Define It, Please

 BEAUTY PARLOR: A place where women curl up and dye.

CHICKENS: The only animal you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

HANDKERCHIEF: Cold Storage.

INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO: An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN: A grape with a sunburn.

SECRET: A story you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON: A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE: The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor-saving devices of today.

YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES: Something other people have . . . similar to my character lines.

OLD: I very quietly confided to my friend that I was having an affair. She turned to me and asked, “Are you having it catered?” And that, my friend, is the definition of OLD!

Contributed by Barbara Wallach

I Never Knew That

Football’s Unanswered Question Answered: Why the Huddle

Getty Images

During a tight game in the fall of 1894, Paul Hubbard—quarterback for the Gallaudet University Bison, and known as “the Eel” for his canny maneuvers—made a simple move that changed sports forever. Concerned that his hand signs were tipping off his plans to the opposing defense, Hubbard summoned his offense and directed them to form a circle around him, creating what many consider the first football huddle.

For the Bison, who have been fielding football teams since the 1880s, sight matters more than sound. Nestled in Northeast Washington, D.C., Gallaudet is the most famous and prestigious deaf university in the world. It’s been granting degrees since 1864. The Gallaudet student newspaper, the Buff and Blue, honored Hubbard in 1941 as the “daddy of huddle,” as did daily newspapers in Kansas, where he coached at the Kansas School for the Deaf, and Washington when Hubbard died in 1946.

As with any world-shifting innovation, competing claims emerged over the decades: Herb McCracken, the University of Pittsburgh player and college coach, claimed that he’d invented the huddle in 1924, and some quarters credit University of Illinois football coach Robert Zuppke—also known for inventing the onside kick, the flea flicker and the screen pass. 

Source: Scott Nover, Smithsonian Magazine, September/October 2025

Contributed by Jane Hart

In and Around Kendal

Essential Times Management

Each week, Muriel Fox makes copies of Spotlight for our community. She’s rather caught there because the copier can be finicky. So, time well spent: with the Times.

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Clear Water in Clearwater

A new fountain now graces the Clearwater garden, following the retirement of the former fountain that had been—appropriately—feeling its age.

Photo contributed by Ellen Ottstadt

The First Kendal Pumpkin

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Work Stoppage in the Shade

Photo by Edward Kasinec

Up Close and Personal—the Late Bloomers of Summer

Bee’s eye view, by Ed Lannert

Late Hibiscus in the Healing Garden, by Sue Bastian

An Early Autumn Hudson View

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

The Joys of Autocorrect

Autocorrect—we love it and hate it:

We’ll, we’ll, we’ll . . . if it isn’t autocorrect.

Autocorrect can go straight to he’ll.

Autocorrect has become my worst enema.

I tried to say, “I’m a functional adult,” but my phone changed it to “fictional adult,” and I feel like that’s more accurate.

Thanks to autocorrect, 1 in 5 children will be getting a visit from Satan this Christmas.

The guy who invented autocorrect for smartphones passed away today. Restaurant in peace.

 

Contributed by Joe Bruno

I Never Knew That

The Stethoscope: Why? How? What Brought It About?

In 1816, a French physician named René Laennec found himself in a delicate situation. He needed to listen to the heart of a young female patient but didn’t have an ideal way to do so based on the standard practices of the time. Doctors in the early 19th century relied primarily on touch to assess the heart, pressing their hands to gauge its strength and rhythm. This method often wasn’t reliable, especially, as was the case in Laennec’s situation, if the patient was of a heavier weight. Applying the ear directly to a chest was another approach, but Laennec felt that would be inappropriate and uncomfortable given his patient’s age and gender. 

Laennec also happened to be a skilled musician. Drawing on a basic principle of acoustics—that sound travels better through solid materials than through air—he rolled a sheet of paper into a cylinder and placed one end on the patient’s chest and the other to his ear. The heartbeat came through far more clearly and distinctly than it would have with touch or direct ear contact. Three years later, he published his findings and the first design of a monaural stethoscope, the name of which comes from the Greek words stethos, meaning “chest,” and skopein, meaning “to explore.” 

The device was a simple wooden tube about 10 inches long that carried sound to one ear. The stethoscope marked the start of mediate auscultation—diagnosing conditions by listening to the body’s internal functions. Laennec’s design was used until flexible rubber-tubed binaural models appeared later in the 19th century.

Source: historyfacts.com

Contributed by Jane Hart

In and Around Kendal

Hudson Sunset I

Photo by Cynthia Ferguson

September Birthdays

Photo by Harry Bloomfeld

Copland at Kendal

Copland House Ensemble Concert, September 14, photo by Ed Lannert

Kendal Herbs for All

Photo by Joe Bruno

First Signs of Autumn

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

And the Inevitable . . .

Loose again Tuesday morning! Seems in the herd this year there are more curious youngsters than usual. Oh, this younger generation!

Which led to an unusual meeting: Allie Reiss and Billy Goat. Neither seemed concerned . . .

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

Hudson Sunset II

Photo by Barbara Wallach

Out and About

Kendal Trip to the Lovely Stonecrop Gardens

Pat McGrath’s Trip to the Lovely Lands Across the Pond

Pat McGrath spent the last few weeks bicycling with his daughter through the hills and dales of Italy and France, and visiting friends in Paris. He sent lovely pictures of the surrounding landscapes and cityscapes. And a bonus, too.

Porto Vecchio, Corsica

Levie, Corsica

Sartene, Corsica

Bonifacio, Corsica

First sketch of Guernica, Picasso Museum, Paris

Eifel Tower at dusk

Gallery at Chenonceaux

St. Romain sur Cher, France

And now the bonus . . .

That’s right: a picture of goats! French goats! And direct from Couddes.

Mystery Barge on the Hudson. Part II

A big red ship has been hanging out for several days on the Hudson River—right in our sight line. What is that thing doing? Two weeks ago, we published the information Joe Bruno found to answer that question: it’s a cable-laying ship, laying a cable beneath the Hudson. And now—as is the Residents Website tradition of providing breaking-news—Joe has come up with even more information!

Want to know more (note: pictures are included)? Click below.

Learn more

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Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.