The Addams Family

Lurch, Morticia, Gomez . . . just a few of our favorite characters from the Addams family, the creation of cartoonist Charles Addams, and later a TV series that ran for two years in the mid-1960's. To celebrate Halloween, Morning Edition ran this piece on the cartoonist, Father of the Addams Family (10/31 - 7:19).

Addams, who died in 1988, is the subject of a new biography by Linda Davis, who is interviewed in this segment.

Musings

• At the NPR site you can view a slide show of 8 Addams cartoons, with biographer Davis offering a detailed annotations for each. Here we can see the contrast between the economy, even perfection of a cartoon versus that of the explanation.
  
  
• You read about the Addams Family TV series at Wikipedia. How would you describe the difference and similarity between the original cartoons and the popular TV series.
  

NPR's All Things Considered has started a five-part series on the language of the "war on terror," with this piece on jihad, "The War on the Word 'Jihad'" (10/31/2006 - 7:31). Future episodes will be devoted to "Islamofascists," "imperialism." "democracy," and "war on terrorism." As NPR states, this is such an important series since all these terms have a practical effect on our foreign policy and how we interact with with the Muslim world.

Musings

• Like many terms, "Jihad" has multiple meanings; perhaps even more important is the connotation the term has--whether "jihad" is inherently or primarily a negative term in the Muslim world. Check the entry at Wikipedia.
  
  
• One suggestion is the use of hirabis (originally meaning "brigands") as a more pejorative terms for jihadists. What are some English synonyms for "jihadists"? Are all the English terms equally negative?