31 January 2015

infelicitous

[in-fuh-lis-i-tuh s]

adjective
1. inapt, inappropriate, or awkward; malapropos:
an infelicitous remark.
2. not felicitous, happy, or fortunate; unhappy.

Origin
1825-1835; in-3+ felicitous

Related forms

infelicitously, adverb
Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for infelicitous

– The question for this debate is at best infelicitous and at worse misleading.
– On such infelicitous systems, sockets and pipes are already opened in binary mode, and there is currently no way to turn that off.

Anagram

elicit fusion
oils unfit ice
cuisine of lit
incite if soul

Today’s aphorism

The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

– Martin Luther King Jr

On this day

31 January 1606 – death of Guy Fawkes, English soldier and one of the masterminds behind the failed ‘Gunpowder Plot’ to blow up English Parliament in an effort to assassinate King James 1 and VI of Scotland. Born 13 April 1570.

31 January 1961 – Ham the Astrochimp, returns safely to Earth after completing a NASA mission into outer space. HAM is an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Centre, which was located at the Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.

31 January 1991 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in Moscow.

30 January 2015

perquisite

[pur-kwuh-zit]

noun
1. an incidental payment, benefit, privilege, or advantage over and above regular income, salary, or wages:
Among the president’s perquisites were free use of a company car and paid membership in a country club.
2. a gratuity or tip.
3. something demanded or due as a particular privilege:
homage that was once the perquisite of royalty.

Origin
late Middle English Medieval Latin, Latin
1400-1450; late Middle English < Medieval Latin perquīsītum something acquired, noun use of neuter of Latin perquīsītus (past participle of perquīrere to search everywhere for, inquire diligently). See per-, inquisitive

Can be confused
perquisite, prerequisite.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for perquisite
– Going to a designer’s showroom to shop wholesale is a perquisite of public life.
– But the club has one perquisite enjoyed by few others in the state.
– It has become less of a perquisite or a way to build client relationships and more of a job.

Anagram

tip esquire
quiet spire

Today’s aphorism

Never apologise for burning too brightly or collapsing into yourself every night. That is how galaxies are made.

– Tyler Kent White

On this day

30 January 1648 – signing of the Peace of Munster, between the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Spain and was officially ratified on the 15 May 1648. This treaty was the first in a series of peace treaties known as the Peace of Westphalia which paved the way for the modern sovereign state. The second being the Treaty of Munster and the Treaty of Osnabrück, both signed on 24 October 1648.

30 January 1882 – birth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who was a member of the Democratic Party and became the 32nd President of the USA. He is the only president to serve four consecutive terms. FDR served from 4 March 1933 until his death on 12 April 1945. In 1921, FDR contracted polio, which left him paralysed from the waist down.

30 January 1948 – assassination of Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi.

30 January 1972 – ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry, Northern Ireland when 26 unarmed protesters were shot by British soldiers, killing 13 instantly, with a 14th dying some months later from his injuries. Seventeen were injured. John Lennon recorded a song about the incident, entitled ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday‘, which appeared on his ‘Sometime in New York City‘ album.

29 January 2015

lambast

[lam-beyst, -bast]

verb (used with object), lambasted, lambasting. Informal.
1. to beat or whip severely.
2. to reprimand or berate harshly; censure; excoriate.

Also, lambast.

Origin
1630-1640; apparently lam1+ baste3

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for lambast
– Health experts regularly lambast them for peddling food that makes people fat.
– He owns television stations and newspapers that trumpet his causes and lambast his rivals.

Anagram

lab mats
lamb sat
bat slam

Today’s aphorism

Activism is my rent for living on the planet.

– Alice Walker

On this day

29 January 1979 – 16 year old, Brenda Spencer shoots two men dead and wounds nine children at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. She allegedly claimed that she did it because it was a Monday and she didn’t like Mondays. She was sentenced to 25 years jail. The Boomtown Rats released a song about the incident, entitled ‘I Don’t Like Mondays‘.

28 January 2015

serried

[ser-eed]

adjective

1. pressed together or compacted, as soldiers in rows:
serried troops.

Origin
1660-1670; serry + -ed2

Related forms
serriedly, adverb
serriedness, noun
unserried, adjective

serry

[ser-ee]

verb (used without object), verb (used with object), serried, serrying. Archaic.
1. to crowd closely together.

Origin
1575-85; < Middle French serré, past participle of serrer to press tightly together; see sear2

Dictionary.com

Anagram

sir deer
red rise

Today’s aphorism

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

– Buddha

On this day

28 January 1968 – 4 hydrogen bombs are lost when the B-52 bomber that was carrying them, crashes near Thule, Greenland. The bombs are eventually located, but it took nine months to clear the area of radiation.

28 January 1939 – death of William Butler Yeats (W.B. Yeats), Irish poet, Nobel Prize laureate. One of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. He served as an Irish senator for two terms. He led the Irish Literary Revival. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for ‘inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation‘. Born 13 June 1865.

28 January 1986 – the space shuttle, Challenger, explodes moments after lift-off, killing all seven astronauts on board, including Christa MacAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, who was scheduled to deliver a lesson from outer-space as part of the ‘Teacher in Space’ project.

27 January 2015

asunder

[uh-suhn-der]

adverb, adjective
1. into separate parts; in or into pieces:
Lightning split the old oak tree asunder.
2. apart or widely separated:
as wide asunder as the polar regions.

Origin
Middle English, Old English
1000, before 1000; Middle English; Old English on sundrum apart. See a-1, sundry

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for asunder
– Torn asunder and weakened by civil war and political intrigue, the country was easy prey for outside invaders.
– Fifty years ago, the largest bomb ever used in warfare tore Hiroshima asunder.
– The tides of conflict swept the principals asunder.

Anagram

a nursed
sun dare
us a nerd

Today’s aphorism

The time is always right to do what is right.

– Martin Luther King

On this day

27 January – International Holocaust Memorial Day in remembrance of the 11 million victims of the Nazi holocaust before and during the Second World War. Victims included 6 million Jews (3 million of whom were Polish), 3 million Polish Christians, 2 million gypsies, and millions of others, including Africans, Asians, people with mental or physical disabilities, Communists, Socialist, Unionists, intellectuals, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Slavs, Freemasons, political activists and anyone else either opposed to Nazi ideology, or living in land Hitler wanted (particularly Poland) or who didn’t fit his idea of a perfect master race. The date was chosen because 27 January 1945 was the date that Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birchenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps.

27 January 1756 – birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer.

27 January 1926 – In London, John Logie Baird publicly demonstrates a revolutionary new invention, the television system.

27 January 1945 – The Soviet Army liberates survivors of the largest Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland, where it is estimated more than 1,000,000 Jews and tens of thousands of others were executed.

27 January 1967 – Outer Space Treaty was signed by 60 countries, including the USA and USSR, prohibiting the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space.

27 January 1973 – the Vietnam War formally ends with a treaty signed between the USA, North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

27 January 1984 – Michael Jackson’s hair catches on fire while he is singing ‘Billy Jean’ during filming of a Pepsi commercial.

27 January 2014 – death of Peter Seeger, American singer-songwriter, musician, activist. Born 3 May 1919.

26 January 2015

zeal

[zeel]

noun
1. fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.

Origin
Middle English, Late LatinGreek
1350-1400; Middle English zele < Late Latin zēlus < Greek zêlos

Related forms
zealless, adjective
underzeal, noun

Synonyms
intensity, passion.

Antonyms
apathy.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for zeal
– Lake took to the challenge of exposing fakes with the same zeal he’s shown in hoarding miniature liquor bottles.
– With the zeal of one who reviles an age-old wrong, he raised painting above poetry.
– In his political zeal he was not always scrupulous as to historical accuracy.

Anagram

laze

Today’s aphorism

Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.

– John Lennon

On this day

26 January 1788 – Australia Day – the day that Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Botany Bay and took possession of Australia in the name of King George III of Britain.

26 January 1939 – During the Spanish Civil War, Nationalist forces loyal to General Francisco Franco enter Barcelona, overthrowing the Republican forces headquartered there.

26 January 1945 – Soviet troops liberate 7,000 survivors of the Auschwitz network of concentration camps in Poland.

26 January 1950 – India becomes a republic, freed from British rule. The new President, Dr Rajenda Prasad had campaigned with Mahatma Gandhi for Indian self-rule. Jawaharlal Nehru becomes the country’s first Prime Minister on 10 February 1952.

26 January 1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.

26 January 1988 – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’ opens on Broadway for its first performance. The musical becomes a world-wide smash and is the longest running show on Broadway.

25 January 2015

laconic

[luh-kon-ik]

adjective
1. using few words; expressing much in few words; concise:
a laconic reply.

Origin
Latin, Greek
1580-1590; < Latin Lacōnicus < Greek Lakōnikós Laconian, equivalent to Lákōn a Laconian + -ikos -ic

Related forms
laconically, adverb
unlaconic, adjective

Synonyms
brief, pithy, terse; succinct.

Antonyms
voluble.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for laconic
– The crew members themselves are laconic about the planned mission.
– When it is so spot on that there can be no reasoned argument against it, the result is inchoate unreasoned laconic anger.
– Her language carves- and the instrument used is tonally blunt, laconic, as incisive as suits the purpose.

Anagram

conical
can coil
nil coca

Today’s aphorism

If every eight year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.

– Dalai Lama

On this day

25 January 1947 – Infamous gangster, Al Capone, dies of pneumonia and heart failure. He was born on 17 January 1899.

25 January 1971 – Ugandan General, Idi Amin seizes power while President Milton Obote is away. Amin’s brutal, 8-year dictatorship resulted in the murders of between 100,000 to 500,000 people. In 1979, Amin fled to Libya and later to Saudi Arabia, where he remained until his death on 16 August 2003.

25 January 1974 – Record flooding in Brisbane caused by Tropical Cyclone Wanda. During a 36 hour period, 642mm fell on Brisbane city, causing the deaths of 14 people, and flooding at least 6,700 houses.

22 January 2015

chimera

[ki-meer-uh, kahy-]

noun, plural chimeras.
1. (often initial capital letter) a mythological, fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.
2. any similarly grotesque monster having disparate parts, especially as depicted in decorative art.
3. a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination; a vain or idle fancy:
He is far different from the chimera your fears have made of him.
4. Genetics. an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.

Also, chimaera.

Origin

Middle English, LatinGreek
1350-1400; Middle English chimera < Latin chimaera < Greek chímaira she-goat; akin to Old Norse gymbr, English gimmer ewe-lamb one year (i.e., one winter) old, Latin hiems winter (see hiemal ), Greek cheimṓn winter

Synonyms

3. dream, fantasy, delusion.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for chimera
– The surgery-which makes the recipient a human-animal chimera -is widely accepted.
– I’m still researching what the reason for my eye colour is but some of the information is quite scary ie chimera and mosaic dna.
– The first sight to greet a visitor to the show is a colossal stone chimera, a hybrid of lion and bird, in the museum lobby.

Anagram

race him
ham rice

Today’s aphorism

If you cannot stand a spoon upright in the cup, then the coffee is too weak.

― Lawrence Block

On this day

22 January 1973 – In the landmark ‘Roe v Wade’ case and decided simultaneously with ‘Doe v Bolton’, the United States Supreme Court rules that abortion is a Constitutional right because of the application of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to a woman’s right to privacy, which includes the right to abortion. This was to be balanced with other state interests, namely the right to protect prenatal life and the protection of women’s health.

22 January 1930 – construction commences of the Empire State Building. It was completed 410 days later and was the world’s tallest building at that time.