called the latter, “Little prig.”
Bun replied,
“You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together,
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I’m not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
I’ll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.”
          Ralph Waldo Emerson.
–From Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: An Educational Treasury and Children’s Dictionary Volume 4. General Editor, H.A. Pollock. London: The Home Library Book Company, 1934. pg. 222.

Popular Etymology or Folk Etymology,
sometimes also called false etymology, may be defined as the ever-present human tendancy, sometimes unconscious and sometimes intentinally humerous, to convert unfamiliar words into familiar forms, to connect the unknown with the known in order to make it an integral part of the established system. It offers a conspicious example of the imaginative, poetical, and irregular nature of language, and it has played, and still plays, a much greater part in language than is usually believed.
–From Collier’s Encyclopedia Volume 16 PHN to REY. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1957. pg 205.

Psycho-Analysis.
Psycho-analysis has recently become popular, because of the multiplicity of nervous disorders to which it can be successfully applied. In this popularity, however, lies danger, for numerous quack psycho-analysts who have little knowledge of the true method have proclaimed themselves practitioners.
–From The Standard Reference Work: For the Home, School, and Library. Volume VII PRA-SUB. Chicago: Standard Education Society, 1927. no page numbers. (Really, there are no page numbers in this book.)

Religion,
a fundamental expression of man and society, ordinarily implying devotion to a supreme being or beings. As a basic factor in world history, as a primary and continuing attitude of man, religion has universal importance…
The Nature of Religion. Authorities are not agreed on what constitutes religion. J.H. Leuba in the Psychological Study of Religion (1912) and elsewhere, offered some fifty definitions, drawn from almost as many eminent authors. The multiplicity and divergence of scholarly opinion in the field may be illustrated by the citation of a few current conceptions.
    The French philosopher, Emile Durkeim (1858-1917), on the basis of researches in the primitive religions and totemism of central Australian tribesmen, developed a concept which identified religion with the idea of the sacred as distinct from the profane. He observed many religious beliefs and rites, and, by an intensive study of the mentality of groups and communities, advanced the knowledge of sociology. A serious objection to this approach was raised, however, by the psychologists of religion when they argued that modern religion is too complex and elusive to be explained on the basis of findings in primitive religion.
    During the nineteenth century, a conception of religion combining naturalism with rationalism and grounded in the evolutionary hypothesis of Charles Darwin came to the fore. It was gradually adopted in the fields of philosophy, anthropology, and general culture. Herbert Spencer in his First Principles (1862) proposed the view that the vital and constant element of religion is the sense of mystery. He suggested that religion is awe in the presence of cosmic forces and pointed to the “rhythm of motion” as one of the fundamental laws of the material universe. In his view, religion was derived from manism, that is, belief in mana, the extraphysical power that is inherent in nature, emanates from nature, and produces the order of the universe. In his Researches into Early History of Mankind (1865) and Primitive Culture (1871), Edward Burnett Tylor sought to determine the limits of animism, intending it to include “the general doctrine of souls, and other spiritual things”; according to Tylor, religion was derived from animism. In 1890 James George Frazer worked out a comprehensive study of ancient cults, folklore, and culture, which he incorporated in The Golden Bough. He described religion as “the despair of magic,” maintaining that historically it merely succeeded magic. R.R. Marett and Wilhelm Max Wundt held that religion actually grew out of magic. All these variations on the central evolutionary theme were later challenged. In 1917 John R. Swanton proclaimed the real existence of several parallel and independent lines of religious development, demonstrating at the same time that religion is one of the primary components of human nature and is not to be connected with any such specific origins as magic, death, dreaming, mana, or animism.
    Other philosophers have advanced many additional conceptions of religion. Its moral aspect is emphaszied by Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason, in which religion is defined as the recognition of all duties as divine commandments. Friedrich Schleiermacher in Discourses found the essence of religion in “the feeling of dependence.” William James in Varieties of Religious Experience, speaking of the individual character of religion, described it as “the feelings, acts, and experiences of men in their solitude.” Others found in religion the totality of man’s yearning for wordly and over-wordly stability. Still others, taking a materialistic view, declared religion to be nothing more than a figment of the imagination. Henri Bergson, representative of those who distinguish between intellect and intuition, adopted a more subtle approach: his closed and open societies, the one mechanical and the other mystical, suggest that intellect is the source of morality and that intuition is the source of religion.
    There is no immediate answer to the question of the origin of religion. Many of its roots can be traced, but the fundamental reality is not in such individual roots, but in the purpose that underlies religion. The theistic conception of religion supposes a Creator, a superhuman being who has a purpose for man and the universe and with whom man may have communion; thus, William Adams Brown defined religion as “the life of man in his supernatural relations.” This emphasis on the supernatural also points to revelation, that is, to actual implementation of the divine purpose in nature, scripture, and prophecy. In Christianity, the Incarnation is the center of the whole scheme of revelation.
The Core of Religious Power. Although the true core of religious power eludes precise definition, it is possible to describe in broad outline certain channels through which religion has made its power felt.
Worship. The nature of worship in a given religion is generally governed by the meaning attached to the Supreme Being. Magic, totemism, manism, and fetishism among primitive peoples give rise to a peculiarly crude pattern of worship. In the religions of Greece and Rome, gods in the likeness of men were worshipped in a strongly anthropomorphic style. In Hinduism, the Brahma–the great impersonal oversoul–demanded awe and adulation. In Buddhism, constrary to the founder’s injunctions, the Buddha came increasingly to be adored. The Confucianists centered their cult on the worship of ancestral spirits. In total submission before the Almighty, the Moslem worships Allah, the Meriful, the Compassionate, Lord of Heaven and Earth, who begat not nor was begotten, and with whom no one is coequal. The Jew bows in worship before the Lord God, the King of the universe, “the God of our Fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”… In the case of Christianity, religious experience, centered on worship, evokes the will to serve God, and culminates in the faith that enables man to move mountains; God’s love, revealed in the figure of Jesus Christ, offers personal regeneration and the redemption of mankind.
Scripture. A religion is strengthened by sacred texts. Spoken by prophets and seers, written by countless scribes, surviving in many commentaries, the scriptures of the great religions embody the wisdom of the ages. Whether they be the Analects of Confucius, the Tao Tê Ching of Lau-tzu, or the Veda or Bhagavad-gita of India, hallowed writings exercise a tremendous influence on worshippers and are transmitted from generation to generation…
Ethics. In ethics the great religions have a common ground. It is true that modern medical, psychological, and sociological research has shed new light on human behavior and has suggested that actions once condemned as immoral deserve instead to be treated with due allowance for their natural or physical causes. But the development of personality and the cultivation of character, which are outside the sphere of the exact sciences, are linked with ethics as ethics is allied with religion.
Theology. Taken in its specific relation to thought, theology may be said to treat ultimate reality apart from the categories of philosophy and the detachment of science. The major religious systems of East Asia identify the divine with an impersonal, indeterminate, and hence utterly unknowable principle. The monotheistic religions, on the other hand, accept the divine as a self-revealing being, a creator, and an arbiter of ends… Here is met the great paradox of theology–belief in a sovereign God and admission of man’s free will… Within the confines of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic theology, Greek reason and Hebrew theism are harmonized, creating perhaps the most powerful system of religious thought that the world has ever known…
Religions of the Modern World. There are eight principal religions in the modern world. in East Asia, Confucianism and Taoism may be considered the product of China’s religious experience. Shinto is an expression of the national consciousness of Japan. Though Indian in origin, Buddhism long ago became a universally accepted faith in the lands of the Far East. With all of its offshoots and varitions, Hinduism sums up much that is peculiarly Indian. Three religions had their inception in the Near East: Judaism and its two daughter religions, Christianity and Islam, both of which in due course established univeral claims and were practiced on a worldwide scale. A ninth religion, Zoroastrianism, though Iranian in historic connection, is at present primarily the faith of the Parsi community centered upon the state of Bombay in India.
    Faster means of communication have brought the religions of the modern world into closer proximity, and the exchange of religious insights has proceeded on a vast scale. The thirst of the Eastern soul for reform and modernization was held in balance, however, by an unbending resistance to radical change and a firm attachment to old moorings. Nor was the ascendancy of Western Christian culture left unquestioned. The havoc and agony of two world wars, the rising tide of secularism, the impact of materialist philosophies–Fascism, Marxism, and naturalism–has had a staggering effect on the churches. The fear of an apocalytic end to civilization, occasioned by the development of ever more powerful instruments of destruction, has accelerated among the leaders of many religions the desire for concerted effort toward peace and human welfare. Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Vedantists, Christians, and others are engaged in a re-examination of their respective positions. While perserving the claims of their own faiths, they seek to draw from their vasic differences a measure of harmony and good will…
Inner Meaning of Religion. No aspect of human experience which has left so indelible a mark on man’s total endowment as has religion, can be explained away on the basis of such things as fear, imagination, or quest after the truth. Its nature suggests an inner constitution and meaning, which thoughtful men over the ages have striven in vain to discover. It is a fundamental tenet of most believers that seeking and striving, in themselves, lead nowhere, that the truth that sets men free is other than, and apart from, all human striving. Among the approaches to the subject of religious truth that bring some measure of understanding of it are those afforded by the study of comparative religion and the examination of such concepts as grace and faith, the image of God, and the solidarity of mankind.
Comparative Religion. Cultivated though it was by the ancient Greeks and medieval Arabs, the science of comparative religion, which promises to unlock the hidden treasure of religion, has not yet come to maturity… The canons of the study of comparative religion are basically three. First, any given religion is studied objectively; it is set forth in the light of its own affirmations, dogmatics, claims, apologetics, and the ethical performance that is fosters; its philosophical implications in society are fairly treated. Second, the comparative study of religion proceeds, on the basis of a thorough grounding in history, theology, and social dynamics, to describe the radical differences between the several faiths. The proper study of these differences, which are established as a necessary step toward better understanding and sounder judgement in the field, presupposes a reverent attitude, sympathy, and appreciation. Each religion is viewed as a bridge to the truth, as an evidence of man’s incurably spiritual nature. Thus, only after compliance with the first and second canons will it be possible to formulate a philosophical critique showing both the limitations and excellences of one living religion as compared with another. It is obvious, therefore, that a maximum of religious liberty and scientific inquiry is desired in this discipline. Yet neither freedom of conscience nor the scientific method allows an investigator to prejudge the merits of a given religion or to state in advance its superiority over another. To stigmatize a faith as sterile or inferior before it has been dispassionately considered is contrary to the true spirit of religion.
–From Collier’s Encyclopedia Volume 16 PHN-REY. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1957. pgs 640-1, 642 & 643.

Rĕ-lĭġ’-iṓn. *Re-lig-i-oun. *Re-lyg-yon. * Re-lig-iun.
s.[Fr. religion, Prov. religio, religion, from Lat. religionem, accus. of religio=religion. Not from religio=to bird back, else it would be religation, but from religens=pious, religious, pr. par. of relego=to gather together, to collect again: re=again, and lego=to lay, to arrange, to gather; Sp. religion; Port. religiao; Ital. religione.]
    I. Ordinary Language:
1. Objectively:
(1) The outer form and embodiment which the inward spirit of a true or a false devotion assumed (Trench); a rite or ceremony practiced in the worship of God.
        “To transform
        Oft to the image of a brute adorned
        With gay religions full of pomp and gold.”
                Milton: P. L., i. 372.
(2) A system of doctrine and worship regarded by its adherents as of Divine authority, as the Brahmanic religion, the Christian religion. (Acts xxvi. 5; Gal. i.13.)
2. Subjectively: The feeling of veneration with which the worshiper regards the Being he adores.
¶ Darwin (Descent of Man, pt. i., ch. iii.) considers that the feeling of religious devotion is a highly complex one, consisting of love, complete submission to an exalted and mysterious superior, a strong sense of dependance, fear, reverence, gratitude, hope for the future, and perhaps other elements. No being, he thinks, could experience so complex an emotion until advanced in his intellectual and moral faculties to at least a moderately high level.
    II. Technically:
1. Anthrop. & Compar. Religion: Prof. C.P. Tiele (Ency. Brit. (ed. 9th) art. Religions) thus divides the faiths of the world:
I. Natural Religions:
1. Polydæmonistic Magical Religions under the control of Animism. Example, the religions of the Savages.
2. Purified or Organized Magical Religions, Therianthropic Polytheism.
(a) Unorganized. Example, the old Dravidian faith, the religion of the Finns, &c.
(b) Organized. Example, the Egyptian religion, the more organized American Indian faiths.
3. Worship of man-like but superhuman and semi-ethical beings. Anthropomorphic Polytheism. Example, the Vedic, Zoroastrian, and various Semitic faiths, the Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, and Græco-Roman religions.
II. Ethical Religions:
1. National Nomistic (Nomothetic) Religions. Brahmanism, Judaism, &c.
2. Universalistic Religious Communities. Islam, Buddhism, Christianity.
–From The Imperial Encyclopædic Dictionary A New and Exhaustive Work of Reference to the English Language, Defining Over 250,000 Words, with a Full Account of their Origin, Pronunication and Use, Comprising a General Encyclopædia of Art, Science, Invention and Discovery; a Gazetteer and Atlas of the World: A Compendious Dictionary of Universal Biography, etc. Vol VIII PUY-SPE. London and New York: Dictionary and Cyclopedia Co. 1901. pg. 3410.

Sexual Pathology,
One of the most misunderstood forms of activity treated under sexual pathology, is masturbation, also called onanism, after the Biblical character, Onan, son of Judah and Shuah. Onan, having been ordered to marry his brother’s widow, resorted to autoerotic practices to avoid having sexual relations with her, which “displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him” (Gen. 38:10). Too many parents fail to realize that masturbatory activity is normal for the average infant who, if not reprimanded, will of his own accord abandon the practice before the second year. However, calling the child’s attention to the practice by scolding, or actual punishment, creates mental trauma, the effects of which may perpetuate the practice, or turn the infant into a pervert when adulthood is reached, or produce mental symptoms at a later date. Studies indicate that some masturbatory activity is scientifically normal and, form a purely medical viewpoint, harmless if infrequently practiced. Resorting to masturbation as a constant, repetitive habit, however, indicates maldevelopment or mental illness requiring psychotherapy…
    Modern feminine attire in its scantiness and suggestive lines, displays evidences of exhibitionism. The pathological state of exhibitionism is twofold: revealing the genitals, and deriving pleasure from masturbating before a person of the opposite sex. This state is not uncommon among confused seniles and arteriosclerotics…
    In his Confessions, Rousseau revels in stories of masochism. The term masochism is derived from Leopold van Sacher-Masoch who, in several of his romances, describes the induction of passion by being whipped…
    Homosexuality is commonly found in regressive mental disorders, psychopathic personalities, some alcoholics and drug addicts, and in residents of segregated institutions. Freud associated homosexuality with paranoia and with alcoholism. Female homosexuality is know as lesbianism. Similar practice between a man and woman is termed cunnilingus; when undertaken between males, the sexual practice is called fellatio.
–From Collier’s Encyclopedia Volume 16 PHN-REY. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1957. pgs 498 & 499.

Television,
the transmission and reception of visual images in motion by electrical means. Actually, it consists of converting the lights and shadows of a scene into corresponding electric signals which may be broadcast, or transmitted over radio relay and coaxial cable circuits. At the receiver these signals are reconverted into a visible image which recreates the original scene… Broadcasting Programs. The modern television camera (iconoscope and image orthicon, described under Television Cameras, below), has all the capabilities of the motion-picture camera. The image orthicon is, in fact, more sensitive to light than the fastest photographic film, when exposed for the 1/30-sec. interval allowed for each picture. This camera can televise a recognizable picture in the light of a single candle held 6 ft. from the subject. The producer of television programs is thus freed from limitation as to subject matter, so far as illumination is concerned.
–From Collier’s Encyclopedia Volume 18 SOD-TZU. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1957. pgs 465 & 466.

Television Starts in Canada By Lorne Greene, Director, Academy of Radio Arts, Toronto
     By the end of 1951 at least two television studies are expected to be in operation in Canada–one in Montreal and one in Toronto. This will be the beginning of a national system of television designed, like Canada’s radio, to suit the needs of Canada, just as Canada’s radio system was designed.
     To give a clear idea of the future of television in Canada, we must start with radio and the part it has played in the development of Canada’s cultural resources… In 1929, because radio was in no sense national in its coverage or adequate in its service to Canadians, a Royal Commission (later known as the Aird Commission) was appointed to study the entire question of radio broadcasting in Canada. This led to the Canadian Broadcasting Act in 1936, which created a system of radio in Canada unlike any in the world: on the one hand, a publicly owned national system, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to serve Canada with network broadcasting, sustaining and commercial; and on the other, privately owned stations to serve individual communities.
     Private stations are supported by commercial revenue. The CBC, operating the national network, receives its income from license fees and some commercial charges. Thus, Canadians enjoy the best features of both the British and the American broadcasting systems…
     In his address to the House of Commons… Revenue Minister McCann outlined the Government’s proposed plan: “First, the general direction of television broadcasting in Canada… will be entrusted to the Board of Governors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which will arrange for television operations by the CBC and by licensed private stations. Second, in order to provide the required services the CBC will (a) establish national television production centers in the cities of Montreal and Toronto: (b) they will provide the services of television programs for broadcasting by stations which may be established in other areas in Canada, thus furnishing part of that programing. This service will be provided by the CBC either by means of kinescope recordings or by direct physical relays when these are available. Third, in any city or area in Canada, including Montreal and Toronto, a license to establish one private station will be granted to a private organization giving adequate assurance of financial means and of service.”
     Because television is not yet an actual fact, Canada has been accused of lagging in introducing it. But Canadian TV experts see in television one of the most powerful social forces ever devised by man. They feel that the utmost care should be taken in its development. They have been busy studying the mistakes and problems of other countries, and they are trying to anticipate the problems that great distances and small population will cause..
     Like radio, television in Canada will also offer the best from other countries and carry a certain number of commercially sponsored programs… Television will bring more employment opportunities to Canadian artists. Highly skilled technicians will be required as cameraman, set designers, lighting experts–a host of men and women will have to be trained for this new medium. Through them will be developed a new means of communication of ideas and better understanding among Canadians. If Canadian TV programs are planned with equal consideration and imagination, and the required financial support is forthcoming, Canada’s television, like its radio, will become a telling feature of the country’s culture–a vital influence in the lives of each of us in the years that lie ahead.
–From The Book of Knowledge Annual 1951. New York.Toronto: The Grolier Society, 1951. pgs 370-1.

Thor Among the Giants [Tales from the Norse]
     Once upon a time the god Thor set out to go to Giantland. With him were the god Loki and his servant, Thialfi. They travelled far, and when night came they looked about for shelter.
     Suddenly Thor came upon a spacious hall, of which the door, which was as wide as the house itself, stood open.
     “Let us lodge here for the night,” said Thor. So they went in and looked around. There were five small rooms opening off the wide hall, but all of them were empty. Thor and his companions ate their supper in the hall, and lay down to sleep.
     But they could not rest, for strange noises kept them awake. Never had Thor heard such loud mutterings, such thunderous snorts.
–From Newnes Pictorial Knowledge: An Educational Treasury and Children’s Dictionary Volume 5. General Editor, H.A. Pollock. London: The Home Library Book Company, 1934. pg. 301.

Walking
RECORDS
Greatest distance in 1 hour: 8 miles 1,025 yd., by J.F. Mikaelsson (Sweden), 1945
Greatest distance in 24 hours: 131 miles 580 yd. by T.E. Hammond (Great Britain) at the White City, London, 1908
London to Brighton walk record: D.J. Thompson (Metropolitan W.C.), 7 hr. 35 min. 12 sec., 1957
–From Junior Pears Encyclopaedia Sixth Edition. London: Pelham Books, Ltd., 1966. pg N54.

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