13 March 2015

banal

[buh-nal, -nahl, beyn-l]

adjective

1. devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite:
a banal and sophomoric treatment of courage on the frontier.

Origin
French
1745-1755; < French; Old French: pertaining to a ban (see ban2, -al1)

Related forms
banality [buh-nal-i-tee, bey-], noun
banally, adverb

Synonyms
See commonplace.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for banal
– The architecture is, for the most part, banal.
– As if this were not bad enough, the script is freighted with a mighty load of banal incidents.
– Indie rock aficionados may hold themselves above the pop-idol-worshiping masses, but their culture can be just as banal.

Today’s aphorism

When we see people as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent on recognizing the humanity in others.

– Desmond Tutu

On this day

13 March 1929 – The Butler Act is passed, making it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in schools in Tennessee. The Act was repealed in 1967.

13 March 1969 – Disney releases the hit movie, The Love Bug, based on a Volkswagen Beetle with a life of its own.

13 March 1979 – a left-wing military coup in Grenada overthrows Prime Minister, Sir Eric Gairy. His leadership was controversial with allegations of illegitimately winning the election, rigging a Miss World contest and calling for the United Nations to establish a committee to investigate UFOs and extraterrestrial life.

13 March 1996 – Sixteen children at the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland are shot dead by former boy scout leader, Thomas Hamilton. The massacre resulted in stricter gun laws in the United Kingdom.

11 March 2015

vizard

[viz-erd]

noun
1. (archaic or literary) a means of disguise; mask; visor

Derived Forms
vizarded, adjective

Also, visard.

Origin
1545-1555; variant of visor; see -ard

Related forms
vizarded, adjective
unvizarded, adjective

Dictionary.com

Today’s aphorism

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

– Jiddu Krishnamurti

On this day

11 March 1845 – death of Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist. The exact date of Appleseed’s death is in dispute, with some sources claiming 18 March 1845 and others as ‘Summer 1845′. 11 March is celebrated in the USA as ‘Johnny Appleseed Day’. He was born as John Chapman and was a nurseryman who introduced significant numbers of apple trees to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois. His legend grew while he was still alive because of his generous nature, care for animals and the environment, and respect he had for the American Indian tribes who believed he’d been touched by the ‘Great Spirit’ because of his love and admiration for them and the gospel message he preached. Born 26 September 1774.

11 March 2003 – The United States renames the humble ‘french fries’ to ‘freedom fries’ in response to the French President, Jacques Chirac, condemning the U.S. actions in Iraq.

11 March 2004 – Madrid bombings in which 191 people are killed and 1800 injured. Basque Separatists were blamed for the bombing, although did not claim responsibility. Al Qaeda-linked terrorists were also suspected of the attacks as they occurred exactly 911 days after the 9/11 attacks in the USA. In 2007, 28 suspected terrorists with links to Al Qaeda were charged. On 31 October 2007, the Spanish National Court found 21 of the defendants guilty on charges ranging from forgery to murder. Most were sentenced to 23 years or less, however, three of the accused were sentenced to 42,924 years in prison.

11 March 2007 – an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale strikes off the coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills thousands of people and causes the world’s the Fukushima nuclear disaster, in which three of the six nuclear reactors melted down, releasing significant amounts of radiation. It was the world’s second largest nuclear disaster, surpassed only by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

10 March 2015

cur

[kur]

noun
1. a mongrel dog, especially a worthless or unfriendly one.
2. a mean, cowardly person.

Origin
Middle English
1175-1225; Middle English curre, apparently shortened from curdogge. See cur dog

Related forms
curlike, adjective

Synonyms
2. blackguard, cad, heel.
cur.
1. currency.
2. current.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for cur
– Yet you’ll never doubt that this overgrown pixie is about as trustworthy as a rabid cur.

Today’s aphorism

We often add to our pain and suffering by being overly sensitive, over-reacting to minor things, and sometimes taking things too personally.

– Dalai Lama

On this day

10 March 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call. His first words were ‘Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you’.

10 March 1917 – British forces drive Turkish forces out of Baghdad, taking control of the city.

10 March 1964 – birth of Neneh Cherry, Swedish singer, song-writer.

10 March 1940 – birth of Carlos Ray Norris, aka Chuck Norris, American actor, martial artist and invincible superhero.

9 March 2015

defeasance

[dih-fee-zuh ns]

noun, Law.
1. a rendering null and void.
2. a condition on the performance of which a deed or other instrument is defeated or rendered void.
3. a collateral deed or other writing embodying such a condition.

Origin
late Middle English Anglo-French Old French
1400-1450; late Middle English defesance < Anglo-French defesaunce, Old French defesance, equivalent to desfes- (past participle stem of desfaire to undo; see defeat ) + -ance -ance

Related forms
nondefeasance, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for defeasance

– The final regulations apply only to guaranteed investment contracts and yield restricted defeasance escrows.
– Defeasance of debt can be either legal or in-substance.

Today’s aphorism

We think we know one another so well that we actually never give ourselves the chance to truly get to know one another.

– Mark DeNicola

On this day

9 March 1454 – birth of Amerigo Vespucci in Florence, Italy. Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. Vespucci believed that Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the ‘New World’ or ‘East Asia’ (now known as the Bahamas) and the land mass beyond it, was not part of Asia, but a separate ‘super-continent’. America is named after Vespucci. Died 22 February 1512 in Seville, Spain.

9 – 10 March 1945 – A new U.S. offensive against Japan is launched in which more than 2,000 bombs were dropped on Tokyo over a 2 day period, killing around 80,000 people and destroying 40km2. The attack was known as ‘Operation Meetinghouse’ and is considered the single worst bombing in history. It is also believed the official death toll was greatly understated by both Japan and America for their own reasons. Operation Meetinghouse was only one of a number of fire (incendiary) bombings of Japan between 17 November 1944 and 15 August 1945. The fire-bombings demolished every Japanese city, except for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were reserved for the atomic bomb attacks of 6 and 9 August 1945. The incendiary and atomic bombings killed at least 2 million Japanese civilians.

9 March 1934 – birth of Yuri Gagarin, Soviet astronaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first man into space and to orbit Earth while aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

8 March 2015

shirk

[shurk]

verb (used with object)
1. to evade (work, duty, responsibility, etc.).
verb (used without object)
2. to evade work, duty, etc.
noun
3. a shirker.

Origin
1625-1635; obscurely akin to shark2

Related forms
unshirked, adjective
unshirking, adjective

Synonyms
1. shun, avoid, dodge.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for shirk
– But do not shirk the responsibility of fitting your paper within the time limits.
– They have no reason to concede any religious superiority to those who shirk their social responsibility.
– Their faculty in their programs shirk the responsibility.

Today’s aphorism

How shall a man escape from that which is written; How shall he flee from his destiny?

– Ferdowsi

On this day

8 March – International Women’s Day.

8 March 1010 – Ferdowski completes his epic poem, Shahnameh (The Book of Kings). The poem is 50,000 verses long and tells the story of Persia, from creation to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century. Ferdowski commenced the poem in 977AD. It is the national poem of Iran and is revered by Zoroastrians. The poem is celebrated every year in Iran and by Persian speakers in surrounding areas, including Afghanistan and Tajikstan.

8 – 12 March 1917 – February Revolution in Russia. Following International Women’s Day celebrations many women march out of factories and encourage male counterparts to participate in the strikes and rallies. The first of two events that formed the Russian Revolution, resulting in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, which ended the Romanov dynasty and saw the creation of the Russian Provisional Government, initially led by Prince George L’vov and then by socialist Alexander Kerensky.

8 March 1973 – Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia, is fire-bombed, killing 15 people. The building was on the corner of Amelia Street and St Paul’s Terrace. It was claimed the fire was part of an extortion attempt of night-club owners. The men found guilty of the crime, continued protesting their innocence from prison, claiming they were verballed.

4 March 2015

plebs

[plebz]

noun, ( used with a plural verb)
1. (in ancient Rome) the common people, as contrasted with the patricians and later with the senatorial nobility or the equestrian order.
2. the common people; the populace.

Origin
Latin
1640-1650; < Latin plēbs, plēbēs

pleb

[pleb]

noun
1. a member of the plebs; a plebeian or commoner.
2. plebe (def 1).

Origin
1850-55, Americanism; short for plebeian

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for plebs
– Leave the viewing to us plebs without any social calendars.
– The answer is that they need someone to bring the populist plebs along for the neocon ride.

Today’s aphorism

Imagine what seven billion humans could achieve if we all loved and respected each other. Imagine.

– Anthony Douglas Williams

On this day

4 March – National Grammar Day.

4 March 1918 – first case of Spanish flu is identified when company cook, Albert Gitchell reports sick at Fort Riley, Kansas. The influenza pandemic infected 500 million people across the globe, killing an estimated 50 to 100 million people, or between 3% and 6% of the global population. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS killed in 24 years. It killed more people in one year than the Bubonic Plague (Black Death), killed in a century. The flu affected the entire planet. It was named the Spanish flu after wartime censors in Germany, France, Britain and the US banned reporting of it in order to maintain morale. Spain was a neutral country during World War I, so the media was free to report the impact of the pandemic in that country, including the grave illness of Spanish King Alfonso XIII, giving rise to it being called the Spanish flu.

4 March 1987 – President Ronald Reagan admits that the U.S. negotiated the Iran-Contra deal, which swapped ‘military arms for hostages’ in order to secure the release of hostages from Iran.