13 February 2018

Gnashnab

noun

Gnashnab is an 18th century northern English word, meaning “someone who [just] complains all the time.” Contemporary synonyms include nitpicker, moaner, and grumbler. It’s just as true now as it was back then—no one likes a gnashnab.

Anagram

ban gnash

Today’s quote

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

– Kurt Vonnegut

On this day

13 February 1915 – birth of General Aung San, founder of modern day Burma and Burmese Army. Father of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, activist and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient.

13 February 1920 – the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland is recognised by the League of Nations (predecessor of the United Nations).

13 – 15 February 1945 – the bombing of Dresden in which 722 British and 527 USAF aircraft drop more than 3,900 tons of explosives on Dresden, Germany. At the time, Nazi Germany claimed more than 300,000 casualties, however, an official report in 2010 claimed that casualties were around 25,000, historians generally number the casualties between 35,000 and 135,000. Because of the number of refugees in the city, it is unlikely the exact figure will ever be known.

13 February 2008 – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologises to Australia’s indigenous peoples, particularly those of the stolen generation from whom children were forcibly removed from their parents.