20 December 2012

wassail

[WOS-uhl, wo-SAYL]

verb tr.: To toast.

verb intr.:

To go from house to house singing carols at Christmas.

noun:

1. A toast to someone’s health.
2. A festivity with much drinking.
3. A drink for toasting, especially spiced ale.

Example:

Wassailing the apple tree is a traditional ritual carried out on twelfth night.

Today’s aphorism

‘I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me’.

– Hunter S. Thompson

On this day

20 December – International Human Solidarity Day.

20 December 1973 – Basque Nationalists kill Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in a car-bombing in Madrid.

20 December 1989 – Operation ‘Just Cause’ in which President George Bush orders 27,684 U.S. troops into Panama in an effort to oust Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Noriega surrendered on 3 January 1990.