17 February 2017

willowwacks

[wil-oh-waks]

noun, New England.

1. a wooded, uninhabited area.

Also, willywacks.

Origin of willowwacks

of uncertain origin

Dictionary.com

Example

The lonely willowwacks of New England provided an atmospheric location for the fertile imagination of horror writer, Stephen King.

Anagram

laws lick wow
awl wick owls

Today’s quote

What can be more stupid than to be in pain about future things and absent ones which at present are not felt?

– Giordano Bruno

On this day

17 February 1600 – death of Giordano Bruno, Italian Dominician friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet and astrologer. Bruno wrote extensively on the art of memory. proposed that the stars were distant suns and could have planets of their own with life on them. He also stated that the Communion couldn’t transform into the body of Christ (Transubstantiation). He also rejected other core Catholic tenets including the Trinity, eternal damnation, the divinity of Christ, and the virginity of Mary. For his scientific and religious views, he was charged with heresy and burned at the stake. Many regard him as the first martyr for science. Born 1548.

17 February 1933 – End of Prohibition, when the US Senate passes the Blaine Act.

17 February 1934 – birth of Barry Humphries, Australian comedian, famous for characters such as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

17 February 2007 – Sylvester Stallone is held by Australian Customs for a couple of hours after prohibited items were confiscated from his baggage.