The burning of books

Loth as I am to follow the media news agenda, I can't resist commenting on the Burning The Koran story.

It seems evident that anyone who would burn the Koran, is a stupid, troublemaking person, obsessed with what he "has a legal right to do", and no concern with his responsibilities in a complex world. That it makes sense to be mutually sensitive to each other's sacred symbols even if we don't believe in them ourselves. (Especially for someone who claims to be in touch with the sacred).

At the same time, I can't help noticing that in response, many Islamic people have burned the American flag. As they seem to do on an almost routine basis. They must have a large stock of them.

from Facebook

FIFTEEN ALBUMS

THE RULES: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen that come to you in no more than fifteen minutes. (Dave Gilles started this. Isn't it nice?)

No, I think Roy Plomley started it, but here goes in no particular order. The world-changers...

1. Abbey Road
2. Tadpoles by the Bonzoes
3. Fourth by Soft Machine
4. Roxy Music's first
5. Meddle
6. The Rotters Club (Hatfield and the North)
7. Ten New Songs (Leonard Cohen)
8. Solitude Standing (Suzanne Vega)
9. Do It Yourself (Ian Dury)
10. Speaking in Tongues (Talking Heads)
11. A Part, and yet Apart (Bill Bruford)
12. Tales from Topographic Oceans (Yes)
13. The Ladder (Yes)
14. FootLoose and Fancy Free (Rod Stewart)
15. Vertigo (Groove Armada)

Next week the answer might be different

Hello

I saw a "Qi" last night. No idea if it was a recent one or one from the archives.

Anyway, the very lovely Stephen whom God preserve, asserted that Edison invented the use of the word "hello" as a greeting. That previously, we'd only had "hullo" spelt without an "e", and that it had meant an exclamation of surprise or discovery.

The display behind him showed the word "hello" with the e underlined.

I've looked in Chambers and my SOED, and no mention is made of Edison.
They both direct me to "hallo" as the primary spelling, and the first meaning listed is indeed an exclamation of surprise or discovery.

The web, of course, says many contradictory things, with little proof.

I want to ignore the spelling part. We're talking spoken language, and the "hello" versus "hallo" or "hullo" thing doesn't interest me much.

I want to know which of the following is true:

1. "hello" was used as a face to face greeting before Edison, but he was responsible for suggesting that that was how one should answer the telephone (as opposed to Bell's suggestion of "ahoy").
2. "hello" was not, or rarely, used as a face to face greeting before the telephone; Edison suggested it for the phone; it caught on; and then also caught on for face to face greetings. (As asserted by Fry).

Presumably the answer is to find it in dialogue in novels written before the invention of the telephone. I may have to re-read my Austen.

I may also have to start answering the phone with "Ahoy".