Alumni

Alumni does not mean the former students, male and female, of a college or university. Neither do alumnus, alumna, or alumnae refer to the men and women who have previously attended a university. In fact, there appears to be no single word that precisely means both the men and women graduates of a school.

Alumnus refers to a male who has attended or is a graduate of a school, college, or university. Alumni is the plural of alumnus and means more than one male former student. Alumna is a former female student, while Alumnae is the plural of alumna and refers to more than one female graduate.

JP: So......now you know!

Panther

A panther is not a specific species of cat, nor is it a certain color of animal within a single species. The name panther is correctly applied to various larger cats that are distinguished by their black coloration. Panther usually refers to a black leopard, but is also properly used for pumas, jaguars, and cougars that are black.

Prepositions at the end of a sentence

Contrary to what you thought you learned in school, there is, and never has been, a rule that prohibits ending a sentence with a preposition. Although it may be better form at times to avoid the use of a preposition at the end of a sentence, it is not incorrect to do so.

This fact was best demonstrated when Winston Churchill referred to the absurdity of such a rule in his familiar remark, "This is something up with which I will not put."

Fido

The traditional and popular name for man's best friend, Fido, is not just a cute little word from children's stories, cartoons, or nursery school. It is a fitting title with a long history originating from the Latin word fidus, meaning faithful or loyal.

Betty Crocker

The well-known "writer" of cookbooks, Betty Crocker, is not a real person and never was. An advertising man invented the name for the author of cookbooks that were published by the large food company General Mills. Betty was chosen simply as a popular first name, while Crocker came from William G. Crocker, who was then director of General Mills.

JP: Hmmmmmmmm.....how many of you "Betty Crocker Future HomeMaker of Tomorrow" award winners knew this?

Cinderella

Cinderella is a traditional European fairy tale with over five hundred extant versions, some going back to the ninth century. However, Cinderella never had glass slippers until a translation error changed them from fur to glass in the late 1600s.

In most earlier versions, Cinderella's slippers were usually made of some rare metal or valuable covering. But a popular French story using slippers of white squirrel fur was incorrectly translated by Charles Perrault in his 1697 anthology of fairy tales subtitled Tales of Mother Goose. An older French word for fur was confused with a newer word for glass, and Cinderella acquired slippers of glass in the mistranslation. No versions of the tale had glass slippers until this error, and all subsequent popular versions have retained the glass slippers.

Antelope

Although the popular western song Home on the Range contains the line, "where the deer and the antelope play," there are no antelope in North America. The nearest relative to the antelope on this continent is the Rocky Mountain goat. The animals in North America commonly called antelope are actually pronghorn sheep. True antelope are found only in Africa and Asia.

JP: Well, antelope or not, I've seen lots of these beautiful animals out on the old San Simon Ranch.