GLOSSARY

I always strive to use language which is crystal clear, but occasionally there are quotations containing obscure words or phrases from the past, and sometimes the ones I choose are not everyday usages, but do express the precise meanings I wish to convey. This glossary is intended to clarify and/or head off misunderstandings about certain terms or words used herein.

abattoir: If you are just starting to read a dictionary, this is one of the first unfamiliar words you will encounter. It is from the French “to beat down” and means a slaughterhouse. Omaha used to have plenty of them. (See HOW OTHERS

HAVE SEEN OMAHA.)

adulation: Excessive admiration and glorification, such as that lavished upon rock singers, movie stars and seductive women.

(See WHEN HARRY MET LIBBIE: THE TRIAL.)

alliteration: The literary device in which there is a repetition of initial sounds in words next to or close to each other. I am a devotee of alliteration. I choose words from a smorgasbord of syntax and sounds.

(See A GLIMPSE OF THE NEW YORK LIFE.)

Andrew McNally: I hate to have to explain a well-aimed insult, but Andrew McNally was the co-founder of the noted travel publication company, Rand McNally, and his family ran it for more than 100 years. The quotation alluded to is Lloyd Bentson’s famous response to Dan Quayle’s comparison of himself to President John F. Kennedy during their vice-presidential debate in Omaha’s Civic Auditorium on Oct. 5, 1988. (See HOW OTHERS

HAVE SEEN OMAHA.)

bichloride of gold: The most important thing to know about this purported chemical compound is that it has existed only in the minds of quack healers, and was widely touted as a cure for alcoholism at

one time. (See T.Z. MAGARRELL OF THE VITAPATHIC.)

Bouguereau: Has nothing to do with nasty nasal effusions; he was the French painter of Joslyn’s “Printemps.” (See SPRING RETURNS

TO OMAHA.)

Burnt Thigh Nation: Another name for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

Legend has it that a certain band of Sioux warriors was threatened by wildfire, lay face-down and covered their bodies with a protective coating of mud. They survived the fire and were burned only on the back of

their thighs. (See GOLDEN SPIKE DAYS, 1939 VERSION.)

cassock: A long, close-fitting vestment worn by priests as an outer garment and, very rarely, under a referee’s uniform while officiating football games. (See ROSENBLATT REMINISCENCES, regarding a 1960 game between Omaha Central and Creighton Prep high schools.)

deltiology: The practice of collecting postcards with no intention of mailing them. I can help you become a “deltiologist.” (See

OMAHA POSTCARDS: FACT OR FICTION.)

Douglas County Courthouse Riot of 1919: A disastrously destructive and deadly mob disturbance fomented by defeated politicians to regain offices lost in an election. It would be emulated by politicians in other times and places.

(See OMAHA’S OLD RED CASTLE.)

eponymous: Designates something named after a particular person. For instance, the U.S. Army’s LCVPs were often called “Higgins boats” by those in the know. (See OMAHA BEACH.)

fantasy baseball: A diversion indulged in by sane adults, mostly men, who pretend to manage real baseball players so as to produce points for their imaginary baseball teams and win championship trophies, all of which they treat as actual athletic achievements.

(See RECORD-SETTERS IN OMAHA.)

farinaceous: Consisting or made of starch, such as bread, macaroni and potatoes. Some medical “experts” contended well into the 20th century that such a diet ingested by wannabe mothers would tend to produce female offspring! More likely it produced dough boys. (See TAKING

A CHANCE ON HEALTH CARE.)

fugacious: Brief or short-lived.

(See BRIDGING THE MUDDY MO, with respect to an 1877 tornado.)

Gentleman, John A.: The founder in 1906 of the John A. Gentleman Funeral Home, and the Gentleman who donated the casket for Mystery

Girl. (See OMAHA’S MYSTERY GIRL, in two parts.)

glossary: A listing of words and terms you may not know, but won’t know better after consulting it.

kissing columns: Certain granite columns on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus under which female undergraduates must be kissed in order to graduate. The columns themselves do not kiss.

(See TRACKING THE KISSING COLUMNS.)

Lincoln Highway: An early, mostly unimproved road for autos which, in Nebraska, was not a highway and didn’t go through Lincoln.

(See OMAHA HOSTS THE POSTS.)

Mystery Girl: Omaha’s most sensational murder victim of the 20th century. The case baffled the 1919 Omaha Police Department but was solved after 11 years by Omaha World-Herald reporters armed only with pencils. (See

OMAHA’S MYSTERY GIRL, in two parts.)

Nevajo: Not a Native American tribal name, but the conjoined moniker used by Neva Josephine Truman, a teenaged sprite who captured the heart of Omaha’s steely, no-nonsense political boss, Tom Dennison, when he was 72 years old.

(See TOM DENNISON FINDS ROMANCE.)

Omahalogist: A fanatic who studies the discipline of Omahalogy in all of its facets, and attempts to uncover its little-known episodes, facts, fantasies, myths and mysteries, i.e., an Omaha history detective. I am only one of many in our fascinating city.

Omahog: Believe it or not, there was a time in the 19th century when it was proposed that male denizens of Omaha be called Omahogs. (These days that tag has been appropriated by fans of the Arkansas Razorback baseball team when they come to Omaha for the NCAA Men’s College World Series.) Female Omahans countered that they should be referred to as Omahens.

Overlook Farm: The land formerly west of Omaha purchased in 1921 for Boys Town by Father Edward Flanagan, a man who never overlooked anything. The land is now worth many millions.

(See BOYS TOWN’S EARLIEST HITS.)

poetical effusion: Literally, an emission or discharge in the form of a poem. It was an Omaha newspaperman’s characterization of the infamous poem “Omaha” by “KHALED” that first appeared in the Chicago Times of June 14, 1869. Sure, but what did he really think

of it? (See OMAHA, THE POEM.)

terpsichorean: Related to dancing; a Storz Brewing salesman and wife living in Omaha produced two of the world’s finest dancers — I think it’s something in the beer.

(See THREE FAMOUS OMAHANS YOU MAY NOT KNOW.)

Underworld Sewer: Capitalized because it had specific reference to the array of criminal activity and immorality in Omaha controlled by the Dennison machine, and described in an intelligent tell-all book of that name authored in 1909 by Josie Washburn, the long-time proprietress of bawdy houses in both Lincoln and Omaha. (See

EXTRAORDINARY EXHIBITS IN OMAHA.)