11 December 2012

natal

[neyt-l]

adjective

1. of or pertaining to a person’s birth: celebrating one’s natal day.
2. presiding over or affecting a person at birth: natal influences.
3. (of places) native: nostalgia for one’s natal town.

Today’s aphorism

‘A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny’.

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

On this day

11 December 1941 – Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the United States. The USA responds in kind.

11 December 1946 – establishment of UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) to provide food and healthcare to children in countries devastated by World War II.

11 December 1918 – birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian dissident writer, ‘The Gulag Archipelago‘, ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich‘, ‘The First Circle‘.

11 December 1941 – Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declare war on the United States.

11 December 1961 – America’s first direct involvement in the Vietnam civil war, when a US aircraft carrier arrives in Saigon.

11 December 1975 – The Cod War in Iceland continues when an Iceland gun boat fires  on unarmed British fishing vessels. Iceland had expanded its fishing zone from 50nm to 200nm from its coast.

11 December 1979 – The Rhodesian government returns power of the country to Great Britain until democratic elections are held. Following the elections, Rhodesia is renamed Zimbabwe.

11 December 1997 – The Kyoto Protocol is agreed to by 150 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to combat anthropogenic global warming.

10 December 2012

dumbledore

[duhm-buhl-daw/dohr)

— n
dialect ( English ) Also (Southwest English): drumbledrane – otherwise known as a bumblebee.

[Old English dumble , variant of drumble to move sluggishly + dor humming insect]

Today’s aphorism

‘The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil’.

– Albert Einstein

On this day

10 December 1896 – death of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and armaments manufacturer, inventor of dynamite and the Nobel Prizes. Was known as the ‘Merchant of Death’. A newspaper stated that he ‘became rich by finding ways to kill people faster than ever before‘. As a result, he decided to leave a better legacy than that and used his estate to establish and fund the Nobel Prizes, which included the Nobel Peace Prize. Born 21 October 1833.

10 December – Human Rights Day.

10 December 1948 – Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

10 December 1959 – James Coburn (star of ‘The Great Escape‘, ‘The Magnificent Seven‘)  takes 200 micrograms of LSD-25 for the first time as part of a controlled experiment conducted by Dr Janiger. Other famous people who participated in Janiger’s experiments include Cary Grant (‘North by Northwest‘, ‘An Affair to Remember‘) who took over 100 acid trips, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and author Anais Nin (refer: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_history6.pdf and http://www.carygrant.net/autobiography/autobiography14.html)

10 December 1967 – Soul singer, Otis Redding and members of the Bar-Kays band are killed when they plane they are travelling on crashes into Lake Monona, Madison, Wisconsin.

10 December 1981 – An epidemic comprising of two diseases, skin cancer and pneumonia, spreads throughout the United States since July, killing 75 people, 92% of whom are gay men. The disease is eventually identified as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

10 December 1983 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

10 December 1992 – Prime Minister Paul Keating delivers the historic ‘Redfern Speech’ at Redfern Park, New South Wales. It is regarded as one of the greatest Australian speeches and was the first time a Prime Minister had acknowledged the role that European settlement had the murders and other travesties inflicted on the indigenous population. In 2007, Radio National listeners voted the speech as the third most unforgettable speech in the world, behind Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech (first) and Jesus’s ‘Sermon on the Mount (second). The speech can be heard here: Redfern Speech – audio or on YouTube. The text is available here: Redfern Speech – Text.

10 December 2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts in solving the Middle East crisis in the 1970s.

10 December 2009 – President Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his ‘extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples‘.

9 December 2012

rime

[RAHYM]

noun

A coating of tiny, white, granular ice particles, caused by the rapid freezing of water droplets.

Example:

The Chief’s follow spot cast a light like a rime of ice into the murk, and mom swam inside this circle across the entire length of the lake.
— Karen Russell, Swamplandia!

When it got real fierce, when your very speech would freeze as it emanated from your lips and blow back in stinging rime against the cheeks, we hung close to the tepees and ate the dried meat taken the summer before and stored in rawhide parfleches and pemmican, the greasier the better on account of a bellyful of melting fat will warm you sooner and stick longer than most anything I know.
— Thomas Berger, Little Big Man

Origin

Rime, also known as hoarfrost, comes from the Old English hrim. Used mainly in Northern England and Scotland for centuries, it was revived in literature in the 19th century.

Today’s aphorism

‘Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society’.

– Albert Einstein

On this day

9 December 1906 – birth of Sir Douglas Nichols KCVO, OBE. Aboriginal activist, raising awareness of aboriginal issues, including treating aborigines with dignity and as people. He played for Carlton football club in the A-grade Victorian Football League (VFL), leaving after racist treatment and joining the Northcote football club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Nicholls became a minister and social worker. In 1957, he was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1972 he was the first aborigine to be knighted. In 1976, he became the 28th governor of South Australia, the first aborigine to be appointed to a vice-regal position. He died on 4 June 1988.

9 December 1947 – Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sandar Valiabbhai Patel announces that India and Pakistan have reached an agreement on the borders of the two countries following partition … except for the issue of Kashmir, which is unresolved to this day.

9 December 1990 – Polish dissident, Solidarity union leader and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lech Walesa wins Polish presidential election in a landslide. Solidarity was the Soviet Bloc’s first independent trade union. Walesa presided over Poland’s transition from a communist state to a post-communist state.

8 December 2012

pontificate

[pon-tif-i-kit, -keyt; pon-tif-i-keyt]

noun

1. the office or term of office of a pontiff.

verb (used without object), pontificated, pontificating.

2. to perform the office or duties of a pontiff.
3. to speak in a pompous or dogmatic manner: Did he pontificate about the responsibilities of a good citizen?
4. to serve as a bishop, especially in a Pontifical Mass.

Example:

‘The taxi driver spent his day pontificating about politics, religion and current affairs to every one of his passengers’.

Today’s aphorism

‘Actually I don’t remember being born, it must have happened during one of my black outs’.

– Jim Morrison

On this day

8 December 1943 – birthday of Jim Morrison, lead singer and song writer for the Doors.

8 December 1980 – Murder of John Lennon. English guitarist and singer-songwriter for the Beatles. Born 9 October 1940.

8 December 1991 – the Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus sign the Belavezha Accords declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States. The legality of this accord was questionable, however, it was ratified by leaders of all other Soviet republics (except Georgia) on 21 December 1991.

8 December 2004 – death of Dimebag Darrell, (born Darrell Lance Abbott), American musician, founding member of Pantera. Dimebag was shot dead on stage while playing for Damageplan.

7 December 2012

Poe’s Law

– Relates to internet discussions, usually in relation to politics or religion, in which it is difficult to distinguish an extremist view from a parody of an extremist view unless emoticons are used, such as smileys and winks. Named after Nathan Poe.

One example is a Japanese Youtube user named Tamtampamela, who did a satire of extremist Christian beliefs. When an earthquake devastated Japan, she published a video thanking God for the earthquake striking Japan’s atheist population. Many people took her seriously and she received death-threats even after apologising and closing her Youtube account.

There is also the reverse of Poe’s Law, in which a sincere extremist opinion may be mistaken for a parody of that belief.

Of course, the issue of parodies being taken seriously did not start with the internet. For instance, Spanish artist, Salvador Dali once sent a telegram to Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceauşescu stating he should adopt a scepter as part of his regalia. Ceauşescu took his leadership seriously and had the telegram published in a national newspaper. When he found out the telegram was a joke, he had the editor fired.

Today’s aphorism

‘Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!’

– John Belushi

On this day

7 December 1941 – bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

7 December 1987 – USSR President Mikael Gorbachev arrives in the USA for an arms control summit with US President Ronald Reagan. The summit resulted in the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty (INF) which called for elimination of all cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe that had a range of 320 to 3,400 miles. This was one of the most significant arms treaties of the Cold War.

7 December 1988 – An earthquake registering 7.2 on the richter scale, completely destroys the Armenian city of Spitak, in the Soviet Union, killing 50,000.

7 December 2001 – the Taliban regime surrenders 61 days after commencement of US-led war in Afghanistan.

6 December 2012

louche

[loosh]

adjective

– dubious; shady; disreputable in an appealing sort of way.

Example sentence:

‘Though Rancid just celebrated 20 years together, the lovably louche No Cal punks are still preoccupied with teenage rebellion’.

Origin:
1810–20; < French: literally, cross-eyed; Old French losche, feminine of lois < Latin luscus blind in one eye

Today’s aphorism

‘Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read’.

– Frank Zappa

On this day

6 December 1790 – The United States Capitol is relocated from New York to Philadelphia. Ten years later,  the District of Columbia is completed and the capitol permanently relocates there.

6 December 1922 – Creation of the Irish Free State as a dominion under the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Northern Ireland was included in the State, but chose not to join.

6 December 1962 – a deadly smog, mainly containing sulfur dioxide, kills 90 people in London.

6 December 1969 – The Rolling Stones organise a free concert at the disused Altamont Speedway, Livermore, California, featuring themselves, as well as Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Hell’s Angels were used as security, but the concert was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a member of the Hell’s Angels.

5 December 2012

al desko

Adverb

– At a desk (typically used of eating).

1981, Stephanie Mansfield, “The Last Memo”, The Washington Post, 30 January 1981:
Lunches usually consist of cold sandwiches consumed al desko.

1994, “Workers Are Increasingly In To Lunch”, Philadelphia Daily News, 29 March 1994: The number of folks who have taken to dining al desko is causing some new problems in the workplace.

2004, Alex Elgar, “Dining ‘Al desko’”, The CB Friday, 12 November 2004:
A recent study published in a British daily claimed that dining ‘al desko’ was fast becoming the new norm for office workers.

(from Wiktionary)

Etymology
An adaptation of alfresco

Today’s aphorism

‘The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder’.

– Alfred Hitchcock

On this day

5 December – International Volunteer Day

5 December 1791 – death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer.

5 December 1870 – death of Alexandré Dumas, French author of celebrated works such as ‘Count of Monte Christo‘, ‘The Three Musketeers‘, ‘The Black Tulip‘.

4 December 2012

anodyne

[an-uh-dahyn]

noun

1. a medicine that relieves or allays pain.
2. anything that relieves distress or pain.

Example:

The music was an anodyne to his grief.

Today’s aphorism

‘The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell’.

– Confucius

On this day

4 December 1952 – A deadly smog in London caused by soot and sulphur dioxide from factories, cars and home coal-fires. It continues for four days and kills at least 4,000 people.

4 December 1954 – the first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida by James McLamore and David Edgerton.

4 December 1961 – the birth control contraceptive pill (‘the pill’) available publicly through the National Health Service.

4 December 1969 – 14 police shoot dead members of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton and Mary Clark, who were asleep in their apartment. The Black Panther Party was committed to racial equality and rights for African Americans.

3 December 2012

fainaigue

[fuh-NEYG]

verb:

1. To shirk; evade work or responsibility.
2. To renege at cards.

Examples:

I finally fainaigue a tin plate out of the mess department, for which I am required to give two lire.
— Harry Partch, Thomas McGeary, Bitter Music: Collected Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Librettos

I’ve a two-year stretch up here, unless I quit or fainaigue a transfer.
— “Astounding Science fiction, Volume 31, issue 21943”

Fainaigue stems from British dialect, but its exact origins are unclear. Whether or not it has a relationship to finagle is a source of debate.

Today’s aphorism

‘Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe’.

– Frank Zappa

On this day

3 December – International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

3 December 1944 – Civil war breaks out in Greece following its liberation during World War II, when communist rebels fight democratic forces for control.

3 December 1948 – birth of Ozzy Osbourne, legendary British rocker, former lead singer of Black Sabbath, who has also had a successful solo career. He was born as John Michael Osbourne.

3 December 1984 – Bhopal Union Carbide accident in India in which thousands of people die from toxic gases that leaked from the factory when safety systems failed.

3 December 1993 – death of Frank Zappa, American revolutionary musician. Born 21 December 1940.

2 December 2012

flummox

[fluhm-uh ks]

verb (used with object), Informal.

– to bewilder; confound; confuse.

Example:

‘The lecturer’s rambling presentation, which jumped from one apparently irrelevant notion to the next, left the class flummoxed’.

Today’s aphorism

‘Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn’t change people’s habits. It just kept them inside the house’.

– Alfred Hitchcock

On this day

2 December – International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

2 December 1972 – death of Yip Man, Wing Chun Kung Fu grand-master. Immortalised in the movie, Ip Man. Born 1 October 1893.