16 February 2018
Scobberlotcher
noun
Mental Floss notes this word is “probably derived from scopperloit, an old English dialect word for ‘a vacation or a break from work’.” A scobberlotcher is someone who avoids hard work . . . like it’s their job. The next time you catch someone dozing off at their desk, hit ’em with this one, even if it is just under your breath.
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Today’s quote
Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to protect the rights of man, I am a rebel. Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to give man liberty, to clothe him in all his just rights, I am on the side of that rebellion.
– Robert Green Ingersoll
On this day
16 February 1923 – the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen in Egypt is opened, after it was recently discovered by British archaeologist, Howard Carter. The tomb was 3,000 years old.
16 February 1936 – The left-wing Popular Front is elected to power in Spain. The Popular Front was a coalition of numerous Communist and Socialist parties, including the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Worker’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), Republican Left (IR) and Republican Union Party (UR). The pact which enabled the formation of the Popular Front was supported by Galician (PG) and Catalan nationalists (ERC), the Workers’ General Union (UGT) and the anarchist trade union, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). The Popular Front had defeated the National Front (a coalition of right-wing parties) in the elections, and was formed to combat the rising tide of right-wing Fascism throughout Europe. In July 1936, conservative monarchists led by General Francisco Franco instigated a military coup that started the Spanish Civil War. Franco received backing from Mussolini and Hitler, while some of the left-wing forces, including the International Brigade (formed of volunteers from all over Europe) received backing from Stalin. British author, George Orwell, a democratic socialist, travelled to Spain and fought with the POUM because he wanted to help defeat Fascism. It was only be chance that Orwell didn’t join the International Brigade. The POUM (an anti-Stalinist Communist Party) was declared an illegal organisation in 1937 by the government in an effort by Communist forces to purge Troskyists, forcing Orwell to flee or face imprisonment. Orwell wrote of his Spanish Civil War experience in Homage to Catalonia. His experience made him a life-long anti-Stalinist and committed Democratic Socialist. In April 1939, Franco’s forces defeated the Popular Front, installing him as President. Franco ruled Spain with a military dictatorship until his death in 1975.
16 February 1959 – Fidel Castro sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba after leading a successful revolution against the President Batista.
16 February 1983 – Ash Wednesday bush-fires burn more than 4,000km2 of land in South Australia and Victoria, killing 75 people (47 in Victoria and 28 in South Australia), destroying more than 3,700 buildings, and more than 2,500 people lost their homes.