21 October 2013

imbibe

[im-bahyb]

verb, im·bibed, im·bib·ing.

verb (used with object)
1. to consume (liquids) by drinking; drink: He imbibed great quantities of iced tea.
2. to absorb or soak up, as water, light, or heat: Plants imbibe moisture from the soil.
3. to take or receive into the mind, as knowledge, ideas, or the like: to imbibe a sermon; to imbibe beautiful scenery.
verb (used without object)
4. to drink, especially alcoholic beverages: Just a soft drink for me—I don’t imbibe.
5. to absorb liquid or moisture.
6. Archaic. to soak or saturate; imbue.

Today’s quote

‘A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world’.

― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

On this day

21 October 1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers America.

21 October 1772 – birthday of Samuel Taylor Colleridge, English poet.

21 October 1833 – birth 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. Died 10 December 1896.

21 October 1967 – Thousands of anti-Vietnam-war protestors attempt to storm the Pentagon.

21 October 1969 – death of Jack Kerouac, American beat-generation writer, ‘On the road‘. Born 12 March 1922.