22 June 2014

miscreant

[mis-kree-uhnt]

adjective

1. depraved, villainous, or base.
2. Archaic. holding a false or unorthodox religious belief; heretical.

noun

3. a vicious or depraved person; villain.
4. Archaic. a heretic or infidel.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French mescreant unbelieving, equivalent to mes- mis-1 + creant ≪ Latin crēdent- credent

Anagram

cream tins
racism net
met Cairns

Today’s aphorism

My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me.

– Diego Maradona

On this day

22 June 1938 – death of C.J. Dennis, Australian poet (Songs of a Sentimental Bloke). Born 7 September 1876. Note, that C.J. Dennis foretold email by about 90 years with his reference to ‘ethergrams thro’ space’ which appears in ‘The Stoush of Day‘, in ‘The Sentimental Bloke‘.

22 June 1986 – the controversial ‘hand of God’ incident in the FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, when Diego Maradona scored a goal that came off his hand. The referee didn’t see the hand infringement and awarded the goal. Four minutes after the ‘hand of God’ goal, Maradona scored the ‘goal of the century’, which is claimed to be the greatest individual goal of all time, which he scored after playing the ball for 60 metres within 10 seconds, through four English defenders to slot the goal. Argentina won the match 2-1 and went on to win the World Cup.

21 June 2014

felicity

[fi-lis-i-tee]

noun, plural fe·lic·i·ties.

1. the state of being happy, especially in a high degree; bliss: marital felicity.
2. an instance of this.
3. a source of happiness.
4. a skillful faculty: felicity of expression.
5. an instance or display of this: the many felicities of the poem.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English felicite (< Anglo-French ) < Latin fēlīcitās, equivalent to fēlīci- (stem of fēlīx ) happy + -tās -ty2

Related forms
non·fe·lic·i·ty, noun

Synonyms
1. See happiness.

Fe·lic·i·ty [fi-lis-i-tee]
noun
a female given name, form of Felicia.
Also, Fe·lic·i·ta [fi-lis-i-tuh]

Anagram

city life
ice fitly
I felt icy

Today’s aphorism

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

– Gilbert K. Chesterton

On this day

21 June 1953 – birth of Benazir Bhutto, elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, becoming the first female leader of a Muslim country. She was dismissed as Prime Minister in 1996 amid accusations of corruption. She went into exile, living in the United Arab Emirates. In 2007, against the orders of President Musharraf, she returned to Pakistan to contest the 2008 election. She was assassinated at a rally on 27 December 2007.

21 June 1964 – Three civil rights activists (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner) disappear in Mississippi while investigating an allegation that the Ku Klux Klan had burned down an African-American church. Their bodies were discovered six weeks later. In 1966, seven Ku Klux Klan members were found guilty of the murders, while eight others were found not guilty, including Edgar Ray ‘Preacher’ Killen who was retried in 2005 and found guilty.

21 June 2001 – death of John Lee Hooker, American blues guitarist.

21 June 2005 – Edgar Ray ‘Preacher’ Killen, former Ku Klux Klansman, is found guilty of manslaughter for his part in the 1964 killing of three civil rights activists and sentenced to 60 years imprisonment.

20 June 2014

ultimo

[uhl-tuh-moh]

adverb

– in or of the month preceding the current one. For example, ‘On the twelfth ultimo’. (meaning the 12th of the preceding month). Abbreviation: ult., ulto. Compare instant, proximo.

Origin:
1575–85; < Latin ultimō ( mēnse or diē ) in the last (month) or on the last (day)

Anagram

I moult

Today’s aphorism

Refugees driven from country to country represent the vanguard of their peoples.

– Hannah Arendt 1943

On this day

20 June – World Refugee Day – to raise awareness of the plight of refugees across the globe. Refugee Week is held Sunday to Saturday of the week that includes 20 June.

20 June 1864 – birth of Worm Pander, sculptor. Died 6 September 1919 … … no relation to this site’s Panda Man …

20 June 1909 birth of Errol Flynn, Australian-born American actor. Died 14 October 1959.

20 June 1966 – The Beatles release their ‘Yesterday and Today’ album with the controversial ‘butcher cover’. The Beatles appeared on the cover wearing white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of meat. Some people took offense to this and the cover was withdrawn and replaced with something a little more savoury.

20 June 2001 – General Pervez Musharraf establishes himself as both President and Chief Executive of Pakistan. He had come to power as Chief Executive following a coup d’état in 1999.

19 June 2014

Predicate

[v. pred-i-keyt; adj., n. pred-i-kit]

verb (used with object), pred·i·cat·ed, pred·i·cat·ing.

1. to proclaim; declare; affirm; assert.

2. Logic.

a. to affirm or assert (something) of the subject of a proposition.

b. to make (a term) the predicate of such a proposition.

3. to connote; imply: His retraction predicates a change of attitude.

4. to found or derive (a statement, action, etc.); base (usually followed by on ): He predicated his behavior on his faith in humanity.

verb (used without object), pred·i·cat·ed, pred·i·cat·ing.

5. to make an affirmation or assertion.

adjective

6. predicated.

7. Grammar . belonging to the predicate: a predicate noun.

noun

8. Grammar . (in many languages, as English) a syntactic unit that functions as one of the two main constituents of a simple sentence, the other being the subject, and that consists of a verb, which in English may agree with the subject in number, and of all the words governed by the verb or modifying it, the whole often expressing the action performed by or the state attributed to the subject, as is here in Larry is here.

9. Logic. that which is affirmed or denied concerning the subject of a proposition.

Origin:
1400–50; (noun) late Middle English (< Middle French predicat ) < Medieval Latin praedicātum, noun use of neuter of Latin praedicātus, past participle of praedicāre to declare publicly, assert, equivalent to prae- pre- + dicā ( re ) to show, indicate, make known + -tus past participle suffix; (v. and adj.) < Latin praedicātus; cf. preach

Anagram

I carpeted
aced tripe
reacted pi

Today’s aphorism

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

– Blaise Pascal

On this day

19 June 1623 – birth of Blaise Pascal, controversial French mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer. Formulated ‘Pascal’s Triangle’, a tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, challenged Aristotle’s followers who claimed that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’. The computer programming language, ‘Pascal’, is named in his honour.

19 June 1945 – birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, activist and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient.

19 June 1978 – The original Grumpy Cat, Garfield, first appears in newspaper comic strips in the USA.

18 June 2014

oneirataxia

[oh-nee-rah-tax-ee-uh]

noun

– the inability to differentiate between dreams and reality. ‘By the end of the 1960s, more than one hippy had developed oneirataxia from over-indulging in hallucinogens’.

Anagram

I ax aeration
Axe rain iota

Today’s aphorism

In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

– Paul McCartney

On this day

18 June 1942 – birth of Paul McCartney, member of The Beatles and his writing partnership with John Lennon made them one of the world’s most successful song-writing duos. After the break-up of the Beatles, McCartney went on to have a successful solo career. He was knighted in 1997.

16 June 2014

languish

[lang-gwish]

verb (used without object)

1. to be or become weak or feeble; droop; fade.
2. to lose vigor and vitality.
3. to undergo neglect or experience prolonged inactivity; suffer hardship and distress: to languish in prison for ten years.
4. to be subjected to delay or disregard; be ignored: a petition that languished on the warden’s desk for a year.
5. to pine with desire or longing.
6. to assume an expression of tender, sentimental melancholy.

Anagram

haling us
laughs in
slain hug

Today’s aphorism

I firmly believe that our salvation depends on the poor.

– Dorothy Day

On this day

16 June – International Day of the African Child, which remembers those who participated in the Soweto protests in 1976, as well as raises awareness of the need for improved education provided to African children.

16 June 1816 – Lord Byron reads his poem Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clermont and John Polidori, challenging them to write a ghost story. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Polidori wrote the short story, The Vampyre, which in turn influenced numerous vampire stories, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Byron himself went on to write the poem, Darkness.

16 June 1951 – birth of Roberto Duran, Panamanian boxer nicknamed ‘Manos de Piedra’ (Hands of Stone). He held world titles at four different levels; lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight. He was the second boxer to fight over five decades. He retired from professional boxing in 2002 at the age of 50. He is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time.

16 June 1961 – Soviet ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev defects to the West. Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev allegedly issued an order for Nureyev to be killed, which did not eventuate.

16 June 1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival is held over three days at Monterey, California. Over 200,000 people attended to experience performers such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Byrds, The Animals and The Grateful Dead.

16 June 1976 – Soweto Uprising in South Africa, when up to 20,000 students marched in a non-violent protest against poor quality education and demanding to be taught in their own language after Afrikaans was introduced as the medium of instruction. The protest turned violent when police opened fire on the crowd, killing 23 people. Violence continued for two weeks, with 176 people being killed. The day is now a public holiday in South Africa and commemorated as Youth Day. Internationally it is recognised as Day of the African Child.

15 June 2014

debonair

[deb-uh-nair]

adjective

1. courteous, gracious, and having a sophisticated charm: a debonair gentleman.
2. jaunty; carefree; sprightly.

Also, deb·o·naire, deb·on·naire.

Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English debone ( i ) re < Anglo-French; Old French debonaire, orig. phrase de bon aire of good lineage

Related forms
deb·o·nair·ly, adverb
deb·o·nair·ness, noun

Synonyms
1. urbane, suave, elegant, polished.

Anagram

rabid one
be ordain
iron bead

Today’s aphorism

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.

– Benjamin Franklin

On this day

15 June 1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity by launching a kite during a storm. The kite was tied to a key and a Leyden Jar, which was used to store electrical charge. The negative ions in the thunder storm charged the kite, flowing down the wet silk string and into the jar. Franklin was holding the silk at the time and was unaffected, however when he moved his hand near the key he received an electric shock, proving that lightning was static electricity. (Traditional date, the exact date is unknown).

15 June 1920 – a 5000-strong mob in Minnesota lynches three African-American who were convicted of the rape of a 17 year old white woman.

15 June 1946 – birth of Noddy Holder, British musician and singer. Holder was the lead singer with 1970′s glam rock band, Slade, which was famous for songs such as ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’, ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’, ‘Gudbuy T’ Jane’, and ‘Skweeze Me Pleeze Me’. Their second studio album, ‘Slayed’, spent 34 weeks at Number 1 in the UK. In 2000 Holder was awarded an MBE for his services to spelling.

14 June 2014

pompadour

[pom-puh-dawr, -dohr, -door]

noun

1. an arrangement of a man’s hair in which it is brushed up high from the forehead.
2. an arrangement of a woman’s hair in which it is raised over the forehead in a roll, sometimes over a pad.
3. a pink or crimson color.
4. Textiles.
a. any fabric, as cotton or silk, having a design of small pink, blue, and sometimes gold flowers or bouquets on a white background.
b. a fabric of the color pompadour, used for garments.

Origin:
1745–55; named after the Marquise de Pompadour

Anagram

puma droop
mop up road

Today’s aphorism

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

– Gilbert K. Chesterton

On this day

14 June 1158 – Munich founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the River Isar.

14 June 1789 – The Reverend Elijah Craig becomes the first person to distill whisky from maize. The new whisky is named bourbon, because that is the county in Kentucky that Reverend Craig lived in.

14 June 1928 – birth of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Argentinian Marxist revolutionary, physician, author. Executed 9 October 1967 on the order of Bolivian President Rene Barrientos.

14 June 1936 – death of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (otherwise known as G.K. Chesterton – born 29 May 1874), English writer, lay theologian, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, Christian apologist, biographer and owner of one of the world’s worst pompadours (not that there’s ever a good pompadour, but GKC could have done with a bit more product):

14 June 1937 – The USA passes the Marihuana Tax Act, which taxed the sale of cannabis.

14 June 1982 – Argentina surrenders to Great Britain after the six week Falkland’s War.

14 June 2007 – Former Ku Klux Klan member, 71 year old James Seale is found guilty of a number of charges related to the 1964 murder of two civil rights activists in Mississippi. He was sentenced to three life terms of imprisonment. His conviction was overturned the following year, before being reinstated. He died in prison in 2011.