Fat-Burning Beverage

By Kelley Herring

Looking to slim down? Try adding this fat-burning beverage to your daily repertoire.

Green tea has long been praised for its antioxidant benefits. New research shows it has thermogenic - or fat-burning - attributes, as well.

Researchers believe that green tea works its fat-melting magic due to a unique interaction between two compounds - caffeine and catechins. These two substances work together to help the body release noradrenaline (NA), a chemical neurotransmitter that boosts the metabolism and helps burn more calories.

Kick up your body's fat-burning furnace (and get powerful antioxidants, too!) by enjoying green tea. To get the maximum benefit, steep at least two minutes.

The Language Perfectionist: Literal Illiteracy

By Don Hauptman

A newspaper article about the closing of a beloved neighborhood bakery quotes the owner, lamenting, "My heart is literally broken over it."

Literally? Surely not! Here are other examples of this frequently misused word:

• "We had a composer and a style of music that would literally break down the walls for audiences."
  
• "This is literally one of those cases where people keep crawling out of the woodwork with new information."

The word literally is often employed in a misguided attempt at emphasis. But in an ironic twist, the meaning is reversed. The writer or speaker uses an expression metaphorically or figuratively - that is, not literally. But the use of literally transforms the metaphor into something ostensibly real, yet impossible and absurd.

As the above examples indicate, the result is often unintentionally humorous. So use literally only when it's what you mean - literally.

[Ed Note: Don Hauptman, a direct-response copywriter for more than 30 years, may be best known for the space ads he wrote with the classic headline "Speak Spanish Like a Diplomat!" He also writes books and articles on language and wordplay.]

It's Fun to Know: Holiday Cards and Packages

The busiest time of year (by far!) for the U.S. Postal Service is the holiday season. The post office delivers an estimated 20 billion letters, cards, and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That boils down to 625 million items per day, 12 million of them packages.

The busiest day for cards and letters is usually December 18. The busiest day for packages is December 20.

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Word to the Wise: Manumit

To "manumit" (man-yuh-MIT) is to free from slavery or servitude. The word is from the Latin for "to let go."

Example (as used by Victor S. Navasky in The Nation): "The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our 'corporate slaves' because we've never had any."

Michael Masterson
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2226, 12-15-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.

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