Tomorrow, voters will turn out to elect the next president of the United States — and, if we're listening to reports from Italy and Egypt and South Park, there's plenty of reason to do so.

The New York Times says voting matters: a single state’s electoral votes can have massive repercussions.

Italy's Corriere della Sera says voting matters: with so many factions campaigning, the losers have "enormous potential power of blackmail."

Al-Jazeera says voting matters: Egyptian voters unseated Hosni Mubarak and ushered in a new government — "uneasy as it may be."

Back in the USA, South Park questions just how much voting matters, courtesy of P. Diddy's mantra: “Vote or Die.”

Image: tumblr.com/tagged/vote-or-die

Disusage presents the contradictions and foibles of usage manuals, style guides, and the quirky folks who love them. This week: the celestial and earthly roots of “disaster.”

disaster. n. s. [desastre, French]
1. The blast or stroke of an unfavourable planet.
           “Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fall;
           Disasters veil’d the sun; and the moist star
           Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire Stands
            Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.” Shakesp. Hamlet.
2. Misfortune; grief; mishap; misery; calamity.
           “This day black omens threat the brightest fair,
           That e’er deserv’d a watchful spirit’s care,
           Some dire disaster, or by force or flight;
           But what, or where, the fates have wrapt in night.” Pope
—from Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

disaster. (?), n. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin.]
1. An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [Obs.] “Disasters in the sun.” Shak.
2. An adverse or unfortunate event, esp. a sudden and extraordinary misfortune; a calamity; a serious mishap. “But noble souls, through dust and heat, Rise from disaster and defeat The stronger.” Longfellow.
—from Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

“Disaster: something wrong with the stars.”
—from “English: An Ode,” by Robert Hass.

“In every phase and aspect of a disaster — causes, vulnerability, preparedness, results and response, and reconstruction — the contours of disaster and the difference between who lives and who dies is to a greater or lesser extent a social calculus.”
—from “There's No Such Thing as Natural Disaster,” by Neil Smith.

Have an aspect of usage you want examined? Email me.

"There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world."

—Jean Baudrillard

"Horror is the removal of masks."

—Robert Bloch

"Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

Contagion to this world."

—William Shakespeare

"Fear has many eyes and can see things underground."

—Miguel de Cervantes

"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones."

—Stephen King

See the connections? Write your guesses in the comments, and check in next Wednesday to find the headlines that inspired these pairings.

Images: The Frisky, ExtraTV, The Awl, New Haven Independent, Meteorology News

Answers to last week's installment:

• "Paraplegic Survives Desert Stranding" (Newser)
• "Things You Can Be on Halloween Besides Naked!" (Emotistyle)
• "Lindsay Lohan Steals Clothes from Scary Movie 5 Set" (Perez Hilton)
• "The A-hole in the Mirror" (Slate)
• "'Cloud Atlas' Director Lana Wachowski on Coming-Out Speech: 'It Was Just the Universe Saying I Should Do It'" (Hollywood Reporter)