8 March 2016

Maecenas

[mee-see-nuh s, mahy-]

noun

1. Gaius Cilnius [sil-nee-uh s], c70–8 b.c, Roman statesman: friend and patron of Horace and Vergil.
2. a generous patron or supporter, especially of art, music, or literature.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for Maecenas

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

Maecenas was one of the first who built public baths at his own expense.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 4
Various

Anagram

ace names
mean aces
cane seam

Today’s quote

But all this world is like a tale we hear –
Men’s evil, and their glory, disappear.

– Abolqasem Ferdowsi

On this day

8 March – International Women’s Day.

8 March 1010 – Abolqasem Ferdowsi 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. Ferdowsi 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.

7 March 2016

passel

[pas-uh l]

noun

1. a group or lot of indeterminate number:
a passel of dignitaries.

Origin of passel

1825-1835; alteration of parcel

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for passel

Contemporary Examples

Way back during the 2000 Bush-Gore smackdown, I dug around in the data, interviewed undecideds, and called up a passel of experts.
Undecided Voters Are a Menace
Michelle Cottle
September 22, 2012

Harold Ramis made a passel of great comedies, but he never made one better than Groundhog Day.
Harold Ramis’s ‘Groundhog Day’ Is About as Perfect as a Movie Gets
Malcolm Jones
February 24, 2014

After all, didn’t she figure out a way to “have it all”—a passel of children, a first dude, and a big job in the public sphere?
This Candidate Is Bad For Women
Linda Hirshman
June 8, 2010

Historical Examples

These June tenants was jist a passel of boys and I can tell you they pretty near ripped things wide open.
Vacation with the Tucker Twins
Nell Speed

Jest over the hill you’ll run into a passel of our fellers, but pay no ‘tention to ’em.
The Rock of Chickamauga
Joseph A. Altsheler

I never knowed what a fool I could be till I undertook the managing of a passel of crazy boys off on a lark.
Harper’s Round Table, October 15, 1895
Various

De folks was pow’ful nice to us an’ we raised a passel er chullun out dar.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves
Work Projects Administration

They hung around her like a passel of gulls around a herring boat.
Cape Cod Stories
Joseph C. Lincoln

They was awake, all right, wonderin’ what in time an’ creation were turned loose on un, we yellin’ like a passel o’ Injuns.
The Gaunt Gray Wolf
Dillon Wallace

Anagram

lapses

Today’s quote

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

– Aristotle

On this day

7 March 1876 – Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

7 March 1958 – birth of Rik Mayall, British comedian and actor. Starred in The Young Ones, Bottom, Black Adder and Drop Dead Fred. Died 9 June 2014.

7 March 1988 – Cyclone Bola strikes Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne/East Cape region of north-eastern New Zealand. It is one of the costliest cyclones to hit N.Z. Three people were killed and thousands were evacuated.

7 March 1999 – death of Stanley Kubrick, legendary movie producer. Some of his movies include ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey’, ‘The Shining’, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. Born 26 July 1928.

7 March 2011 – Charlie Sheen fired from U.S. sitcom, ‘Two and a Half Men’ after allegations of drug abuse.

6 March 2016

frontispiece

[fruhn-tis-pees, fron-]

noun

1. an illustrated leaf preceding the title page of a book.
2. Architecture. a façade, or a part or feature of a façade, often highlighted by ornamentation.

Origin of frontispiece

French, Medieval Latin
1590-1600; alteration (conformed to piece ) of earlier frontispice < French < Medieval Latin frontispicium, equivalent to Latin fronti- front + -spicium (combining form representing specere to look at)

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for frontispiece

Historical Examples

A final word of praise is due the excellent group photograph of the Woodbees which forms the frontispiece of the magazine.
Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922
Howard Phillips Lovecraft

The first plate in the book is dated 1893, and serves as a frontispiece.
The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 30, June 1893
Various

Still, up to this day, the fixture of a nose upon the puppet-hero’s frontispiece has not been attempted.
Sandra Belloni, Complete
George Meredith

The portrait of Signorelli in the frontispiece is the half of this painting.
Luca Signorelli
Maud Cruttwell

First edition, on large paper, with frontispiece by M. Van der Gucht.
A Catalogue of Books in English Later than 1700 (Vol 2 of 3)
Various

Anagram

fierce piston
pi reflections
copier feints
poetic infers
profit nieces

Today’s quote

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.

– Carl Jung

On this day

6 March 1836 – death of Davy Crocket, American frontiersman, King of the Wild Frontier. Born 17 August 1786.

6 March 1899 – aspirin is patented in Germany by Friedrich Bayer and Co. It is the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, which included an extract from the bark of the willow tree.

6 March 1984 – death of Martin Niemöller, German pastor. Niemöller originally supported Adolf Hitler, however, he soon realised he’d made a mistake. He blamed Hitler’s rise to power and the ensuing war and genocide, on the support and acceptance of his policies from churches and ordinary citizens, as well as the lack of speaking up against injustice. Niemöller is most well known for his statement, ‘First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me’. Born 14 January 1892.

6 March 2012 – A three-year old McNuggett shaped like George Washington is sold on eBay for $8,100 by a woman in Nebraska.

5 March 2016

impiety

[im-pahy-i-tee]

noun, plural impieties.

1. lack of piety; lack of reverence for God or sacred things; irreverence.
2. lack of dutifulness or respect.
3. an impious act, practice, etc.

Origin of impiety

Middle English, Latin

1300-1350; Middle English impietie < Latin impietās, equivalent to impi (us) impious + -etās, variant, after vowels, of -itās -ity

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for impiety

Contemporary Examples

P.S. Bertrand Russell uses the word “ impiety ” in relation to luniks and further attempts and he is right.
Leonard Bernstein Asked About Hemingway, So Martha Gellhorn Set the Record Straight
Leonard Bernstein, Martha Gellhorn
October 26, 2013

Historical Examples

But to assert that even the most unguarded passages of the book made for impiety was a great mistake.
Expositor’s Bible: The Book of Job
Robert Watson

The impiety and the vices of the hero horrified the family and scandalized the island.
The Dead Command
Vicente Blasco Ibez

The King wished to say that the gods would not suffer the impiety of his sister to go unpunished.
Caesar and Cleopatra
George Bernard Shaw

To his young chivalry it was as an impiety to look upon her tears.
The History of Sir Richard Calmady
Lucas Malet

I would beg of you to be patient, and learn the truth of the legislator and others; in the mean time abstain from impiety.
Laws
Plato

But their tongues were confused as a punishment for their impiety.
Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians
John Wesley Powell

But the French have the art of rendering vice and impiety more agreeable than the English.
Dialogues of the Dead
Lord Lyttelton

Anagram

tie my pi
yeti imp

Today’s quote

When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.

– Joseph Stalin

On this day

5 March 1946 – The term ‘Iron Curtain’ to describe the Soviet Union and Communist Europe, is coined in a speech by Winston Churchill.

5 March 1953 – USSR leader Joseph Stalin died at his dacha at Kuntseva,15km west of Moscow, following a stroke three days earlier. An autopsy suggested he may have died from ingesting warfarin, a rat poison which thins the blood, and that this may have caused the cerebral hemorrhage. The warfarin may have been added to his food by Deputy Premier Beria and Nikita Khrushchev. It was later revealed by former Politburo member, Vyacheslav Molotov in his 1993 memoirs that Beria had boasted of poisoning Stalin. Born 18 December 1878.

4 March 2016

camarilla

[kam-uh-ril-uh; Spanish kah-mah-ree-lyah, -ree-yah]

noun, plural camarillas [kam-uh-ril-uh z; Spanish kah-mah-ree-lyahs, -ree-yahs]

1. a group of unofficial or private advisers to a person of authority, especially a group much given to intrigues and secret plots; cabal; clique.

Origin of camarilla

1830-1840; < Spanish, equivalent to camar (a) room (< Latin camera; see chamber ) + -illa diminutive suffix < Latin

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for camarilla

Historical Examples

Truly the camarilla were supporting each other, and I, an onlooker, stood amazed and astounded.
The Minister of Evil
William Le Queux

Such were the methods of the camarilla who were ruling Russia!
The Minister of Evil
William Le Queux

Their creatures have worked their way even into the cabinet and the camarilla.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847
Various

In either case the sovereignty of Ireland relapses into the hands of the permanent officials, that camarilla of Olympians.
The Open Secret of Ireland
T. M. Kettle

Anagram

a calm liar

Today’s quote

Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.

– John Lennon

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.

3 March 2016

apoplexy

[ap-uh-plek-see]

noun, Pathology.

1. stroke1(def 6).
2. a sudden, usually marked loss of bodily function due to rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel.
3. a hemorrhage into an organ cavity or tissue.

Origin of apoplexy

Middle English, Late Latin
1350-1400; Middle English apoplexie < Late Latin < Greek, equivalent to apóplēkt (os) (see apoplectic ) + -ia -y3

Related forms

apoplectiform [ap-uh-plek-tuh-fawrm] (Show IPA), apoplectoid, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for apoplexy

Historical Examples

On the day before his death from apoplexy he imagined to himself despatches in which his son’s name figured brilliantly.
Here and Hereafter
Barry Pain

He adds that the surgeon described death as due to apoplexy.
Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3)
John Morley

Epilepsy and apoplexy were understood as spasms inside the head.
Our Legal Heritage, 5th Ed.
S. A. Reilly

They will find it apoplexy, or some such thing, I have no doubt of it.
The Hour and the Man
Harriet Martineau

I have no wish that he should die of an attack of apoplexy —that would be very embarrassing both to me and to my Government.
The Tragedy of St. Helena
Walter Runciman

apoplexy may be termed an universal palsy, or a permanent sleep.
Zoonomia, Vol. II
Erasmus Darwin

Two years later a stroke of apoplexy brought to a sudden end the convert’s life.
The Life of Blessed John B. Marie Vianney, Cur of Ars
Anonymous

It’s apoplexy,—I told you so,—don’t you see how red he is in the face?
Elsie Venner
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Anagram

play expo

Today’s quote

That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.

– Kurt Vonnegut

On this day

3 March 1923 – the first edition of Time magazine is published featuring Joseph Gurney Cannon, a U.S. congressman.

3 March 1931 – the Star Spangled Banner becomes the United States national anthem. The song was written by Francis Scott Key on 14 September 1814.

3 March 1991 – In Los Angeles, three white police officers are filmed viciously bashing African American, Rodney King. The video of police brutality is shown publicly. Four police officers are charged in relation to the bashing, but are later acquitted. News of the acquittal led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.