Panther Signs Multi-Year Deal with Hildebrand

[racer2c]

http://www.racer.com/panther-racing-confirms-signing-of-jr-hildebrand/article/192764/


Panther Racing has confirmed that it has signed California native JR Hildebrand to a multi-year contract. The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights champion will replace Dan Wheldon and take over the reins of the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing entry for the 2011 IndyCar Series season.

[TKGAngel]

I always did think it odd that a US Military sponsored car was driven by an non-American. While I'm sure Wheldon was a perfectly cromulent driver for the team, you would think the sponsor would have narrowed the driver pool to US citizens.

[Corner5]

From Speedtv-


Q: Although I think it’s great that Panther Racing has signed an American driver in JR Hildebrand, what about his predecessors’ that are still involved with lawsuits with that team? It seems like every driver (Vitor Meira & now Dan Wheldon) that leaves Panther Racing, leaves with them being stiffed financially by John Barnes. Don’t they have signed contracts?

Steve Sporer, Chicago

RM: Oh yes, they have contracts but obviously that doesn't seem to mean much and Wheldon's suit was still alive a couple weeks ago. I know Vitor didn't say anything for a long time because he didn't want to lose his ride. But for those of us who have known Barnes for 40 years, it's not a surprise.

[NismoZ]

So, that Barnes must be a pretty nice guy, huh? Probably belongs in the IndyCar Hall Of Fame.:rolleyes:

[Opposite Lock]

I always did think it odd that a US Military sponsored car was driven by an non-American. While I'm sure Wheldon was a perfectly cromulent driver for the team, you would think the sponsor would have narrowed the driver pool to US citizens.

:D That will never get old. :thumbup:

I slipped it in at work again last week, in a conversation with a senior project manager for whom English is not a first language, and had to 'splain it (he makes a good effort to keep his English vocabulary as broad as possible). Fortunately, he is a Simpsons fan - just hadn't seen that episode.

[SurfaceUnits]

Embiggen and cromulent
"Lisa the Iconoclast" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The episode features two neologisms: embiggen and cromulent which were intended to sound like real words but play on the fact that they are completely fabricated.

The show runners asked the writers if they could come up with two words which sounded like real words, and these were what they came up with.[4] The Springfield town motto is "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." Schoolteacher Edna Krabappel comments that she never heard the word embiggens until she moved to Springfield. Miss Hoover, another teacher, replies, "I don’t know why; it’s a perfectly cromulent word." Later in the episode, while talking about Homer’s audition for the role of town crier, Principal Skinner states, "He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance."

Embiggen—in the context it is used in the episode—is a verb that was coined by Dan Greaney in 1996.[2] The verb previously occurred in an 1884 edition of the British journal Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc. by C. A. Ward, in the sentence "but the people magnified them, to make great or embiggen, if we may invent an English parallel as ugly. After all, use is nearly everything."[8] The literal meaning of embiggen is to make something larger.[9] The word has made its way to common use and was included in Mark Peters Yada, Yada, Do'h!, 111 Television Words That Made the Leap From the Screen to Society.[10] In particular, embiggen can be found in string theory. The first occurrence of the word was in the journal High Energy Physics in the article "Gauge/gravity duality and meta-stable dynamical supersymmetry breaking\", which was published on January 23, 2007.[11] For example, the article says: "For large P, the three-form fluxes are dilute, and the gradient of the Myers potential encouraging an anti-D3 to embiggen is very mild." Later this usage was noted in the journal Nature, which explained that in this context, it means to grow or expand.[12]

Cromulent is an adjective that was coined by David S. Cohen.[2] Since it was coined it has appeared in the Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English.[13] The meaning of cromulent is inferred only from its usage, which indicates that it is a positive attribute. Webster's Dictionary defines it as meaning fine or acceptable.[13]

Embiggen, coined by Dan Greaney, has seen use in several scientific publications, while cromulent, coined by David X. Cohen, appeared in the Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English.