docent

[Joel S. Berson]

The OED(2) definition sure needs an updating.  E.g,, museum docents.

Joel

At 10/10/2007 09:59 AM, James Landau wrote:
> From an Associated Press article, available on-line at
>http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/recently-formed-canyon-opens-to-public/2
>0071006124409990001
>
>Recently Formed Canyon Opens to Public
>By MICHELLE ROBERTS, AP
><snip>
>The Guadalupe Blanco River Authority, which has a lease from the Army
>Corps of Engineers to manage the 64-acre Canyon Lake Gorge site, will
>begin offering limited public tours of the canyon Saturday, continuing
>year-round on the first Saturday of the month.
>
>Early demand for the 3-hour tours is so high they are booked for at
>least six months. Rhoad said the authority hopes to train more docents
>so dates can be added.
><end quote>
>
>"Docent"?  In the US the usual term is "tour guide".
>
>OT: Headline of the week: Lindsay Lohan Says Rehab "Sobering"
>
>OT: I think I can claim the local record for Google Books misdating.
>Google Books claimed a date of 1761 for a paper which turned out to have
>been published in 1972.
>
>What apparently happened is that Google Books takes the first four-digit
>number it finds on a journal and assumes that is the date.
>Unfortunately many journals have their founding date, rather than the
>issue date, on their front cover.  In this case the journal was founded
>in 1761 and the article was in a 1972 issue.  Similarly many colleges
>put their founding date on the front cover of their publications, e.g.
>Google Books is convinced every catalogue ever issued by Mount Holyoke
>College is dated 1838.
>
>You have to give Google Books credit for trying on that 1761 date.  The
>journal was in Norwegian.
>
>James A. Landau
>Test Engineer
>Northrop-Grumman Information Technology
>8025 Black Horse Pike, Suite 300
>West Atlantic City  NJ  08232  USA
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>PS: I have to vote for Obama now.  He promised the 57th Street Bookstore
>in Chicago (near where he lives) that he would buy a copy of Harry
>Potter and the Deathly Hallows from them.  Come the release date and he
>was out of town, but he had a staffer go to the 57th Street Bookstore
>and make the promised purchase.
>
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