Do You Remember Ma?    
By Richard Lederer   
Copyright © 2005 5/05 San Diego Mensan

The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States, Mother’s Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it Mother’s Work Day.

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist and author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday to be celebrated each year on the second Sunday of May. In honor of this apparent day, let’s celebrate some words that have one thing in common. They all end with the letters MA, an affectionate shortening of mother. From each definition, identify each word whose ending is brought up by MA.      Hint: the words occur in alphabetical order.

I’ll avoid all those generally unpleasant medical terms, such as asthma, carcinoma, coma, eczema, edema, emphysema, enema, glaucoma, hematoma, melanoma, plasma, sarcoma, and trauma.   Answers below.

1. a person or thing despised or cursed

2. a pleasant odor

3. according to Hinduism, the essence from which all life originates

4. an unusual ability to influence people and arouse devotion

5. motion pictures

6. a punctuation mark

7.  a problem that requires a choice between equally undesirable solutions

8. what you get at graduation

9. a system of principles or doctrines

10. the chief monetary unit of Greece

11. a play

12. something that is ambiguous or puzzling

13. in Hinduism and Buddhism, the principle that one’s actions determine one’s future in this life or in other incarnations

14. a priest who adheres to the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Mongolia

15. woolly-haired mammal of South America

16. what Gandhi was

17. a full, wide view of an extensive area

18. a large wild American cat; mountain lion; cougar

19. a long-lasting mark or stain on one’s character or reputation

20. solid earth

Special challenges: Name two American states that end in MA. Name the third and eighth letters of the Greek alphabet.

ANSWERS:  1. Anathema  2. Aroma  3. Brahma  4. Charisma  5. Cinema  6. Comma  7. Dilemma  8. Diploma  9. Dogma  10. Drachma  11. Drama  12. Enigma  13. Karma  14. Lama  15. Llama  16. Mahatma  17. Panorama  18. Puma  19. Stigma  20. Terra firma 

Special challenges:  Alabama and Oklahoma