Hello

Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1833.

First use

Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications as early as 1833. These include an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee, which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette.

The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman." It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there'). As in addition to hello, halloo,hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels.

Telephone

The use of hello as a telephone greeting has been credited to Thomas Edison; according to one source, he expressed his surprise with a misheard Hullo.Alexander Graham Bell initially used Ahoy (as used on ships) as a telephone greeting. However, in 1877, Edison wrote to T.B.A. David, the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of Pittsburgh:

Maus

Maus is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work deploys postmodern techniques and represents Jews as mice and other Germans and Poles as cats and pigs. Critics have classified Maus as memoir, biography, history, fiction, autobiography, or a mix of genres. In 1992 it became the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.

In the frame-tale timeline in the narrative present that begins in 1978 in New York City, Spiegelman talks with his father Vladek about his Holocaust experiences, gathering material for the Maus project he is preparing. In the narrative past, Spiegelman depicts these experiences, from the years leading up to World War II to his parents' liberation from the Nazi concentration camps. Much of the story revolves around Spiegelman's troubled relationship with his father, and the absence of his mother who committed suicide when he was 20. Her grief-stricken husband destroyed her written accounts of Auschwitz. The book uses a minimalist drawing style and displays innovation in its pacing, and structure, and page layouts.

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character and the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company. He was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. An anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves, Mickey has become the most recognizable cartoon character in the world.

Mickey first was seen in a single test screening (Plane Crazy). Mickey officially debuted in the short film Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including The Band Concert (1935), Brave Little Tailor (1938), and Fantasia (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Beginning in 1930, Mickey has also been featured extensively as a comic strip character. His self-titled newspaper strip, drawn primarily by Floyd Gottfredson, ran for 45 years. Mickey has also appeared in comic books and in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996) and others. He also appears in other media such as video games as well as merchandising, and is a meetable character at the Disney parks.

Kinder Surprise

Kinder Surprise, also known as a Kinder Egg or, in the original Italian, Kinder Sorpresa ("Kinder" is the German word for "children"), is a candy manufactured by Italian company Ferrero. Originally intended for children, it is also popular with adult collectors and has the form of a chocolate egg containing a small toy, often requiring assembly.

Description

Each Kinder Surprise egg consists of a chocolate shell, a plastic container, the contents of said container, and an external foil wrap.

The chocolate shell is shaped like a chicken's egg. It is only about a millimeter thick, and consists of two layers: a milk chocolate layer on the outside, and a white chocolate layer on the inside. The shell is not a singular piece of material, but rather two identical halves split down a vertical line. These are lightly fused together just before the egg is wrapped, to prevent the halves from coming apart under the light pressures expected during transportation.

During the egg's production, before the halves are fused together, the plastic capsule containing the toy is placed inside. This capsule is made from thin, flexible plastic, and is often yolk-yellow (though in the past it was manufactured in a variety of colours). The capsule is made of two non-symmetrical, overlapping pieces: its bottom piece is almost as long as the entire capsule, and has two ridges protruding along its outer rim; the top piece is about half as long as the entire capsule, and has two corresponding ridges along its inner rim. When the pieces are pushed together, the ridges interlock and do not come apart without manual manipulation. To separate the two pieces, it is often necessary to apply pressure to the interlocking region at its opposite ends, bending it and causing the ridges to separate inside so that the halves can be pulled apart. Once the capsule is opened it can be re-closed effortlessly by pushing the two pieces back together.

Minnie Mouse

Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. She was first drawn by Iwerks in 1928, as was Mickey Mouse. The comic strip story "The Gleam" (published January 19–May 2, 1942) by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse, although this is seldom used.

The comic strip story "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" (published September 22–December 26, 1930) introduced her father Marcus Mouse and her unnamed mother, both farmers. The same story featured photographs of Minnie's uncle Milton Mouse with his family and her grandparents Marshal Mouse and Matilda Mouse. Her best known relatives, however, remain her uncle Mortimer Mouse and her twin nieces, Millie and Melody Mouse, though most often a single niece, Melody, appears. In many appearances, Minnie is presented as the girlfriend of Mickey Mouse, a close friend of Daisy Duck, and a friend to Clarabelle Cow.

Origins of the character

In 1928, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse to act as a replacement to his previous star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But Mickey could not fill the void alone. Among the few consistent character traits Oswald had developed before moving on to Universal Studios was his near-constant pursuit of potential sweethearts. So for Mickey to have a chance to emulate his predecessor at flirting, someone had to replace Oswald's many love interests. This replacement to Miss Rabbit, Miss Cottontail, Fanny and an uncertain number of unnamed nurses and dancers was to become Minnie Mouse.