Plurals ending in -a: candelabra, criteria, data, media, phenomena

Ending in -e: lice, mice

Ending in -i: alumni, cacti

Ending in -n: [d]jinn

I can't come up with any other final letters off-hand, but other words that ought to be comfortably within most people's vocabularies include addenda, aquaria, auditoria, automata, bacilli, bacteria, compendia, crania, curricula, dicta, effluvia, ephemera, errata, foci, fungi, gladioli, incubi, maxima, memoranda, millennia, minima, moratoria, nuclei, ova, radii, referenda, rostra, sarcophagi, stimuli, strata, symposia.

cactus/cacti

octopus/octopi

hippopotamus/hippopotami

genius/genii

alumnus/alumni

quantum/quanta

datum/data

criterion/criteria

mouse/mice

louse/lice

genus/genre

jinni/jinn

bracket/braces (orthodontics)

Since you did not specify nouns, one could also add a virtually unlimited number of verbs to the list:

polkas/polka (he polkas - sing. form/they polka - plur. form)

climbs/climb (he climbs/they climb)

builds/build (he builds/they build)

narcs/narc (he narcs/they narc)

makes/make etc. etc.

addendum........addenda

alumnus...........alumni

bacillus.............bacilli

bacterium..........bacteria

baculum............bacula

cactus..............cacti

criterion............criteria

curriculum.........curricula

datum...............data

emeritus...........emeriti

erratum............errata

fungus..............fungi

hippopotamus....hippopotami

jinni..................jinn

louse................lice

medium............media

millennium........millenia

miracidium........miracidia

mouse..............mice

nucleus............nuclei

necropolis.........necropoli

ovum................ova

phenomenon......phenomena

polyhedron.........polyhedra

polypus.............polypi

radius................radii

stimulus............stimuli

stratum.............strata

stylus...............styli

syllabus............syllabi

symposium........symposia

hemiepes n pl hemiepe:a dactylic tripody having a spondaic third foot or lacking the two short syllables of the third foot

koruna n pl korun or koruny also korunas:the basic monetary unit of Czechoslovakia

microstomia also microstomus n pl microstomias also microstomi :an abnormally small mouth

necropolis n pl necropolises or necropoles also necropoleis or necropoli: a large elaborate cemetery of an ancient city

samanid n pl samanids or samani :a member of a 9th and 10th century Persian dynasty ruling from Bokhara and encouraging literature and art

volksdeutscher n pl volksdeutsche :a person of German ethnic origin long settled in a central or east European country, repatriated for political reasons by the Nazi regime, and expelled into West Germany after World II

****

Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961.

agenda, data, errata, desiderata (also a maudlin poem)

fora, mice cacti, radii, foci, hippopotami (uncertain about this one)

Venky

Singular

Plural

a

datum

medium

bacterium

candelabrum

curriculum

stratum

forum

effluvium

data

media

bacteria

candelabra

curricula

strata

fora

effluvia

a

phenomenon

criterion

ephemeron

phenomena

criteria

ephemera

i

focus

hippopotamus

octopus

syllabus

foci

hippopotami

octopi

syllabi

n

jinni

jinn

e

mouse

louse

mice

lice

Navassa Island, in the Caribbean Sea, about one-fourth of the way from Haiti to Jamaica. This uninhabited island was claimed by the US in 1857 for its guano*, and mining took place between 1865 and 1898. The lighthouse, built in 1917, was shut down in 1996 and administration of Navassa Island transferred from the Coast Guard to the Department of the Interior. A 1998 scientific expedition to the island described it as a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity; the following year it became a National Wildlife Refuge. The island is also being claimed by Haiti.

* gua·no [noun ]

1. animal droppings: accumulated droppings of birds, bats, and seals, occurring where large established colonies of these animals are situated

2. AGRICULTURE guano fertilizer: fertilizer consisting of dried bird or bat droppings, and rich in nutrients, including urates, oxalates, and phosphates, or a synthetic fertilizer with properties similar to those of natural guano.

The crap obviously referred to the guano.

Howland Island (which was mined for guano, hence the "crappy")

Baker Island, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia; it has a coastline of only 3 miles but was particularly rich in guano deposits.

The US took possession of Baker Island, Howland Island and Navassa Island in 1857.

Guano Island Act of 1856 "In its infinite wisdom, the 34th Session of the United States Congress legislated that any unclaimed and uninhabited island anywhere in the world that possessed guano (in other words, bird droppings in various stages of petrification) was U.S. territory if an American citizen claimed it first. Sounds fair."

Dye your eyes to match your gown.

"Pat-pat here, pat-pat there, and a couple of brand new straws,

That's how we keep you young and fair in the Merry Old Land of Oz

"Rub-rub here, rub-rub there, whether you're tin or brass,

That's how we keep you in repair in the Merry Old Land of Oz!"

Girl: "We can make a dimpled smile out of a frown!"

Dorothy: "Can you even dye my eyes to match my gown?"

"Uh-huh!" "Jolly old town!"

"Clip-clip here, clip-clip there, we give the roughest claws

That certain air of savoir faire in the Merry Old Land of Oz!"

They were spruced up to meet the wizard: Hay was stuffed into the straw man, the tin man's casing was buffed and polished, the cowardly lion's mane was put into curls, and Dorothy was made to look like a fantasy hooker from a dream I had when I was 13.

The painting is Belshazzar's Feast by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Oil on Canvas measuring 167.6 x 209.2 cm and currently hanging at the National Gallery, London.

Late in the 1640s Rembrandt began to watch Jews more carefully, and to characterize them more deeply than before. Rembrandt had the opportunity to study the Jewish population of Amsterdam. From the time he purchased his large house in the Sint-Anthonisbreestraat (later the Jodenbreestraat) in 1639 until he was forced to sell it in 1658 he lived on the edge of the largest Jewish community in Holland. Among his Jewish acquaintances were the distinguished rabbi, author, and printer Menasseh ben Israel and the physician Ephraim Bonus; he made portraits of Bonus and perhaps one of Menasseh too. Menasseh, who lived near Rembrandt, commissioned the artist to illustrate one of his own books and he most probably provided him with the form of the cryptic Aramaic Menetekel inscription from the Book of Daniel that appears on the wall in his spectacularly dramatic Belshazzar's Feast.

The scene illustrates Chapter 5 of the Old Testament Book of Daniel. Belshazzar, King of Babylon, gave a great feast at which wine was drunk in the golden and silver vessels looted by his father Nebuchadnezzar, from the temple in Jerusalem, and 'gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone...which see not, nor hear, nor know' were praised while God himself was not glorified. And there 'came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote...upon the plaster of the wall'. Only the Jewish seer Daniel was able to read the supernatural inscription "MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN" which foretold the defeat - in fact, the death - of Belshazzar that same night and the partition of his kingdom among the Medes and the Persians. The message apparently means "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians."

Hirohito, who was the last of the Japanese emperors to be considered a god.

"Born on April 29, 1901, Michinomiya, who would later become Emperor Hirohito, was the first son of Emperor Taisho (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako). When he was a boy, Michinomiya respectfully doubted that the Japanese emperor was a god, but was made to understand that this was a sacred myth. Michinomiya agreed that when he was emperor, he would hold the tradition, but only because it was an obligation."

At the end of the Second World War, in 1946, Emperor Hirohito made a broadcast to the Japanese people stating that he was not a god.

Emperor Hirohito of Japan. On 1st January 1946 he issued an Imperial Rescript denying his divinity.

Stanley Kubrick.

The dream date must have been July 26, because all people referred to were born on July 26. Sandra Bullock - 1964

Author of "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley - 1894

The winner of the 1999 Best Actor Oscar, Kevin Spacey - 1959

The housekeeper from "Gosford Park", Helen Mirren - 1945

The lead vocalist of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger - 1943

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928.

Others born on July 26 include Carl Jung and George Bernard Shaw.

The men's singles final at Wimbledon is a best-of-5 affair. However, with Jim's opponent the way he is, the match would be over in three sets (assuming Jim doesn't lose games by serving double faults).

Assume that Jim commits no faults and lets. Then the match scoreline would read 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. Jim has to serve in three games in each set. He has to get 4 points to win each game (15, 30, 40, Game). Total number of hits required of Jim = 3 sets x 3 games x 4 points = 36 hits.

Not in OSPD (US Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary), but in Chambers OSW4 (the UK Official Scrabble Words, fourth edition) is pH, pronounced "pee-aitch", a measure of acidity. It's unique because it's the only allowable word that is actually an abbreviation (for the French pouvoir Hydrogène).

deity: A god or goddess.

demigod: A half god, or an inferior deity; a fabulous hero, the offspring of a deity and a mortal.

demon: An evil supernatural being; a devil.

deduction: Inference by reasoning from the general to the specific

deer: Any of various hoofed ruminant mammals of the family Cervidae.

default: To fail to appear in court when summoned.

defection: Act of abandoning a person or cause to which one is bound by allegiance or duty.

defensible: Capable of being defended, protected, or justified.

deficient: Lacking an essential quality or element.

degenerate: A depraved, corrupt, or vicious person.

delinquent: A person who neglects or fails to do what law or duty requires

demarcation: The boundary of a specific area.

demur: A formal objection to an opponent's pleadings.

demure: Affectedly modest or shy especially in a playful or provocative way.

GEN 11.

The original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was owned by Louis Zboroswki. "The name of the car was not derived from the sound it made, despite what Hollywood would have us think, but from the words of a bawdy first world war soldier's song. Officers would obtain a week-end pass or chit so they could go off to Paris for a couple of days and enjoy the favours of the ladies of the town at their leisure. Chitty chitty - bang bang."