The Straight Dope 02/14/2003

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The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 02/14/2003

Dear Cecil:

I read in the New Yorker that George W. Bush's
grandfather and great-grandfather worked for Brown
Brothers Harriman, and had clients who funded the
building of the Nazi regime. I searched the Net
and found hundreds of sites giving volumes of
details and listing sources like the New York Times
and the Library of Congress. Conspiracy theories
aside, what's the truth about our president's
family? --Matt Tiegler

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Cecil replies:
    
Remember how during the Clinton era there were all those
rabid EOBs (Enemies of Bill) who seemingly devoted their
every waking hour to propagating scurrilous stories about
the president and his family? Well, an equally dedicated
crew is now spreading sensational allegations about Dubya
and his forebears. (Sample: the president's grandfather
not only financed the Nazis, he used concentration-camp
prisoners as slaves.) So each side gets a chance to drag
the other through the mud. Is this a great country or what?

Though the Bush family's detractors are legion, one of the
most prominent is John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor
and past president of the Florida Holocaust Museum in Saint
Petersburg. In 1994 Loftus coauthored a book with Mark Aarons
entitled The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western
Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People. The book alleges
various misdeeds by George W.'s father, George H.W., and
his grandfather, Prescott Bush.

The central charge against Prescott Bush has a basis in fact.   
For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030214.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

I've have noticed that every time someone asks a
question regarding the origin of a particular word,
Cecil always mentions the original Latin word root.
Well, where did the original Latin words come from?
Was there actually a Latinese guy sitting around
thousands of years ago making up crazy words for things
so that today we'd have an origin for the word "boogie"?
Are Latin words still being created to describe modern
things that weren't around during the original Latin
period? --E Pluribus Ed 

SDSTAFF bibliophage replies:

Some ancient Latinese guy just making stuff up? No way.
There's always a rational story behind every Latin word.
For example, "boogie," as you have already guessed, is
from Latin. The origin can be found in Bogudis, a shortened
form of saltatio Bogudis ("dance of Bogud"), Bogud being
an African king who allied himself with Julius Caesar and
incidentally introduced Rome to the new musical form known
as "iazz." 

Okay, so maybe I made that one up.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlatinroot.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 09/05/1980

Dear Cecil: 

What is sea level? Where is "zero feet sea level"?
Who decided that a particular place was to be
considered zero, instead of some other place, such
as Lake Titicaca? And what time of day can "zero"
be read at the designated place (you know, what with
tides and all)? How can zero be plotted around the
globe, to, say, the Rocky Mountains, where there are
no zero locations, with any accuracy? And what difference
does it make, anyway? --Bob B., Dallas

Cecil replies:

What, you want the people in the Federal Sea Level
Research Bureau to get fired and starve? Fact is, sea
level is a mighty handy concept.

There isn't any particular place at which sea level
mean sea level, to be precise) is measured. It's 
strictly an average.

Sea level is based on the assumption that because the oceans
are interconnected and water tends to find its own level,
the ocean surface around the world forms an ellipsoid (or
flattened sphere, which is what shape the earth is) of more
or less uniform geometry, once you average out the tides and
seasonal variations over a long period, typically 19 years. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_160.html

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