A
absquatulate
8; run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along
Adam of Bremen
128; (also: Adam Bremensis) One of the most important German medieval chroniclers. He lived and worked in the second half of the 11th century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church); Wikipedia entry
aeronaut: the pilot of a balloon or airship; Chicago World's Fair, 1893 and more here
All Pimps Look Alike to Me
Unbleached Ernest Hogan also has the dubious distinction of being the man who wrote the first, or at least the most influential, of what were to be called coon songs. In a Chicago tavern in 1896 he heard and wrote down a song he called "All Coons Look Alike to Me." It became a national sensation. Though his hit provided Hogan with financial security for the rest of his life, he was not unaware of the stereotype it popularized (even more in the vicious sheet music cover illustrations than in the ridiculous lyrics), and he is said to have wished on his deathbed that he had never written it. Interestingly, in the song as he first heard it, the piano player's girlfriend opined, "all pimps look alike to me." And Hogan had simply tried to use a gentler blackface animal simile in order to tone down the lyric's negativity. 48; a particularly catchy Chicago barroom ditty that was "stolen" by Ernest Hogan, a Vaudevillian whose tag was "The Unbleached American" (his real name was Reuben Crowders. He was a black man from Bowling Green, Kentucky. He took All Pimps and made it "All Coons"; he died in 1909 and was never recorded, but Arthur Collins recorded the tune and it's considered by some to be the First Rock 'n' Roll Record. Dave Wondrich describes it thus: "'All Coons' is a thoroughly modern record-so modern, in fact, that the first six notes of the chorus riff are rhythmically identical to the verse from "Satisfaction." And like "Satisfaction," the tempo is fast but not too fast to stomp. And it's short-in and out in two minutes and four seconds. As for the sound-the state of the art a hundred years ago was a process similar to the two-juice-cans-and-a-string we all played with in the days before kids had beepers and cell phones."
Anarchism
6; "the inexorable rising tide of World Anarchism..."
Anemometer
6; An instrument for measuring wind speed; Robinson anemometer, 6 Wikipedia entry
Arkansas Toothpick
31; The Arkansas Toothpick is essentially a heavy dagger with a pointed, straight 12-20 inch blade. The "toothpick" is balanced and weighted for throwing and can also be used for thrusting and slashing. Wikipedia entry
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