The Power of Five (6)—Speakers of the House

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "The Power of Five"
One year ago on Round and Square (26 June 2012)—Fieldnotes From History: Provincial Elections (h)
Two years ago on Round and Square (26 June 2011)—Hurtin' Country: Too Cold At Home

[a] (Half of) a Third RF

Below, I list the "Five Speakers of the House."

I suspect that you might be thinking something along these lines: "Yes, I understand that the Speakership is important in American politics, and even that the Speaker is second in line to be president, right after the vice-president; I get it...still, couldn't you start with a list of, say, the Five Presidents? Would that be too much to ask?"

[a] Numero Uno RF

Yes, yes it would. Four of them are already carved in stone. Why would we start there?

"Ok," you say. "But there were a bunch of Speakers (of the House). How could you begin to differentiate; what are your standards?"

That is a far better question, and one that deserves an answer from the Power-of-Five Oracle. The Board of Trustees of Five-Phase (Round and Square) Cosmology has determined, after a careful look at the historical record, that the speakership as we have come to know it is a powerful end-in-itself, rather than one of many baubles in an almost inconceivably fruitful career. 

So...Fredrick Muhlenberg and (especially) Henry Clay will surely be recognized somewhere in the cosmology, but the idea was to look at the "lifers"—those whose very sweat, anger, and being was tied to the House of Representatives itself. This is the kind of leader who wants nothing more than to run for re-election every two years and steer the reins (reigns?) of one of the key institutions in American life. 

This is Dennis Hastsert (and countless other leaders since Reconstruction).

And yet...and yet...Muhlenberg and Clay are so vital to an understanding of the position that they are—somehow, some way—on the list anyway. 

Now that is cosmology. Even the RSQ Board cannot outvote the fierce power of Five-ness.

[b] Numero Longest RF

Let us not forget another important fact. The Speakership is hardly an insignificant little position tucked away among bigger glories such as senatorial election or a cabinet position. S/he is right there in the mix of presidential succession. Sure, it has never happened, but s/he has a lot better shot than the President pro tempore of the Senate (and that was one of the dumbest ideas ever thought up by our founding pundits).

So the decree from on-high is that the Five Speakers must have changed the institution or negotiated profoundly difficult political waters. Yes, I realize that in pulling back the curtain from the great-and-all-powerful decision making, I am risking something. On the other hand, anyone who would be reading Round and Square in the first place will already have enough patience to understand that prescription "irony lenses" are necessary to get very far. 

And, as a bow to historical perspective and the exasperating meanness of American politics today, the list ends at 2000. At some point, say, in 2098, Round and Square will run its list of "Twenty-First Century Speakers of the House." For now, all there is...is a photo acknowledging enormous, gendered, historical change. We live in murky times, and even cosmologists are affected.

[c] Big-time RF

So...these are the Five Speakers (of the US House of Representatives).

Together, they form the category "Speaker of the House."

Remember, if you think that this is a "top-five" list, such as you read on Yahoo, you are very badly mistaken. If that doesn't make sense...go back and read the introduction and the links!

The Five Speakers*
Fredrick Muhlenberg
Henry Clay
Joseph Gurney Cannon
Samuel Rayburn
Carl Albert
 * Before 2000 CE

Honorable Mention**
Tip O'Neill
Newt Gingrich
** The RSQ board will occasionally make an ironic sort of "Honorable Mention" observation that speaks to our lives today. This one—in all of its predictable partisanship and stunning compromise—is the first in an occasional set of additions. Imagine, at least in one way—fierce partisanship meets compromise—that you could think of them as one: Tip O'Gingrich.

Discuss. 

"We" are not going to do this often, but here is a little explanatory micro-essay. Muhlenberg was first (and saved the country from having impossibly long Germanic sentences in its official documents—this is apocryphal, but fascinating). Clay was sooooo much more than a Speaker, but he shaped the Speakership in profound ways. Cannon was the biggest. Rayburn was also the biggest. Albert saved the nation in a time of peril. 

'nuf said.

Tomorrow—Dream Interpreters

[d] Too historic for partisanship RF

Kanji Mastery—Radical 134 (臼 Mortar)

Click here for the Kanji Mastery Resource Center (all posts available)  

Click here for an introduction to the Round and Square series "Kanji Mastery."

[a] Aesthetic(ally) challenge(d) RF

Radical 134 is not particularly common in written Sino-Japanese. Heck, most people don't even think about mortar very much, whether or not it is accompanied by brick or pestle. On the other hand, you'll remember it if you have seen it. The character element (sometimes called a "primitive" to underline its foundational importance in the early language) is memorable for its very oddity. 

[b] Mortar coils RF

It is not especially easy to write in at least two respects. While it is only six strokes "long"—and hardly as challenging to remember as, say, "nose" (鼻)—students frequently forget its "stroke order."* The second difficulty is aesthetic. No matter how well you might wield the brush, it is difficult to make "mortar" hold its form on the written page. It tends to look overly mechanical, on the one hand, or oddly proportioned, on the other. This simple little character element presents thorny little problems, then.
*Follow these brief steps: a) "copy" the character 臼  b) click on the stroke order link here, c) paste 臼 into the search box and click "get diagram."

A further difficulty with regard to "mortar" is that it just is not very common (in the Japanese language, if not on the face of buildings). It may have been a key element—it is a "primitive," remember—in the brick and mortar linguistic crafting in early East Asia, but it appears in surprisingly few characters and combinations for all of that lifting and smoothing. You might want to think of the mortar fading softly into the larger picture of bricks that make up the Sino-Japanese script. For that reason, I am including in this post all of the listings in The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary. Such a list would not be possible with a radical such as 言, "speech," but "mortar" doesn't pack quite the breadth-wise punch of the major radicals.  

[c] Bricks and stuff RF

Of Nelson's 7,107 characters (kanji), "mortar" has...nine combinations. Yup, nine, and a few of those, as you'll see below, are not used in today's written language. The "speech" radical has 170 listings, and it is hardly the most prolific of the dictionary's radicals. 

Let's face it, "mortar" is a minor radical. 

You might want to think of it as the Saul Alinsky of the language when compared to the Leon Trotsky-like radicals that dominate the written page (刀, 土, 大, 手, 日, 火, 目). Like Alinsky, though, "mortar" is serious about its work (Alinsky even wrote the book on radicals) even though it was never the subject of a fine Secretary of State's college senior thesis and a remarkably acerbic set of comments by a certain politician (née Newton Leroy McPherson) from the U.S. state ranked third in peach production. 臼 is like that. It doesn't appear often in the textbooks, but people can get surprisingly worked up—into a slather, actually—about it.

Etymology for 臼

Character Information for 臼

[d] 舊 RF

臼

Radical 134

Chinese (Mandarin): jiu4
Chinese (Cantonese): kau5

Japanese (On): キュウ KYUU
Japanese (Kun): うす usu
Korean: 절구 구
 

Selections from The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary.

臼 Radical 134 
Usu mortar. Nickname: Mortar.
KYUU; usu mortar, hand mill.
This post will be brief. Nelson's Japanese-English Dictionary only lists five combinations, and I have included all of them here.

臼石　うすいし                usuishi                millstone; burstone       (mortar+stone)
臼挽　うすひ(き)              usuhi(ki)             milling; miller                 (mortar+pull/draw)
臼砲　キュウホウ            kyuuhou              mortar                           (mortar+ballista)
臼歯　キュウシ; うすば   kyuushi; usuba    molar                            (mortar+tooth)
臼歌　うすうた                usuuta                 rice pounders' song      (mortar+song) 

As always, we will take a little walk through the mill and examine the character forms that have "mortar" in them. Unlike "boat" (always on the left, as in 舵), "mortar" appears above, below, and even in the middle of characters. Because there are only nine characters listed with this radical in the entire dictionary, I am listing them all here. 

臾　ユ、ヨ、ヨウ                      YU, YO YOU                  A little while; urging

舁　ヨ、か(く)、あげる            YO, ka(ku), a(geru)        Bear, carry (a palanquin)
舂　ショウ、うすつく               SYOU, usutsu(ku)         Pound a mortar; sink, set (sun)
與　ヨウ、あたえる                  YOU, atae(ru)                Traditional form for 与 (N6)
舅　キュウ、しゅうと               KYOU, syuuto                Father-in-law
興　コウ、キョウ                      KOU, KYOU                  Interest, entertainment
舉　キョ、あげる、こぞる, etc   KYO, age(ru), kozu(ru) Traditional form for 挙 (N2150)
舊　キュウ、ふるい                     KYUU, furu(i)                 Traditional form for 旧 (N2412)

[e] Adhesive? RF