The horrible death and resurrection of Codename: Mackadamia !

OK !

Dear Old Mack,

This question seems like such an obvious candidate for Codename: Mackadamia that someone must have asked you before. But on the chance no one has, here goes: what does "OK" stand for, and where does the expression come from? I've heard a lot of different explanations over the years.

Signed, Wondering in Westminster


Dear Wondering in Westminster,

Yeah, and it's about time someone formally asked me and I got things cleared up. Despite the fact that the origin of OK was conclusively established decades ago, few etymological dictionaries, even recent ones, give it accurately. On the contrary, some persist in giving equal time to explanations that have been discredited for decades.

For example, Eric Partridge, in Origins (1983), says OK derives from the OK Club, which supported Martin "Old Kinderhook" Van Buren in 1840. That isn't wrong, but it's only half the story.

William and Mary Morris, in the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1977), mention the OK Club and give several other theories as well, including the off-the-wall idea that OK comes from "Aux Cayes," a port in Haiti noted for its rum. They imply the matter is still shrouded in mystery.

Baloney. The etymology of OK was masterfully explained by the distinguished Columbia University professor Allen Walker Read in a series of articles in the journal American Speech in 1963 and 1964.

The letters, not to keep you guessing, stand for "oll korrect." They're the result of a fad for comical abbreviations that flourished in the late 1830s and 1840s. Read buttressed his arguments with hundreds of citations from newspapers and other documents of the period. As far as I know his work has never been successfully challenged.

The abbreviation fad began in Boston in the summer of 1838 and spread to New York and New Orleans in 1839. The Boston newspapers began referring satirically to the local swells as OFM, "our first men," and used expressions like NG, "no go," GT, "gone to Texas," and SP, "small potatoes."

Many of the abbreviated expressions were exaggerated misspellings, a stock in trade of the humorists of the day. One predecessor of OK was OW, "oll wright," and there was also KY, "know yuse," KG, "know go," and NS, "nuff said."

Most of these acronyms enjoyed only a brief popularity. But OK was an exception, no doubt because it came in so handy. It first found its way into print in Boston in March of 1839 and soon became widespread among the hipper element.

It didn't really enter the language at large, however, until 1840. That's when Democratic supporters of Martin Van Buren adopted it as the name of their political club, giving OK a double meaning. ("Old Kinderhook" was a native of Kinderhook, New York.) OK became the war cry of Tammany hooligans in New York while beating up their opponents. It was mentioned in newspaper stories around the country.

Van Buren's opponents tried to turn the phrase against him, saying that it had originated with Van Buren's allegedly illiterate predecessor, Andrew Jackson, a story that has survived to this day. They also devoted considerable energy to coming up with unflattering interpretations, e.g., "Out of Kash, Out of Kredit, and Out of Klothes." Newspaper editors and publicists around the country delighted in coming up with even sillier interpretations — Oll Killed, Orfully Konfused, Often Kontradicts, etc. — so that by the time the campaign was over the expression had taken firm root nationwide.

As time went on, though, people forgot about the abbreviation fad and Old Kinderhook and began manufacturing their own etymologies. A sampling:

1.It's a derivative of the Choctaw Indian affirmative "okeh." Andrew Jackson, who figures in many stories about OK, is said to have introduced the word to the white man.

2.Another Jackson story has it that he used to mark OK for "oll korrect" on court documents. In the one example of this that was actually unearthed, however, the OK was found actually to be OR, for "order recorded," a common courthouse abbreviation.

3.It was a telegraphic signal meaning "open key," that is, ready to receive. Others say OK was used for "all right" because A and R had already been appropriated for other purposes. Big problem with this theory: the first telegraph message was transmitted in 1844, five years after OK appeared.

4.It stands for O. Kendall & Sons, a supplier of army biscuits that stamped its initials on its product.

5.It comes from Aux Cayes, already discussed. A variant is that it comes from the French au quai, "to the dock," said of cotton that had been approved for loading on a ship.
6.It stands for Obediah Kelly, a railroad freight agent, who used to mark his initials on documents to indicate all was in order.

7.It comes from the Greek Olla Kalla, "all good."

8.A German general who fought on the side of the Americans in the Revolutionary War used to sign documents OK for Ober-Kommando

Hope this helps, OM !

That picture ougtha make a homosexual male strait, not so sure about the one below:



There kinda scarry !

Old Mack wrote:

That picture ougtha make a homosexual male strait, not so sure about the one below:

FAIL!


Big platonic cyberhug to Mack

Come on Andy there some happening titties...maybe you need to look closer or something !

This could be you:

Insult Obama? Not on this campus! by Robert Shibley

Those who are fans of Codename: Mackadamia will know how many times I have wrote...ultraliberals believe in free spech just as long as you agree with them. Well here is a great example about what I was talking about...and even worse this is come'm from the people who are teaching our youth. At another website, two of the worse case Mack bashers who did their best to have me censored, allegedly were teachers on the college level...this article really brings them to mind !

Insulting the president and other government officials is practically a national pastime in the United States. This is a testament to the freedom of our society; in some parts of the world, insulting those who govern earns you swift punishment, or at least official censorship. That isn’t the case in America unless you live on a college campus.

Students at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) in Texas found this out the hard way yesterday when they erected a “free speech wall” a recently popular way for students to highlight the importance of free speech in which students put up a freestanding wall covered in paper, upon which anyone can write anything they want. Students jumped on the chance to participate. To cite a few examples: “Don’t hate against Gays …,” “If you make less than $200,000 Republicans don’t care about you,” “Life’s not a bitch, Life is a beautiful woman …,” “Han Solo Shot First,” “My boyfriend is a liar!,” “Legalize Weed!!!,” and “NAZI PUNKS FUCK OFF!!!”

But just hours in, the free speech wall was vandalized by a professor, yes, a professor who was offended that someone had written “FUCK OBAMA” on the free speech wall. Students being students, the “F-word” was written on the wall many times about many different topics, but apparently the only expletive that offended this professor enough to take action was the one referring to President Obama.

The professor, whom students identified as Joe Kirk, demanded that the student groups sponsoring the wall including Republicans, Democrats, libertarians and socialists cover up only the Obama statement. They refused. He then told them that he would come back with a box cutter and cut it out of the wall himself, which he then did. You can see the before and after pictures at thefire.org.

Shocked that a professor would do this, the student organizers got in touch with the campus police. When the police arrived, they interviewed the students and the vandalizing professor. Then came the surprise: The police told the students that since Prof. Kirk was offended by some profanity on the wall, the students were engaging in “disorderly conduct,” a misdemeanor, and had to cover up all the swear words on the wall or take it down. Realizing that this would make a mockery out of the purpose of a free speech wall, the students simply disassembled the wall. Thus ended SHSU’s several hour-long experiment with free speech.

Profanity has always had a unique power to bring consternation to those who hear it; legendary comedian George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine made him famous precisely because he was willing to use such words. But the landmark Supreme Court case of Cohen v. California (1971) made clear that the First Amendment protects shocking or offensive expression, including the use of expletives in the communication of core political speech. In Cohen, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man for wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words “Fuck the Draft” in a county courthouse, writing that “one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”

Prof. Kirk does not appear to have been offended by the F-word itself, however only at its use in an insult against the president. That’s the only one he cut out, after all. But the right of Americans to insult their leaders is just as protected as the right to use four-letter words. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the Supreme Court made clear that the First Amendment requires that “[d]ebate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and … may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” And in Rankin v. McPherson (1987), the Court found that the First Amendment protected a deputy county constable’s expressed hope that if another attempt were to be made on President Reagan’s life, that it be successful. If that extreme statement constitutes protected speech, there is no question the words “FUCK OBAMA” are as well.

Worse still, the police, by threatening to charge the students with disorderly conduct rather than Prof. Kirk with vandalism, have established a “heckler’s veto” on SHSU’s campus. Institutions grant a “heckler’s veto” over expression when they allow the reactions of those who hear or see the expression to govern what might be said, creating an incentive for people to act disruptively or violently when confronted with speech they don’t like in the expectation that the police will shut it down. That’s precisely what happened in this case: Prof. Kirk’s destructive vandalism and claims of offense led the police to silence the expression of every student who wrote on the Free Speech Wall.

But in our free society, the police can’t censor speech simply because some people don’t like what’s being said. Instead, their job is to protect those with unpopular views from those who wish to silence them. And there are few places where this job is more important than a university campus, where it’s vital that all viewpoints be able to get a hearing if the search for knowledge is to take place.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, where I work) has written to SHSU President Dana Gibson asking her to restore free speech rights to her campus and allow students to express themselves and protest as the Constitution demands. Insults against President Obama might sound unpleasant to some, but the alternative a society in which citizens must always meekly respect their leaders is too unpleasant to contemplate.

Maybe part of the reason President Obamas big brother website has turned into such a joke is because it's just a ploy to get $$$.

It seems the Obama campaign's latest attempt to demonize and marginalize conservatives is backfiring. In an attempt to deal with criticism and rumors, the Obama campaign put up a web site called Attack Watch. Their hope - liberals would use the site to help counter attacks against President Obama. The site has its own Twitter hashtag - #attackwatch, as well as its own Twitter account. By all accounts, it is getting a lot of attention, but not the kind the Obama campaign was hoping for. The Daily Caller reports the site has turned into a joke, with conservatives reporting "everything from rude neighbors to NFL teams." "Few if any have actually used #AttackWatch so far in the way the Obama campaign intended," the Daily Caller adds.

So. The guy is, quite lawfully in the US, sentenced to death for his crime. That's not punishment enough? You've got to deny him the right to observe the requirements of his faith while he awaits death, too?

'...People don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent !' Bob Dylan

felix thank you for participating in Codename: Mackadamia, the thread where everyones opinion matters.

Abdul Awkal has committed the ultimate crime and to make things worse it was kin folk he murdered. The guy is on death row not some religious retreat. Had Abdul followed the teaching of his religion as he now claims he does, he would not be there in the first place...that is the irony of it all !

Here's some irony for ya...people using freedom of expression to show that they are against freedom of expression.

Old Mack wrote:'...People don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent !' Bob Dylan

felix thank you for participating in Codename: Mackadamia, the thread where everyones opinion matters.

Abdul Awkal has committed the ultimate crime and to make things worse it was kin folk he murdered. The guy is on death row not some religious retreat. Had Abdul followed the teaching of his religion as he now claims he does, he would not be there in the first place...that is the irony of it all !

Agreed, Mack - but removal of access to requirements of faith ain't part of the US penal code, is it? The court didn't sentence him to death and removal of access to requirements of faith while you're waitin', did it?

Old Mack wrote:Here's some irony for ya...people using freedom of expression to show that they are against freedom of expression.

Classic irony, Mack. But try tellin' 'em that! Irony go to hell?

Yeah, extremists aren't all that big on irony. I always enjoy the fascist BNP party constantly going on about their democratic right.

The alternative BNP: http://britishnigerianparty.org.uk/

I don't know about you but I love a honest thief !

(Fox News) Two burglars looking for blank CDs in California instead found a man’s child pornography stash and turned him in, Fox40 Sacramento reported Wednesday. One juvenile and a 19-year-old broke into Kraig Stockard barn in Delhi, Calif., on Sept. 12 and stole 50 CD-Rs, which Stockard later reported stolen. "I'm kind of surprised that he wanted to draw attention to himself, knowing what was taken," Deputy Tom McKenzie of the Merced County Sheriff's Department told Fox40.

When the pair took the CDs home to burn music, they discovered that more than 30 of them contained child porn. They reported the contents of the discs to the sheriff’s department. "[A] family member convinced the two suspects to come forward, they contacted law enforcement," McKenzie said. Investigators served a search warrant on Stockard’s property and found three desktop computers and three laptops. It’s unknown what those computer contain, but authorities believe Stockard has been downloading the images and movies since 2004.

He was booked into jail for possession of child pornography and posted his $25,000 bail. The two people that found the pornography were not arrested for the burglary. "We did not actually go out and arrest the suspects for the burglary. They were obviously the lesser of two evils," McKenzie told Fox40. The burglars' case has been turned over to the Merced County District Attorney’s Office for review.

I never thought I would say it BUT I'm glad my grandfather isn't arround anymore to see what this country is turning into !

EAST BETHEL, Minn. (PDU-AP) — Authorities say an 18-year-old Minnesota woman admitted to investigators that she broke into a neighbor's home three times looking for items she could fence to feed her porn addiction. Anoka County sheriff's investigators say the neighbor called to report he had surveillance footage of the suspect, whose first name is Amanda, sneaking into his East Bethel home through a dog door.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the neighbor set up the camera after $300 and several items were stolen. Investigators say the suspect admitted she had broken in three times. She said she need money so she could pay for 20 to 30 pornographic DVDs she bought. The suspect, whose first name is Amanda was charged Wednesday with second-degree burglary. She does not have a listed phone number and it wasn't clear Saturday if she had an attorney.

Dam I wish her phone number was listed, just like that tool of the ultraliberal profit driven media, I'd like to give her a call !

Here's one guy who's stringing his fellow fighters along by strumming the guitar while his friends take on Moammar Khadafy loyalists. During a battle in Sirte, the last stronghold of Khadafy's troops, a man was photographed Monday playing the guitar as rebel forces fire machine guns.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/libya_guitar_hero_plays_while_rebel_0ioXY7dfHSqnmybOu2b0lJ#ixzz1aW2L9fCF

Codename: Mackadamia fans...for those of you'se not keeping up with American politics, President Obama has been in the news lately for refusing, because of legal technicalities / presidential powers to provide offical documents, legally requested by Congress and American citizens under the Freedom of Information Act. If you have to much time on your hands like me and want a chuckle watch the video of Candidate Obama promising never to do anything like that and that he would have the most transparent administration in human history.

It's comical that people actually believed him !



If your intrested in American politics listen to this one, the U.S. Goverment put 2,000 guns in the hands of criminals, it is mind blowing ! (hundreds of deaths have been blamed on this scandal)

Dam...Old Mack needs to go on a diet ! Here's my yardstick !

Dam...Al got all the money in the world and he's wearing a TUX that looks like he trash picked it !

pinhedz wrote:

If, I was at that affair people would be saying...'Old Mack sure has put on some weight.'

And than someone else would say...'yeah but thats a awesome TUX he's wearing and he sure does look great in it, unlike that Gore fellow.'

Hi there, Speaking of death prediction, I find it really odd that one of the on-line death prediction services showed me the same death date that I was foretold in my dream about a year ago. http://yourdeathdate.info/1/index.html - I can’t explain this coincidence in any other way except that there must be some kind of magic involved here.

..... died ((
I always look here http://yourdeathdate.info/1/index.html
Death when it comes will have no denial.