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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
MONDAY’S WORDs were poor, needy, deprived, underprivileged and disadvantaged. All five words mean basically the same thing, which is deprived, impoverished. Here are some synonyms for any of the above words from Merriam-Webster Online: disadvantaged, poor, underprivileged, poverty-stricken, dead broke, destitute, dirt poor, down-and-out, impecunious, indigent, necessitous, penniless, penurious. “I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh, not deprived, but rather underprivileged.) Then they told me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don’t have a dime. But, I have a great vocabulary.” (Jules Feiffer, cartoonist).
TUESDAY’S WORD is voluble (VAHL-yuh-bul). The young man proved to be a voluble informer who would tell stories of bookies, smugglers and hit men to the detectives for hours.
A few tickets still are available for Friday night’s Bluegrass Music Concert at the Spencer-Penn Centre featuring the James King Band and The Lost and Found. Doors will open at the center at 5:30 p.m. with concessions. The show will start at 7 p.m. Advance tickets are $10, and if any remain, they will be $12 at the door. Call the center at 956-5757 for advance ticket information.
The Fieldale Fire Department responded Friday morning to “heavy smoke” coming from several bales of hay on River Road in Fieldale. No one had set the bales of hay on fire, firefighters said. They speculated that the hay was baled tight and when heat from fermentation or other means began building inside the bales and could not escape, the heat kept building to a point of smoldering that could have led to spontaneous combustion. The firefighters said the hay was smoldering and had not ignited before they took care of it.
Wondering how spontaneous combustion occurs, we went to Wikipedia online encyclopedia and found a lot of interesting answers, such as when spontaneous combustion occurs:
“1. A substance with a relatively low ignition temperature begins to release heat, which may occur in several ways, such as oxidation or fermentation.
2. The heat is unable to escape, and the temperature of the material rises.
3. The temperature of the material rises above its ignition point.
4. Combustion begins if a sufficiently strong oxidizer, such as oxygen, is present.
The element sodium is an example of a pyrophoric material that can undergo a kind of spontaneous (and potentially very violent) explosion when exposed to oxygen, water or moisture in the air.
Some materials that can spontaneously combust:
• Haystacks and unprocessed cotton may self-ignite because of heat produced by bacterial fermentation.
• Grain dust in a hot metal silo can explode violently, destroying the structure.
• Linseed oil in a partially confined space (such as a pile of oil-soaked rags left out in an uncovered container) can oxidize, leading to a buildup of heat and thus ignition.
• Coal can spontaneously ignite when exposure to oxygen causes it to react and heat up when there is insufficient ventilation for cooling.
• Pyrite oxidation is often the cause of coal spontaneous ignition in old mine tailings.
• Pistachio nuts are highly flammable when stored in large quantities and are prone to self-heating and spontaneous combustion.”
The seventh annual Ken Adams Memorial Patrick County Toy Run to benefit Patrick County Christmas Cheer will be held Saturday, starting at the Fairystone Fire Department. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m., and the run will start at 1 p.m. The benefit run is being sponsored by Ross-Harbour United Methodist Church and the Red Knights VA Chapter 11 MC. For more information, call Cathy Adams at (276) 930-3150 or Corky Hall at 673-3300. |
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