Procuring relates to prostitution

I was talking to my mother the other day and I mentioned that a friend of mine was a procurement officer. She looked at me a little strange, and then asked me what a procurement officer did. I replied that they purchase office supplies and computers, whatever the company required in order to continue running. I then asked her she how it was that didn't know, as I thought that procurement officer's were a common thing in organisations and surely she had encountered the term before. She replied that in her experience, what I was describing was the role of a purchasing officer, and procurement was the term applied to people who arrange prostitutes for other people. I found this hilarious, as I had never heard the term used for that purpose.

I did a little Google search and I discovered that procuring or pandering is exactly what my mother described. However nowadays people who are procuring are generally referred to as pimps. I also looked into the term procurement, and it is only a relatively recent term applied to purchasing since the late 1980s. It was recognised that people who performed the role of purchasing in an organisation were doing a very functional task and as organisations wanted purchasing to form part of their overall strategic direction, many organisations decided to rename the purchasing function, procurement (perhaps unaware of the other use the term already held), in order to support this more strategic outlook. So in essence both uses of the term are correct, however the definition of procuring a prostitute is perhaps less used these days then the procurement as a purchasing function of an organisation.

Check out Wikipedia for more information on this topic.

The definition of a Plutocrat

I was watching Downton Abbey the other day, and one of the maids was talking to a footman, who was boasting of his get rich quick plans, to which she replied something like, 'well aren't you the budding Plutocrat'. This got me to wondering, what is a Plutocrat? My first thought was since the word is similar to aristocrat, a plutocrat could be a person of the ruling class on the planet Pluto. However, being the ultra intelligent person that I am, I decided to rule that definition out, because it just didn't quite fit with the context in which the maid used the word. I mean to suggest she was saying that the footman was going to rule a planet that nobody had visited, and in fact had not even discovered at the time, would be a bit far fetched, even for me to suggest!

I decided that my best option was to ask my old friend Dictionary.com. The response I got was that a Plutocrat was a member of a Plutocracy. Now since I could have made up a better answer than that (and in fact did, although not a plausible one), I decided it must be the correct answer, and then looked into the definition of a Plutocracy. It turns out my search finished here, as a Plutocracy is a government or state in which the wealthy class rule. Since England could easily have been described in this way back in the time Downton Abbey is set, I knew this was the correct answer. So the maid was cleverly indicating that the footman would become part of the ruling class of England if his get rich quick scheme worked. I do love to watch a show where I need to have a dictionary on hand to understand the plot, just so long as I don't need to use said dictionary too often!

Check out dictionary.com for this and other definitions.

Is there a potential health benefit to smoking?

The other day I was reading a highly regarded publication, the MX (a Melbourne commuter newspaper, not really that highly regarded, although a great source of trashy news), and read a story about cigarettes actually having a healthy impact on an individual. I have always been taught about the harms of cigarettes, so I was intrigued to learn more about this possible benefit of smoking. It turns out that there was a story of an individual who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (a bowel disease which is similar to Crohns disease) and was struggling with crippling pain, tiredness, dehydration and other symptoms, which all disappeared shortly after taking up a four- cigarette-a-day smoking habit.

I found this to be incredible, however as I read further in the article, I discovered that it wasn't the smoking habit the was removing these symptoms, but the nicotine that the person gained from the cigarettes. There has actually been a number of studies done on using nicotine as a treatment and apparently people can gain the same reduction in symptoms of this disease using nicotine patches, which have far less negative impacts. I can understand that this person would want to remove the pain, however to trade a lack of pain now for a potential to develop many types of cancer in the future, was dumbfounding. In general I am always a little dumbfounded as to why anybody would take up smoking these days, especially since we all know the risks involved. This is why I was interested in this story, because I thought perhaps the gains in this case outweighed the risks, which would at least justify why one person would take up smoking. Sadly I was disappointed, as the gains that were made from smoking in this story could easily have been gained from a less health damaging activity. So I am still yet to be given a satisfactory explanation of why anybody would risk their health by taking up smoking, maybe one day a reason will present itself, but I won't hold my breath.

Edwin Booth saved a Lincoln

I was sitting in a waiting room the other day and to pass the time I picked up the Readers Digest. Whilst reading I stumbled across an interesting article about coincidences. There were a few that were just unbelievable, although true, but the one that interested me the most was about John Wilkes Booth's (the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln) brother Edwin Booth. At the time Edwin was a famous actor, probably of a level with Brad Pitt, if he was alive today, and as a result his face was well recognised. He probably would have been famous in his own right if his brother had not killed the president, but he is now more often remembered as John Wilkes Booth's brother then for his own fame as a great actor.

The part of the article that interested me about Edwin Booth, was that prior to his brother assassinating Abraham Lincoln, Edwin Booth saved the life of Robert Lincoln, Abraham's son. Apparently Robert was waiting on a train platform, and the press of the crowd pushed him against a stationary train at the platform. As the train started to pull out of the station, Robert fell onto the tracks. Edwin Booth saw this happen, reached down and pulled Robert to safety. Robert recognised Edwin, (if your life was saved by George Clooney you would probably recognise your saviour) thanked him and that was the last they saw of each other. I found this story to be a massive coincidence which is why I am sharing it with you. To think that one Booth saved the life of a Lincoln and the other Booth took the life of a Lincoln, that is almost unbelievable.

If you want to read a section of a letter Robert wrote about Edwin Booth saving his life, check out Wikipedia.

Madison Square Garden iterations

I was watching a movie the other day called 'Cinderella Man' with Russell Crowe, it was about boxing and was actually a really good movie. The thing that I noticed when watching it though, was the Madison Square Garden, where many of the boxing matches were held, look entirely different to the Madison Square Garden that I had seen when I visited New York. This got me to wondering if they were even the same building. As usual I went to my trusty friend Google and asked my question. It turns out that it was not the same Madison Square Garden that I had seen, and in fact there have been four different Madison Square Gardens throughout history. 

The first Madison Square Garden was built on the corner of 26th street and Madison Avenue (diagonally across from Madison Square Park, which gave the arena its name). The building was a open air arena, with seating for 10,000, which had been converted from an abandoned railway depot. The arena was open from the early 1870s as an arena, but was only named Madison Square Garden in 1879. It was closed in 1890 and replaced by the second Madison Square Garden in 1891 on the same site. The second Garden was an indoor arena with seating for 8000, but standing room for thousands more. It operated until 1925 and after its closure it was demolished so that the New York Life Building (which stands currently) could be built on the site. In 1925 once the old arena closed a third Madison Square Garden, which was built in a different location away from Madison Square on 8th avenue between 49th and 50th streets, was opened. This is the Garden that was featured in 'Cinderella Man' and was also an indoor arena, with a different seating size for crowds depending on the sport, the largest capacity being 18,496 spectators for boxing or basketball. This arena operated for 43 years, from 1925 until its closure in 1968 (it was demolished and remained a parking lot until 1989), when it was replaced by the fourth and current Madison Square Garden, the one that I saw whilst visiting New York, which is located on top of Pennsylvania (Penn) Station, still on 8th avenue, however between 31st and 33rd streets (further downtown than the third Garden, and closer to Madison Square Park). This is also an indoor arena and has a different seating capacity depending on the attraction, with up to 22,292 squeezing inside for a professional wrestling match. The current Garden is the longest serving of that name, but who knows what the future may hold and whether there might be a fifth Madison Square Garden.

If you would like to read more about the various Madison Square Gardens, check out the Wikipeida articles, MSG, MSG2, MSG3 and MSG4.

The History of Tattoos

A friend of mine sent me an online article about the history of tattoos the other day. As I was reading the article I was intrigued by how such a permanent mark became so fashionable. Tattoos were first discovered by Sir Joseph Banks, who served as a botanist on Captain Cook's first voyage to the Pacific. He discovered that it was a custom that many Polynesian natives tattooed themselves, generally on their faces, whilst travelling the island in the Pacific. Even though Banks thought the custom of tattooing absurd, he still detailed the process the Polynesians went through to gain their tattoos. The word tattoo itself is derived from a Tahitian (Tahiti is a Polynesian island) word tatau, meaning 'to mark'. Bank's detailing of the process lead to many sailors taking up the practice of wearing tattoos. Amongst sailors the tattoos became symbols of where they had traveled, with a turtle signalling that the sailor has crossed the equator, an anchor they had crossed the Atlantic, a dragon to signify a sailor had served on a China station and a golden dragon to signify that the sailor had crossed the International date line, to name a few.

Although sailors had been tattooing themselves since the 1700s, it wasn't until the late 1800s when it became popular amongst the high society of England. In 1862 the playboy prince, Bertie (later Edward VII), adopted a Jerusalem Cross as his first tattoo. His sons also gained tattoos during their service with the Royal Navy and this started a trend in the upper classes of England. This trend continued for a couple of decades, until 1891, when Samuel O'Reilly invented the modern day electronic tattooing device, which dramatically decreased the cost of getting a tattoo, thus making the practice more affordable to the lower classes. This affordability lead to more commoners sporting tattoos and the upper class covering up their body art in fear of being branded common. It has only been in the last 20 years that celebrities around the world have once again sparked an interest in tattoos amongst the general public, and today tattoos are more common than they have even been before, with more than 1,500 tattoo parlours in the United Kingdom alone.

If you would like to read more about the history of tattoos, check out the full article on HistoryToday.