European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 2, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page words and wit when Nixon seized the lines from Mao William Saf Ireon language As Richard Nixon in the great Hall of the people in Beijing lifted a Glass 20 years ago to Toast the beginning of a new relationship Between the United states and China he quoted from a poem by Mao tse Tung a so Many deeds cry out to be done a always urgently. The world Rolls on. Time passes. Seize the Day. Seize the  when it came to titling his new Book however about americans challenges in a a one superpower world a the former president seized neither the Day nor the hour. The title seize the moment. That was no Spur of the Day decision Nixon wanted to instill an even greater sense of urgency or to express the essence of the idea without slavishly following the cliche. Others Are willing to stick with the old form. In the final scene of Steven Spielberg a new movie h x a a sequel to Peter pan the rejuvenated old Man named tootles after a Liberal sprinkling of tin Kerbell s fairy dust flies out the window and soars Over London shouting a seize the Day a Robin Williams who plays the grown up Peter starred in a 1986 film based on a 1956 Novella by Saul Bellow. Its title seize the Day. The historian David Mccullough in his new Book Brave companions makes the same Choice As Nixon. He relates an anecdote about the Painter John Singer Sargent who had been hanging around the White House Hoamg to talk the Codora Roosevelt into posing for a portrait. The two men met unexpectedly As the president was descending the stairs and the artist asked when would be a convenient time to pose. Said Roosevelt in his typically decisive Way a now a Mccullough writes a so there he is in the painting standing at the foot of the stairs his hand on the newel Post. Moments come and go the president was telling the Painter. Here is the time seize it do your  As should be apparent moment seizing is in. Even More than Day seizing hour seizing seems to be missing its time. The phrases origin presuming there to be no earlier usage in chinese literature is in the latin Carpe diem. The verb Carper Means a to Pluck grab seize a from the greek Karpos a a fruit its what you do to Ripe fruit on the Vine. There May be a connection Between Carper and the verb to Carp of scandinavian origin a to pick on find fault with a As in a those carping Liberal democrats in Bush a what re cession rhetoric. The noun diem is a Day a As everyone who puts in for per diem knows though few cup Cense a counters pronounce it correctly its Dee pm and the whole phrase is Kar pc  ainu to banal the supreme court struck Down new York states a son of same Law which would have denied profits to perpetrators from writings about their crimes. As a first amendment Freak i read with fascination the text of Simon amp schuster is. New York state crime victims Board. Justice Sandra Day of Connor writing the courts opinion quoted Henry Hill a gangster now in the Federal witness Protection program and the subject of Nicholas Pilch gig a 1985 Book Wiseguy life in a mafia family As the court opinion put it a hereinafter Wiseguy. Although Hill admitted pulling off the largest Cash robbery in United states history the 1978 theft of $5.8 million from Lufthansa airlines Justice of Connor wrote a most of Hills crimes were More  president Nixon toasting China a Chou in Lai. That word was new to me and to Robert d. Sack of Gibson Dunn amp Crutcher who called the Case to my attention. Bana usic pronounced Buh naw Sik is defined in Merriam web Star s ninth new collegiate As a concerned with earning a  it is rooted in the greek Bana usos a partisan a a word that then had a pejorative connotation working with the hands was considered a Grubby thing to do by the types who strolled about in sheets. On further review As they say at football games the adjective Bana usic now has two senses one is a banal spiritless having no character or zip the other is a mechanistic mired in routine lacking in  the Oxford English dictionary a supplement notes that the word which comes after banana is no longer rare evidence of a pickup in usage but adds no new definition to its original a merely  a what did Justice o Connor mean i shot her a postcard a was your meaning banal or Mcchan Cap. Have you used Bana usic before a �?o1 intended it to mean a mundane a a she replies. A i have not used the word previously in an opinion but once in a while it is satisfying to include a word that is not  mundane has two senses a prosaic commonplace workaday a As the context of Justice of Connors opinion suggests and the less common a materialistic temporal As opposed to  i would drearily go into the etymology of mundane but that would be what a the word that follows banana Bana usic. The new York time when he barely flu to the bathroom in time Tony Kornheiser you la please excuse me if i interrupt this column from time to time to dash to the bathroom. 1 have the flu. There Are apparently two kinds of flu. One starts in your Throat with an annoying dryness and a gagging sensation and eventually spreads to your head your Chest your Back and your legs a nothing you need unless you plan to live through the week a and produces nausea aches tiredness sneezing a voice like Baba Wawa and an overwhelming desire to leap off the 19th floor of the Hyatt Regency and land flush on that idiot woman playing the Harp in the lobby at 7 in the morning. This thu lasts five Days or until the Chicken fat begins to seep through your pores and you hear yourself say Quot   when your kids ask if you a like More Chicken soup. The other flu starts in your stomach and Hunters Down like a tribe of squatters. It produces simultaneous diarrhoea and vomiting the old Damp a which leaves you confused As to which Way to turn a and wondering where god got his Zany sense of humor. You dare not cat or drink anything. To what end literally How can you eat your Teeth feel like rutabagas and your Tongue looks like the thing that burst out of that Guys solar plexus in alien. The doctor says you should drink to avoid dehydration. Of dehydration is bad this is a Romp in the Park but dehydration is what will kill me Good give me dehydration. This flu lasts 24 hours a the longest 24 hours since pcs ran a Day in the life of Elliot Richardson a nearly All of which you spend in close proximity to a tile floor asking How could you have been so stupid As to Cut class the Day they went Over this in biology. Lucky me. I have both. Excuse me. Be right Back in be spent the last eight hours taking measurements around my House so i can know exactly How far it is to the bathroom from anywhere. I want to know if i can make it a or should i just order new carpet now Quot flu is a Good topic to write about a my Friend Norman said. A a it a really going around. I just talked to Vinnie and he was hacking up something  i knew i was going to get the flu. It was just a matter of time. Five Days ago my son had it. He threw up four times. Two Days ago my daughter had it. She threw up eight times. I knew when my turn rolled around i was looking at double figures. Yesterday morning i got the first telltale signs the fog Giness in the forehead and the perpetual squint. By noon my skin Felt like id fallen asleep on a Radiator. I spent the afternoon thinking what a waste it was that we sent 450,000 troops to the persian Gulf. Why not Federal express my flu instead oops. Be right Back children Arentt bothered by the flu. They get it no big Deal. The older you get though the greater the dread. Lets suppose we could choose which Type of flu to have the five Day ache All Over malaise or the 24-hour fire Hose blast a College student will invariably select the Shorter More intense flu. What a throwing up to them nothing. They do it All the time. Its like a lab science. A Quick or Rallph and they re Back to the Keg. Now a 40-Ycar-old might be tempted to walk that same path and this would be a terrible Blunder because they be forgotten How unbelievably awful and disgusting throwing up is when they Haven to done it for 15 or 20 years. I  wish that on a dog. I take that Back. I would wish it on a dog. Just not a dog in my House. Amazingly some people think the flu is fun. My smart Friend Martha for example who hardly Ever gets sick actually enjoys it. A my favorite part a she said a her favorite part a a is when your hair hurts so you can to Brush it and you can walk around with it sticking straight up. It really adds to the ambience. I Learned this from my Mother the opera Singer. Shed get a cold and it was mimics death scene from la  at least these Days the flu Isnit what it was 100 years ago. Then it was an epidemic. Deaths from the flu pandemic in 1918-19 numbered in the millions. That was when men were men and flu was flu. Now you have All these designer flus like Swine flu which always troubled me because they wanted to give you some to help build up an immunity and i always wondered would you let a doctor pump you with a .22 so you a be immune to getting whacked with a .357 magnum a i think not and Type a flu and of course the rocking pneumonia and the Boogie Boogie flu which id love to explain but unfortunately i have to run. Creators Syndicate 18 a sunday february 2, 1992