Festival of Trees
Thanksgiving Weekend until Sunday, December 6th Located in the Sears wing of Columbia Mall
In The Park Sponsored by: Lions Clubs of Grand Forks
Nov. 27 thru Dec. 31 Lincoln Drive Park 5:30-10:00pm
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WORD ORIGINS
• In the early days of the 1800s, trade was just beginning to open up between Japan and America. Most American trade ships docked in the port of Yokohama. The city had one main street that was well-policed at night, and it was called Honcho-dori Street. It was the only safe thoroughfare in town; sailors caught in the city after dark trying to return to their ship through twisting alleys and convoluted byways were far more likely to be robbed, beaten and murdered. Therefore men being granted shore leave were warned never to wander through Yokohama at night, and to stick to the main route of Honchodori street, where they could be assured that everything would be “hunky-dori” which is how the phrase came into English. • The French “hoche” means “a shaking.” Add that to the word “pot” and you have “a shaking together in a pot.” “Hotch-pot” became the word for a stew and led to our “hodgepodge” meaning a jumbled assortment. • In Middle English “habben” meant to have; and “ne habben” meant to have not. “Habben, ne habben” was eventually abbreviated to “hobnob.” • In Massachusetts in 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry pressured the legislature to re-district the state to insure his victory in the next election. A team of men re-drew the voting boundaries to include any pockets they could find of Elbridge supporters. One voting district in Essex County looked like a dragon. Someone looking at a map of the new district mentioned that it looked like a salamander. A bystander said a better name would be Gerrymander, after the Governor. And that’s how “gerrymander” came to mean tampering with something to make it advantageous to yourself.