Nicole Fowles: Supporting a local business a wise choice

I am a big proponent of shopping locally. Between living and working near downtown Delaware and being on the board of directors for Main Street Delaware, I don’t spend much of my time in many of the traditional “big box” environments. I especially enjoy having a lunch or picking up dinner from the Delaware County Community Market.

If you aren’t familiar with the Community Market, they are a not-for-profit corporation, located at 222 E. William St., that sells high-quality items and foods and then donates a portion of the sales to other local nonprofits.

As a customer of the Community Market, the proceeds from your purchase are divided up among three categories – vendor, nonprofit and the market. The vendor providing the good receives 65 percent of the purchase total. Then, 15 percent is designated to the Community Market, since they are also a recognized charity. Finally, 20 percent is donated to a nonprofit charity of your choice.

Visit www.dccmc.com to see a full list of participating nonprofits. While they are all wonderful choices, I may be slightly biased in suggesting your support go to the Delaware County District Library. It’s clear that many others in the community choose to support DCDL, as well. In 2015, the library was among the top 10 local nonprofits to receive donated funds from the market.

Shopping at the Delaware County Community Market, you can feel good knowing you are supporting a local business, a local charity, and local farmers, bakers, crafters and other providers of goods. Entering tax season, you’ll also enjoy the 35 percent charity donation that you can write off on your taxes, but that’s just the icing on the cake, in my opinion.

Where does the phrase “two-bit” originate?

The first definition of “two-bit” is derived from the noun “two bits.” However, “two bits” is an interesting phrase, because it actually means “the value of a quarter of a dollar.” There is no such thing as a single bit, at least not anymore. The now-obsolete Spanish dollar was composed of eight reals, or eight bits, so a quarter of the dollar equaled two bits. “Two bits” first appeared in print in English in 1730 (and later developed the figurative sense of “something of small worth or importance”), followed in 1802 by its adjectival relative. These days, the adjective has far outstripped the noun in popularity. The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology is helpful for questions like these.

Who came up with “abracadabra” being the magic word?

According to “Man, Myth and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown,” there are three frequent theories to the origin of the word. Two of the three relate to the curing of fevers. In 208 A.D., a doctor accompanied the Roman Emperor Severus on an expedition to Britain and used it in a poem on medicine. Similarly, a Jewish cure for fever would have individuals write a poem, hang it around a patient’s neck, and leave it there for 24 hours to build the heat of the fever to breaking point, then make it dwindle away. The poem was written with these series of words and letters: Ab Abr Abra Abrak Abraka Abrakal Abrakala Abrakal Abraka Abrak Abra Abr Ab. And finally, Abracadabra is connected with Abraxas, a god who originated with the eccentric Christian thinker Basilides who taught in the city of Alexandria from 120 to 140 A.D. The god was connected to magical charms, gems and rings.

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Nicole Fowles

Glad You Asked

If you have a question that you would like to see answered in this column, mail it to Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St., Delaware OH 43015, or call us at 740-362-3861. You can also email your questions by visiting the library’s website at www.delawarelibrary.org or directly to Nicole at [email protected]. No matter how you contact us, we’re always glad you asked.